Developer: Compulsion Games
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Rrp: £11.99
Released: 15th November 2013
Available on Steam and their own site
Played using: An Xbox 360 Controller
Didi is a little girl who likes to sneak out at night and follow her mother to her work at a cabaret bar. Of course you don’t play as Didi, you play as Dawn, her shadow walking acrobat imaginary friend. Basically you’re the sidekick in this story. Of course that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to do, like most sidekicks you do most of the work while Didi gets the credit. As you play through you’ll discover more about the circumstances of Didi’s life and upbringing.
The game has a 1920’s style and takes its art direction from the Art movements of that era (those being Deco and Nouveau). I use the word ‘style’ rather than saying it’s set in that era because there are many things within this game world that simply don’t fit the period. Its music also reflects this style being jazz based, the title screen music being the best in the game in my opinion.
Contrast is a puzzle platformer, now these come a dime a dozen but this one has something a little different going for it. This difference is Dawn’s ability to use shadows by ‘shifting’ to become a shadow herself, while in this mode she can’t interact with objects that aren’t made of shadow and visa versa. This ‘shadow mode’ essentially go causes her to go from a three dimensional platformer to a two dimensional platformer. For the most part it works but can be a little confusing when the two dimensional plane she’s on is being projected around the curve of a wall.
There is no failure state in this game, no health bar or lives to lose. If you fail to make a jump you’ll just be set back to a little way after a very short load time.
There are a collectibles scattered across every level that you can acquire, most are items like posters and newspapers etc that give some extra degree of background to the circumstances surrounding Didi. There are also Luminaries, which are glowing orbs that are used to power various device which will allow you to solve some of the puzzles.
As you would expect skills become available as you play through the game, Normally I wouldn’t call this type of progression inexplicable but in this case the new skills just… Appear. Your told you can do them and that’s it, they aren’t unlocked through skill or with some explanation (a la Prince of Persia), they just… Happen.
Sadly despite all the many things going for it this game is far from perfect. The controls felt too loose, the merest touch of the analog stick causing Dawn to go sprinting across the room.
I should also give a small word of warning, the levels are quite small and occasionally it’ll look like there’s a alternate path to something if you jump across a chasm to a solid looking area. Thing is, it’s not solid, you just fall through it instead. Thankfully there being no lives to think about you’re just dropped near where you jumped.
It’s a short game perhaps five or six hours long if you choose to be a perfectionist and get all the collectibles, and while I very much enjoyed the aesthetic and the story I’m not sure I would shell out the Rrp they ask.
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