When imaginary friends are more useful than real ones – a review of Contrast

What is hidden in shadows? Terrible chimeras, ready to attack at any moment, are terrible fears that can make the most persistent, or still someone useful and kind? In the game Contrast, shadows and shadow world are something more, it is a separate reality.

In the shadow of their parents

Little Didi is a big dreamer. At least, so thinks her mother, who is scared by her daughter’s conversations about an imaginary friend. But according to Didi, her friend Don (Dawn) is real, moreover, she constantly helps the girl in solving different life issues. For the player Don is generally the most real character – after all, it is by her that we will manage in Contrast.
But at the expense of other characters there are doubts – in the world of the game it is nothing more than shadows. When the mother puts Didi to sleep, we see only a shadow on the wall – a long, slightly vague.

The same is her father, the same bandits who require money from the father, in general, all the other characters of this France of the 20s-shadows. In such a world, to be a real little girl is a little creepy. It’s good that Didi has a real don.

Help hand

Don is a beautiful, spectacular acrobat, https://spinsheavencasino.org.uk which seemed to have just completed its performance. For the whole game, we will not hear a word from her – only the distant relative of Gordon Freeman and Chelle.

The game is linear, consists of several locations that become available as they pass. The world itself looks strange – as if illusory, it is strictly limited by the framework, behind which there is nothing. In the literal sense, nothing is a gaping abyss in which everything is about to collapse.

Little Didi is desperately eager for adventures: she needs to see her mother – singer Kat, then see her dad, then he must help him, in a word, greatly complicates the Don’s life, because it is she who helps the baby.

We spend part of the game in the usual 3D: a pleasant noir atmosphere is a little reminiscent of both the “Alice” of American McGi and Bioshok. Another part is a 2D platformer in the spirit of Limbo, here we overcome obstacles, run away from giant spiders and look for objects that will help to achieve the goal. As a rule, these are quite easy tasks for attentiveness, but sometimes you need to think a little-for example, transfer some object to the shadow world, and then return it to the usual. Sometimes the dexterity of the hands is required: jump on time, move through moving objects – a classic of 2D platformers.

Games with light

This combination has a special charm – the platformer is similar to the shadow theater projected to 3D objects. In some locations, you need to build the light so that Don can calmly move in different objects – for example, cardboard decorations of the theater or circus. These items themselves also need to be moved and combined, which makes the game more interesting.

You see it too?

Teni people make you think about: is it a afterlife? Or maybe Didi stays in a deep dream and all this is fancier to her – the limitation of the surrounding world seems to confirm this concept. But in reality, everything is somewhat more complicated.
The game is slowly revealed its cards: in different places we meet research of scientists who conduct experiments with shadows, seek access to another world. In other words, the concept of multiverse is shown, in which different forms of people can live in different worlds.
And how in this world was the tangible Didi and her silent companion? The answer contains spoilers to the plot, so I will hide them.

The real father of Didi is the illusionist Vincenzo, who conducts all sorts of experiments with shadows. At the end of the game, we approach him, and he reaches out – the real hand – and thanks Don for looking after Didi. That is, Vincenzo himself sent Don to this world. In some unimaginable way, he was able to find this world of shadows and get into it, twist an affair with a local singer, make her a child and leave back, giving her daughter with his talents-tangibility.

The game is short – it can be passed in 4 hours and even faster. But it contains a plot and a beautiful visual design – and this is already enough to pay attention to it. Objectively, the graphics are a little outdated, but it does not make the game worse, on the contrary, it adds charm to all this shadow world of Nuar of the 20s.