Well that was mercifully quick. Though the folks over at Compulsion Games had started to rub me the wrong way through a Steam thread where they were too spineless to tell one particularly moronic misogynist where he could stick his $15, I’m left with a good feeling after completing their first game, Contrast. A significant part of my good feeling came from finally seeing a game that looked like it belonged on the Unreal engine.

The game world was wonderfully done, and despite a few bugs I was enormously pleased with the careful effort that undoubtedly went into crafting the rich environment. For a game that takes place entirely at night, the set pieces managed to remain exceptionally vibrant, just on the right side of gaudy. Of the two characters you physically see in the game, both looked well designed and carefully stylized.

The one point of the design where the game fell short was regrettably in the game’s signature mechanic: shadows. Watching the silhouetted story sequences felt like watching poorly animated two-tone cartoons, where at certain angles a character’s head might reveal itself to be too narrow or the woman’s breasts looked like they wanted their own starring credit.  Beyond these trying-too-hard sections of pulp story, too many of the game’s practical shadows seemed inconsistent, whether due to actual prop locations or questionable light sources.

Aside from the general design, the shadow-shifting gameplay mechanic was frustrating far too often. The controls were not always immediately responsive, and many times sequences would need to be repeated several times to execute a simple maneuver. Certain puzzles where you need to manually move a light source are not as clear as they probably should be, and several times after solving a puzzle through glitches or abnormal mechanics I wondered how it was intended to be solved. In Portal, for example, there were usually dirty, clever ways to solve a given puzzle, but the right was was often fairly obvious, meaning that I’d have some reservation about recommending this game to a less patient player. That isn’t too say that they puzzles are too hard, just that they could stand to be a little more clear

The game’s original soundtrack was such a nice touch that I noticed when it wasn’t there. The entire soundtrack, available with the game’s $20 Collector’s Edition, clocks in just over 20 minutes, and after spending several hours completing the game it feels like that’s exactly how much music you heard. Nearly each scene has its own theme, and that theme is barely repeated through the rest of the game. I would have liked to see these assets used more, though I’d be the first to agree how grating the same sequence is when you are hearing it for the twelfth time. Still, great work here!

Some additional options are desperately needed on the PC version, though the developers were quick to address player concerns with critical game patches within hours of launch, and if that’s any indication hopefully there won’t be anything lacking for long. The obnoxious trend of recent indie games to remove customization options is the defacto mark of a bad console port, and I honestly think this game deserves better. Along those lines, the game menus are frustrating at best, and insisting that the “backspace key” is pressed where “escape” would usually be felt strangely alien.

Criticisms out of the way, the game disappointed in its innovation but I’ll be damned if they didn’t try! It looks absolutely gorgeous, the soundtrack is more than you could ask for, and aside from the trouble spots mentioned the gameplay felt solid and smooth.

7/10