Contrast is a fun, neat little platformer. In Contrast, you play Dawn, the silent 'imaginary' friend of a young girl named Didi, whose mother is a cabaret singer. Throughout the game you help her solve puzzles and get past obstacles by using Dawn's ability to 'shadow walk' in 2.5 style platforming sequences.

While the game is not a technical marvel, Contrast oozes atmosphere. Inspired by a 1920's vaudeville style, the game features impressive if somewhat linear levels. The choice to make almost all of the characters actually shadows of themselves thrown on to a wall Dawn is platforming across is a very nice touch that allows for almost all of the story to be explained while you're playing the game, so cutscenes are down to a minimum(in fact, there are only two or three actual 3d models of characters in the entire game, one of them being Dawn, the player character) while giving you something to pay attention to in cooperation with the gameplay.

Gameplay wise, Contrast is fun, but is hampered somewhat by glitches and clipping issues. Some parts can be aggravating simply because Dawn clips weirdly into a shadow or hits a part of a wall that randomly ejects her from her shadow persona, usually over a bottomless pit that resets you at the start of the current section. Despite this, the shadow puzzles are well thought out and interesting, and despite hearing a lot of complaints in the reviews on the camera, I found that the developers managed to make the camera do what the player wanted(many times I found the camera 'locked' to a certain axis, which made platformer easier and highlighted spots I should be focusing on). There are many times when Dawn got caught on pieces of the level, or clipped at the edge of a shadow and simply threw me back out again, failing the puzzle. However, these issues were minor enough that there were only one or two times I truly felt the game was entirely at fault.

Contrast's level design is pretty solid, though very linear, with the world well conceptualized to mix between shadow movements and 3d overworld sections, which serve to move you from one section to another. Occasionally I did find sections where it wasn't clear where I was supposed to go(In one, I had to resort to a walkthrough simply because the game's lighting hadn't highlited a jump point properly)

This is not a very long game, but I think I like that(the entire game and all collectibles took a few hours at best). Not every game has to be 60 hours of content. Like a movie, this game has a story to tell and it's good at pacing itself for that story without dragging. The best description I can give for the playthrough is 'comfy'. It's not particularly hard, but a few of the puzzles make you think. And that's really Contrast's largest failing, in that the game is relatively easy for these sorts of games. I think this is by design, as it feels like some things were made simpler for a younger audience. Collectibles are sprinkled directly in paths you'll be heading anyway, and simply add little flairs to the story exposition wouldn't be able too, so I have no complaint with them.

All in all, Contrast is a pretty decent buy for the price, though some leery of its short play time might want to consider wishlisting and waiting for a steam sale.

Pros
Novel idea
Interesting Style
Children-friendly gameplay

Cons
Occasional glitch/clipping issues
Short play time.
No replay value.