One of the main reasons I chose a ps3 over an xbox is the, essentially, two free pack in games that come with the ps3 resogun and contrast. I know contrast was added later, after drive club was delayed, but it looked interesting enough from screenshots, and including it, essentially, with every playstation made me think Sony had some faith in it.
What were they thinking?
I'm about three fourths of the way through contrast and I wouldn't be able to tell you what it's about. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because contrast aptly has contrasting positives and negatives. The lack of story cohesion might be intentional. Or it might not. It's all up in the air at this point.
But what is not up in the air is the fact that contrast plays like butt. It both looks and feels like a third person game made from an fps mod-kit, like in the quake 3 days. I frequently find myself stuck on geometry in a manner I haven't felt since the ps1 days. One time I actually had to quit out of the game due to being trapped on something and unable to escape.
But the real letdown about contrast is its horrible game design. Hese are the decisions that took place before hand ever hit keyboard. For instance, the game is ostensibly about a superhero with the ability to merge with their shadow and use the shadows of other objects to run across. This is a fantastic idea and the manifestation of a game all kids played, just like wondering what it would be like to walk on the ceiling and racing raindrops on car windshields during road trips. The problem is, instead of setting the game at NOON when contrast would be greatest and shadows would be more apparent, they set the game in he middle of the night where shadows are everywhere. In theory, this COUlD just provide more opportunities to use the players power. In reality, it just means that the game ignores it's own rules and only let's players merge with the shadows when the game wants you to. Usually when there's a random projector around. This inconsistency In and of itself almost entire deflates contrast. The fun and games implied by the games premise almost never happen. Make no mistake, when the game is doing what it promises, it's actually really quite something. There is a short section I. The. Idle of the game that cleverly abandons the problems of the game design to Retreat entirely into a 2d limboesque sequence. It's almost easy to forget about contrasts problems as it does this scene so well. But then it ends and you're left to remember that much of this game stinks.
The writing is ncreadibly uneven, bordering on terrible. Much of it is saved by fantastic voice acting, but much of it is beyond saving. It is a common trait for hack writers to want to write little girls. After all little girls are vulnerable. vulnerability makes for emotional writing. The problem is most have writers don't know how to write little girls. The main character in contrast, Didi, is written anywhere between five and 11 years old. One second she saying things like "mommy, when is daddyy coming home "in the next second she saying things like "we need to like that beacon!" Or "I bet he's in the control room!" At one point didi asks "daddy, what's a taunt? ". Oh sure you know what a beacon is but you don't know what a taunt is? The poor writing seeks to undermine the emotional depth that contrast is trying to achieve.
It's not all bad however. Contrast manages to be gorgeous even despite its technical faults. Many ideas the game presents are solid. If they chose to make a contrast 2, I hope they spend more time working on the game to make it more solid and fix the problems this disappointing game has
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