 In this game, shadows have substance.
A little girl wants to bring her parents back together. Unfortuantely, her father has bigger ambitions than he is able to deliver. It is up to you, her invisible friend, and her to make sure everything goes smoothly so that her parents can see past their differences and be a family once again.
1. Gameplay
Contrast is a breath of fresh air. The “indie” games I played recently have, for the most part, been disappointing. After being bored by Broken Age part 2 and Child of Light, I was curious but somewhat hesitant about trying Contrast. Many of my friends own the game (it was free on Playstation Plus a few months ago), but no one I know has ever played it. I am extremely glad I gave this game a shot. 
In this play, you are the princess who has to rescue the "brave" knight.
This game is a combination 2D/3D puzzle platformer. Players will shift between the 3D world and a 2D shadow world in order to solve simple puzzles and progress a surprisingly well-written story. In fact, I’d say that the highlight of the game isn’t the mechanic (although it’s a novel one that fits perfectly with the gameplay) but the story. The player controls Dawn, a mute acrobat, but the story revolves around Didi, a little girl trying her best to get her parents back together.
Everything about this game works well together. It’s a story that starts out dark but ends on a positive note, the game has a twist but not the one I was expecting. The puzzles take a bit of brainpower to figure out, but they’re still simple enough for a younger gamer to figure out. The elements the player needs are always available and the mechanics of the game are simple, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to use those elements and mechanics to solve the current issue.
I played a few of these types of games when I was a kid.
This is one game where I really wanted another three to six hours of solid gameplay. I definitely enjoyed my playthrough and would highly recommend this game despite its brevity.
This game is extremely short. I managed to grab most of the collectibles on the first pass and I still completed the entire game in less than 3 hours. That being said, I’m glad the developers didn’t try to artificially increase this game’s longevity by including repetitive, boring sidetasks. This game may be 3 short hours, but they’re 3 solid hours of entertainment.
The vast majority of this game was extremely simple and took me only one or two attempts to figure it out. Aside from one game-stopping bug (which was fixed by reloading the previous checkpoint), there were very few places where I had to stop and seriously think about how I needed to progress. I never had to look up what to do. That isn’t to say that every puzzle is easy to solve, there were a few headscratchers, but they could all be accomplished with the right amount of timing and there weren’t any situations where I had to reattempt more than a few seconds of gameplay upon failure.
That being said, there was one part where I had to use a tree branch to fling myself up and onto a far-off platform. It’s a mechanic that made perfect sense the first time I attempted it, but getting the direction of the motion down was difficult.
2. Parental Notices
There is one scene where the father is beat up by some mobsters because he owes them money. Like every other scene involving people other than Didi and Dawn, though, the characters are only depicted as shadows.
The early parts of the game take place in the red light district. There are a number of burlesque shows and what may be brothels. Didi’s mom is a singer in one of these burlesque houses. However, no nudity is ever seen (everyone except for Dawn and Didi are shadows, after all) and sexuality is never discussed. 
Her shadow is definitely curvaceous.
At twos point in the game I noticed characters holding cigars or cigarettes. These instances were extremely brief and since they were only shadows it was difficult to see. I didn’t notice any obvious substance use other than this. 
I'm standing on the cigarette.
Gambling is not a factor in this game.
3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Anti-law is not a factor in this game.
There are no multiplayer game modes for this game.
While Dawn is supposed to be a trapeze artist, there is nothing in this game that is obviously related to extreme sports. Therefore, it is not a factor in this game.
Dawn can transition between the 3D world and the alternate shadow world at will. This allows her to walk on other shadows in order to progress and solve puzzles. She also has the ability to dash forward and break wooden boards or pass through thin shadows. Both of these abilities are definitely magical and used throughout the entirety of the game. 
There's no other way to describe the ability to turn yourself into a shadow.
There are no additional factors in this game.
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