Contrast - Tips and tricks to help you get to grips with the dimension-hopping action

The latest arrival on NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV is Contrast, an atmospheric and inventive adventure set in 1920s Paris that casts you as Dawn, an imaginary friend to young Didi.

Dawn can shift between the 3D world into the 2D world of shadows, and this inventive jazz-flavoured game makes great use of this mechanic as Dawn tries to help out Didi's estranged father and get her family back together.

To give you a head start we've put together some tips for Contrast.

Run to the light

As you explore Contrast's beautiful retro world, you'll see glowing balls of light dotted around. These are called Luminaries and you'll want to collect them, not only for the sheer obsessive joy of catching them all, because they're vital for progression in the game.

The game naturally keeps tabs of how many you've found and how many you've missed though, which is handy.

Every now and then you'll need to power up an electrical device such as a spotlight for casting shadows, and to do this you'll need to use some of your Luminaries.

The good news is that there are many more Luminaries about than you'll actually need, although you may still have to spend some time hunting for them.

Some are hidden in high-up out of the way places though, so you'll need to shift into 2D mode to get to them.

Discover Didi's story

As well as Luminaries there are plenty of other collectibles scattered throughout the game: photographs, documents, newspaper reports and much more.

Unlike Luminaries, you don't absolutely need to collect any of these, although the game again keeps a record of how many you've found and how many you're missing.

While they're not essential, you'll want to grab as many of them as you can, because put together they provide lots of background details that'll help you make more sense of the convoluted story of Didi and her family.

Watch the streets

Another thing you'll happen upon on occasion is some kind of ghostly object sitting in the middle of a street. Interact with it and it'll project a short shadow play onto a nearby wall, providing a little more background story.

There's more to it than exposition though. You can use the shadows to get to hidden high-up places but they tend to move around quite a bit and it may take a few attempts before you safely reach the top.

Once you manage it though, you'll be rewarded with a Luminary.

Make your own platforms

Once you get your head around Dawn's ability to shift into a 2D world and use shadows as platforms, you'll find that it's an excellent method to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.

It's a little harder to get to grips with the fact that, in some areas, you'll have to create your own shadow platforms.
There will generally be a light source and some shadow-casting objects, and you'll either need to move the light source or the objects around to build your 2D pathway.

Figure out where you need to get to and set about positioning things accordingly, remembering that the closer you place an object to your light source, the larger the shadow it'll cast.

Boxes and balls

Contrast also features some more physical challenges like using Dawn's dash ability to smash through barriers and thin shadows.

At times you'll also need to pick up some traditional video game crates and the occasional ball and move them around.

Sometimes the task is as simple as putting a crate onto a pressure pad but more often you'll be required to shift objects into 2D to get them where they're supposed to be.

In one puzzle you'll have to move a crate up a high wall by capturing it in the beam of a spotlight.

The SHIELD version of Contrast retains the full PC experience of the game, including high-definition textures, advanced lighting, effects, and filtering. Multi-sampled anti-aliasing also provides impressively detailed high-fidelity imagery.

Contrast is now available to download on Android exclusively for SHIELD Android TV for £12 / $14.99.