The second of the PS4's two free PlayStation Plus games is a platform puzzler set in 1920s Paris, but is it worth your time if not your money

We’re not sure how many people were really all that upset when Driveclub was delayed as a PlayStation 4 launch game, but we imagine indie developer Compulsion were ecstatic. Since an abridged version of Driveclub was meant to be the initial offer on PlayStation Plus a replacement had to quickly be found and Compulsion’s Contrast, along with Housemarque’s Resogun, is it.

Since we at least had never heard of it until now the obvious question is what sort of game is Contrast? It’s clearly one that wants to paint itself as an avant-garde experience, one very much much removed from brown-coloured shooters – or indeed photorealistic racing games. But the truth is there’s an awful lot in Contrast that is very familiar, even if the surface details are different. And an even greater amount that simply doesn’t work.

Little known Wii game A Shadow’s Tale (aka Lost In Shadow) is perhaps the most direct comparison but there are plenty of other obvious influences here, from critical darlings such as Limbo and Psychonauts to a probably coincidental resemblance to the recent Rain and Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

Set in what is implied to be 1920s Paris, the game has you playing as the imaginary friend of a young girl named Didi. It’s not quite the real Paris though, with roads occasionally falling away into an abyss and other people only visible by their shadows. The implication is that this is how Dawn (the long-legged but frustratingly mute friend) sees the world, but the narrative does not explore this idea in any interesting way and you soon realise it’s merely so Compulsion don’t have to populate their game with other characters.