‘Constance’ Game Review: Unique and Ambitious
Constance is another Metroidvania-like game that was released this year. It is heavily inspired by games like Hollow Knight: Silksong and the Rayman series. But it doesn’t shy away from its influences. It proudly expresses itself and still tries to be something entirely of its own. Constance was created and published by Bildundtonfabrik, PARCO GAMES & ByteRockers’ Games.
This is a game that sends you into the world where you’re an artist who wields a paintbrush that can be both a sword and your lifeline. You explore a devastated world that changes with bizarre colors and strange elements. It’s the kind of indie game that gets your attention because of its design, look, and possibilities.
[Warning: Light spoilers from the Constance game are below!]
The story in Constance
Constance is a game that, from the beginning, focuses on a more intimate story rather than making it epic and huge. You play through the 2D hand-made world full of designs. You get a feeling of the emotions conveyed through the pictures. The world itself feels like it’s a mix of a series of memories and inspiration.
Characters you meet have more personified and unique emotions. You can also meet characters who are meant to be mentors or act like they are relics of old times. Some are meant to encourage everyone or act like everything you do is not enough, because they are a mirror of the protagonist’s self-doubt and stubbornness to finish the mission.
That approach mostly works because the game trusts players to read its metaphors hidden between the lines. But it isn’t always successful. Some elements are obvious, but some are not easy to find, especially when you have to fight the enemies, who sometimes are symbolic in their own way. While some other parts of the story promise deeper, more serious, and more emotional payoffs, they don’t always come through, and are skipped or forgotten.
Some sequences suggest that a major and epic thematic revelation is coming, sometimes in the form of a confrontation with a specific boss, which fails just so you can learn your lesson. But the game leaves some doors open instead of giving us closure, so they can be left deliberately unresolved. For me, occasionally it worked.
In terms of showing missed opportunities, which then turns into a game about experiencing emotional stakes and different emotions through colors, it is both weird and exciting. Either way, the art and the setup do a lot of good for the game. The environments themselves tell half the story through visual metaphor and environmental nods to “life lessons” or known themes.
The gameplay deserves a lot of praise
Gameplay is where Constance most clearly gets a lot of applause from me. At first glance, it’s just another Metroidvania-like game. With all its interconnected regions, keys, and doors, shortcuts to unlock later in the game, and a map system that unlocks terrain only when you discover it.
What’s interesting about Constance isn’t just that it resembles other modern 2D adventure games; it’s that the team explicitly built mechanics around the protagonist’s profession and created the psychology of the character around that. The paintbrush you use is not a simple gimmick put into a game with a basic moveset of attack, block, and dash. It’s being used to control your health, manage resources, and more.
At the same time, the tone of the game balances between being gentle and rough. Feel free to explore, but beware the encounters with bosses and enemies that can feel unforgiving at times.
Combat itself favors precision and timing more than random button-mashing. Enemies often present you with small “block” windows that reward you for learning and pattern recognition. Boss battles are designed to be memorable encounters with a clear target and a great reward for each win and defeat of the boss.
Movement is basic with jumps, dashes, and paint-based mobility in your movements. All of it is crucial for a game that asks you to move through narrow platforming sequences and loads of deadly enemies. There are moments, such as sections where you transform into paint to slip through cracks or use color to interact with parts of the environment. Those parts of the game make the game feel thematically constant and keep the world feeling alive for most of the game.
That said, Constance is not flawless. On the difficulty scale, the game lands in a sweet spot where it is approachable even for those who don’t want an extremely difficult game yet want to have enough mechanical elements that can be easily mastered and optimized to fit the casual players. If you like elegant and colorful level design with a touch of unique choreography, Constance is one of those games that you have to try.
Where Constance shines most is in how the gameplay and art connect to one another. Levels aren’t just mechanically unique. Each of them sets a different mood with a different palette of colors that matches the narrative. Secret paths often feel like private sketches that were meant to be exclusive and feel earned to discover for players. The aesthetic choices are also present in audio design. Music is really pleasant and sometimes emotional, but in many moments, it really puts you out of the gameplay.
Final thoughts on Constance
Constance is, in many ways, a quietly ambitious indie. It wants to be beautiful. It wants its gameplay mechanics to mean something. And it wants players to feel like they’re exploring a beautiful and curious mind rather than a map of a weird world.
On the positive side, it nails the fundamentals that matter for a Metroidvania-style game. It is really responsive in its movement, it has thoughtful boss designs and uniqueness, and it rewards you for discovering and exploring. Where it’s lost some part of my interest is in the promise of its going deep into its themes and tonal choices.
My rating for this game: 4/5
Practically speaking, if you love titles that mix elements of platformers with reflective, artful storytelling, Constance is likely to stick with you. It may be a game that is really similar to Silksong or Rayman, but it works. If you prefer narratives with simple resolutions or games that explain every theme, then you will be surprised by how hard you must play to find certain details by yourself.
Either way, Constance is an enjoyable game that brings plenty of relaxing moments, as well as those that are supposed to make you focus 100%.
Constance is currently available to play on Steam
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