Constance Review - Does This Painterly Metroidvania Miss the Mark?

When I first laid my eyes on Constance, a 2D Metroidvania game developed by btf, my first thoughts were, “My God, this game is gorgeous.” Its painterly style jumps off the screen with vibrant colors and stunning animations that remind me of cartoon series such as Over the Garden Wall, Adventure Time, and even Gravity Falls. But as we know, looks aren’t everything, as we’ve seen many beautiful games released throughout the years that fail to match their presentations with compelling gameplay. Some of my fears were thankfully quelled, as I went hands-on with an early demo of Constance a few months back and thought it felt quite good, with perhaps a heavier reliance on platforming than I was expecting. Now the final release is here—but does Constance paint a pretty picture, or does the canvas fall apart entirely? Let’s find out in our full review!

While I had somewhat of an idea what to expect out of Constance from a gameplay, audio, and visual perspective, I knew very little about its story going into this review. It turns out that there’s a bit of a tale within a tale, as the game explores both a dreamlike setting where you are the young artist Constance trying to escape a prison of sorts, and reality, where Connie is working a rather mundane desk job that has her supervisor, amongst others, bombarding her with an endless cascade of tasks. Fixing files and uploading them to servers, getting edits done on other projects—it’s all INCREDIBLY relatable to what I do. As someone who owns and operates their own business, I can’t tell you how much this narrative hits home, as I often feel as though I am drowning in a sea of emails, assignments, managing a staff, editing audio, video—you name it!

The writers of Constance nail what it feels like to be overwhelmed, with the game carrying many poignant themes throughout regarding mental health. In the dreamlike world where most of your time is spent, the story of Constance takes a backseat to gameplay. This isn’t to say you won’t meet some interesting characters along the way or unravel the occasional bit of lore, but the events taking place within the real world are by far the most interesting aspect of the entire narrative.

While its story is an interesting and compelling one, as a gameplay experience, Constance is first and foremost what many would refer to as a Metroidvania game. There’s a sprawling world to explore with enemies to defeat, items and abilities to collect, bosses to take down, and new paths to open. It’s a world full of secrets to discover and the occasional side objective, but it features key points of interest that are easy enough to identify thanks to an excellent map that can be pulled up into a mini-view with a click of the right stick, or full-screened to get a wider view of things. Exploration is further helped by a solid fast travel system via the many elevators you’ll encounter.

What might surprise some players who are completely unfamiliar with Constance is how much of a precision platformer it can be at times. Constance will need to jump, dash, wall jump, and teleport often, using an assortment of the various skills that she acquires. With paint as a central theme, many of her moves are creatively built around it, as she can seep into walls for a set amount of time, turn into paint to dash forward and slide under crevices, and batter foes with both a standard attack and a paint stroke, which can flip switches and take down electrified enemies as well. I quite enjoyed the game’s platforming sections at first, until it tries to get a bit too cute—forcing players to teleport and dash through spikes, often in one continuous movement. I didn’t exactly sign up for a brutal precision platformer like Celeste or Super Meat Boy, but that’s what things can feel like at times. One vicious chase sequence highlights this further and had me nearly hurling my controller through the window. Players will often need to quickly cycle through various button combinations at ungodly speeds with a small margin for error. Constance just doesn’t feel good enough for moments such as these, especially when you mix in teleport points that also require you to keep an eye on a directional icon. I felt like I was often playing a less refined version of a barrel level in Donkey Kong Country.

It’s an odd decision, because when it is acting like a more traditional Metroidvania game, Constance isn’t particularly challenging—that is, until you stumble upon boss characters. Enemies go down in a few shots and offer little resistance, but bosses are huge difficulty spikes that offer up savage patterns that wouldn’t feel out of place in a soulslike game. This decision doesn’t mix well with the game’s more lax, explorative moments, which are the best parts of the entire gameplay experience. Mercifully, the developers have included some accessibility options which allow you to take no spike or physical damage, but what’s the fun in that? I would have preferred a more well-balanced game overall, where I could still feel challenged but not frustrated. All of this is to say, the difficulty of Constance feels very unbalanced and at odds with itself.

Further adding to the challenge is a puppet mode, which can optionally be activated. Whenever you die, you are asked if you wish to enter this mode, which will drop you off near where you were killed at the cost of enemies now being more powerful. Should you opt not to use the puppet mode, you will be transported back to your last shrine, which is the place where progress is saved and abilities are equipped. The puppet system is a decent idea that I didn’t really have a strong opinion about one way or the other. Credit Constance for this though—it tries its damnedest to avoid players needing to backtrack completed areas over and over again, a common issue in Metroidvania games. The puppet mode can also be deactivated if you don’t wish to deal with it. Another nice feature that further highlights a commitment to not wasting players’ time would be the camera. Not only does it lean into a few side quests, but photos can be attached to the map should you find an area that you just know you’re going to have to come back to at some point but will likely forget about. This is a great idea that I feel more Metroidvania games should implement in the future, as I hate getting lost without making any progress for hours on end.

At those previously mentioned save points, inspirations can also be equipped to Constance, which offer various perks. Collecting erasers allows you to place more inspirations, as they fit together almost like Tetrominos. This adds a bit of strategy to the game in what you want your loadout to be. Currency can also be collected by defeating foes, spent at shops riddled about the world. Items can help you add to how much paint you have available, and there are even jars that will add additional health. But on the topic of paint, I should mention that it comes in limited supply. Using your paintbrush—whether it be to teleport, wall jump, or attack, will lower your paint meter, and should you run out, you can take damage for a limited amount of time. So, as you can see, Constance is full of interesting ideas and nails down many of them.

From a visual standpoint, what else needs to be said? Constance is one of the most beautiful indie games that I have ever played. Its whimsical character designs, bright vivid colors, and smaller details come together in beautiful harmony. From paint residue dripping to dust kicking up as Constance walks forward, the game spares no expense in its commitment to visual excellence. This fantastic visual presentation is heightened by a rousing score that rises in the heat of battle and calms during exploration. They are wonderful compositions backed by some great sound effects that bring the action to life. Whoever is hosting an awards show this year, don’t miss out on Constance for best visual design, because it is easily able to win such a category—and it sounds great to boot.

On my 4070, Constance ran well for the most part without any significant frame rate drops. I did unfortunately encounter a few bugs, including one moment where my character vanished from the screen entirely. This was pretty easily fixed with a restart, thankfully, with the only other bugs I came across being audio-related, where songs would disappear randomly. Most of these issues seem quite easily fixed with a day-one patch. On Steam Deck, Constance ran very well through my brief testing, maintaining 60fps through the hour or so I tried on the device. You do lose a bit of the visual luster on a smaller screen, where the image is slightly washed out in comparison, but it's still a great way to play.

Much like the emotional complexity surrounding its narrative, Constance is visually stunning but sometimes unsure of what it wants to be. As a Metroidvania game, I loved its world and exploration, with sleek map design and fun combat. Its boss encounters, on the other hand, are far too brutal for this gamer, a stark contrast to its explorative elements. The platforming mechanics, while decent, aren’t good enough for when the game decides to become a precision platformer, especially when teleporting gets mixed in. And yet its story is heartfelt, and its soundtrack entrancing. This leaves me in a weird place with Constance where I kinda love it, and I kinda hate it. But despite my frustrations, it deserves recognition for the many things it does right, and quite frankly, for how stunning it is to gaze upon.

GOOD