Valley

Genre: First-Person Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Valley is a First-Person Platformer, or at least that seems the best category to place it in. There is shooting in this game, but it isn’t complex or challenging and doesn’t happen often. There are also puzzles, but they’re not in any way challenging. Mostly, this is a game about getting to where you’re going and enjoying yourself along the way.

To that end, this is a surprisingly pretty game for an indie title, and seeing the nice natural landscapes are a part of the fun here. While the framerate, resolution and textures have clearly taken a hit from the other versions of the game, what’s here still looks quite nice, and the graphical downgrade doesn’t really affect the playability. The music, also, is very nice, with some good moving music and occasional stirring themes that suit the game well.

The game’s story is a bit less compelling. The game can’t really decide if it wants to be rooted in science or fantasy, with the game taking place at a secret US government test cite long since abandoned and players acquiring secret technology… but also characters speak of “magic” and players collect magic acorns and runes. Given the game’s focus on nature versus technology (landing with a very heavy-handed “thud” on the side of “technology is bad, now go hug some trees instead!”), the incorporation of these unrealistic elements frequently feels cringey.

At the very least, the gameplay is excellent, so long as you’re not looking for a challenge. As I stated above, combat and puzzles aren’t especially challenging, and while the platforming can at times be a bit tricky, the game is pretty forgiving when it comes to player death, incorporating a unique system where you are revived so long as there is life in the area to sap energy from (giving and taking life energy being one of the game’s central themes and mechanics). However, while there isn’t much challenge, the actual mechanics of getting around are wonderful.

Simply running and jumping over the landscape in this game is absolutely liberating, with a great feeling of speed and the ability to fling yourself quite high if you find the right incline after running down a hill. I found myself thinking that you could tweak this game’s physics just a bit and it would make for a superb first-person Sonic the Hedgehog game. Later on, with some of the ability upgrades you get, I found myself really desiring to see what this team would accomplish if it had the license for the DC character The Flash, because there were definitely moments here where the amazing sense of power derived from flinging yourself around at high speed felt perfect for that character.

The disappointing thing is, the game develops these really great mechanics, but then it doesn’t really do much with them. Throughout the game, you get these really excellent abilities simply loaded with potential, but the game doesn’t really seem to know how to utilize them to the fullest effect, beyond “hey, this is a cool thing, right? Okay… well, now that you’ve done that for a while, how about some more platforming?” Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good gameplay, but it feels like such a missed opportunity that it never evolves into the truly great game it absolutely had the potential to become.

Still, for those brief moments of absolutely thrilling gameplay that the game is peppered with, Valley is definitely a game worth playing. The Switch version doesn’t look as good as other versions, of course, it’s not at all challenging, and you can probably breeze through the whole thing in 4-5 hours, but you will almost certainly find some of your time with the game to be enjoyable.

tl;dr – Valley is a First-Person game without much in the way of shooting and without any difficult puzzles, but with some really excellent platforming mechanics and great atmosphere (so long as you don’t mind its cringe-worthy story and the graphical downgrade from other platforms). The game isn’t very difficult, and it sadly doesn’t make the fullest use of the great potential of its gameplay, but it has enough moments of pure joy during its short length that it’s worth a look.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Platformer

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