In The Valley of Death -Prologue- Reviews

Fine music, not much else

It's fun, soundtrack is bumping. Buy it.

I just want to say before I start this I have not finished it yet but I have beaten the first boss and this is what I have to say. Its pretty fun, if a little clunky. Mainly with how all 4 of the main actions are on the triggers, would have been a little more smooth if the dash was on one of the face buttons, but even if it doesn't feel perfect, this is a cool little game

Really solid lil top-down action game, with some light bullet hell challenge mixed in. Hits just the right balance of being challenging, but also fairly casual and breezy, with most of the challenge simply coming from how comfortable you are with it's unorthodox control scheme. Also: it runs like greased lightning, the player's hitboxes feel super well-tweaked, and the movement is quite tight - so every death feels completely deserved. Just a solid arcade feel, all-around. Though, don't expect an expansive options suite - or any options at all, actually. On the main menu, you've got New Game, Continue, Multiplayer, Credits, and Quit (exit game) - that's it. But, I will say, the default settings worked just fine for me - so, hopefully, they'll also work for you. The presentation is also extremely clean - expect nice punchy sound effects, sprites that can be differentiated from each other in a fraction of a second, and some occasionally very slick visuals (mostly used to punctuate level completion/story progression). That's not even bringing up the music, composed by the incomparable ThorHighHeels (also known as Adolf Nomura). If, for whatever reason, the Steam thumbnail puts you off of this game - rest assured that the game itself is quite polished in this regard. Overall: a really solid prologue. I'll admit that I mostly bought this for Thor's music (would y'all be willing to release the soundtrack on Steam, too? ngl - I'd buy it a second time) - but, in the end, found myself completely hooked by the intriguing gameplay. I can't wait to see what the full game has on offer, and hope Thor returns as a collaborator! Also: I played this with a Dualshock 4 instead of an Xbox controller, and the game only has Xbox button prompts for the time being. Not that big a deal, but I figure it's worth noting.