Valley Reviews

Chill and relax

Amazing atmosphere, well done mechanics, and puzzles that tie into them. What's not to like about Valley?

Though this game reminds me a little bit of A Story About My Uncle or Portal in that it's entirely a movement-based exploration/puzzle shooter, it's core mechanic with the mobility suit thingy is just too lackluster, and doesn't really make it much of a game. I'd have to say this is a hard pass, as it's one of the weaker games of the variety featuring only a movement mechanic and puzzles revolving around it. That said, it's at least better than The Ball, another game of this type that was so bad I couldn't even play long enough to qualify to write a review... lol. 3/10, being generous.

It's decent but nothing special. Negative review because given the catalogue of games on offer, I'm confident you can put your cash towards a better experience.

I am going to recommend this, though with a lot of caveats. It doesn't really let you explore its mechanics and play around, and as such it's fine as a chaser in between more involved games. For a game selling itself on its speed, you are quite slow most of the time, and that's because the devs decided to constrict you to narrow, linear hallways for more than half the game, which means you don't spend that much time in valley itself. The few moments of speed and freedom are nice.

Very beautiful game, found it very chill to play. The narrative keeps you engaged, the world is just very relaxing to glide through...

It was both boring and frustrating. I only paid about $2 for the game, so I can't complain, but I wouldn't recommend paying any more than that

Ultimately a "gotta go fast" game like this is useless if it doesn't have buoyancy, speed and momentum on its side, but Blue Isle Studios did nail it, and almost ten years(!) after release that feeling of floating fun holds up. Don't expect a great deal of creativity in your platforming, there's a strong linear path, and I made the mistake of exploring in an open area before I was supposed to unlock an ability to progress further. Valley's pro-environmental theme about exploitative resource extraction is also pretty rote at this point, but it works for the game, and justifies stomping past a few beautiful areas and fun stages. What I would say is don't bother looking for any of the hidden unlocks, there are only two that make your energy management easier, but you get so much "running and jumping" fuel anyway that there's no need to care unless you're achievement hunting. Just have fun bouncing and sprinting along and you'll get three to four hours of good fun with a fairly relaxed story plodding away in the background.