Valley Reviews
Explore gorgeous lands, revive the dying valley, and discover a sentimental story while you run and jump through the vast worlds to find collectables to learn more about the lore that Valley has to offer.
Despite the lackluster narrative, the stretches of running fast and swinging around are wonderful, which are unfortunately buried by choppy visuals and frame-rate drops.
Valley is a walking simulator of between three or four hours long with many adventurous overtones. An interesting argument, and powerful mechanics, are its premise, which unfortunately we will soon see diluted due to some design decisions, some forgettable passages of combat, and no difficulties of the puzzles that are presented to us. Anyway, the mechanics granted by the L.E.A.F. suit are interesting enough to test if the game is within range. Fortunately, the game performs very well in audiovisual terms, making our stay in Valley more bearable.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Legitimately, throughout the entire last three or so areas, I kept having to repeat to myself “Why in the name of all that is even remotely holy would you even CONSIDER designing something this way”. Extremely poor design/engineering practices aside, I did have fun going through the last few areas, despite my dwindling sanity, and the game as a whole just felt really good to run, jump, climb, explore, and swing through.
For those who can’t get enough of weird first-person treats, this will be a smorgasbord. For everyone else, it’s the perfect game to throw on for an evening’s worth of entertainment. Just don’t expect to retain much of it past your brief fling.
Valley is an enjoyable experience that tells a comfortable narrative through brilliant music, exemplary writing, and a creative setting.
In a games market often trying to operate as either an endless buffet or a sticky-sweet dessert parlour, Valley is a satisfying meal that doesn't outstay its welcome.
As a total experience Valley was pretty satisfying and, overall, exceeded my expectations throughout its run time...
The story from start to finish holds up very well and keeps you interested. The mixture of nature and a darker 60s era industrialism creates a very unusual theme. The level design could have been better, but the time you spend running around in the L.E.A.F suit is so much fun that getting lost is not so bad. The moral aspects of the game stand out very strong and will keep this game in your mind long after you have completed it.
The visual stimulation is stunning, especially in the earlier portions of the game. Coupled with the enhanced movement abilities the L.E.A.F. suit affords, Valley is not altogether unenjoyable. The game had the potential to be quite impactful, making its failure to do so all the more disappointing. There are many good elements, but they’re too shallow and loosely tied together. The game fails to relate to anything the player could care about, leaving it immemorable beyond some impressive visuals and high-intensity maneuvering – hardly justifying its $20 sticker price.
Valley’s run and jump gameplay is a huge amount of fun when you’re going fast, but the moment it slows you down the gameplay becomes annoying and bland.
The game features a full trophy count with a Platinum. As long as you explore everywhere to find all collectibles and make sure that you finish the game without ever letting the valley die, you should get your Platinum trophy at the end of the road. Overall, you’re looking at around 6-8 hours to get all trophies in the game, unless you mess up and don’t get all collectibles. In that case, you might spend an additional handful of hours doing cleanup since, unfortunately, you won’t know which collectibles you’re missing until you find them.
The trouble with Valley is that it has to employ various design decisions in order for both the story and game to function. It wants to have adventurous aspects, but it also wants threats that players must combat. Being able to run fast and jump incredibly far is an awesome and satisfying experience, but it never grows to be anything more than that. The boss encounter towards the end is remarkable, yet also completely out of place. It's emblematic of a game that lacks a cohesive vision. A video game that involves superhuman exoskeleton suits, the ability to manipulate life, and takes place in and around a forgotten WW2 weapons research facility isn't something that can be neatly wrapped up in a five-hour long adventure. The music and graphics are quite excellent, though.
A very basic and reductive way to describe Valley would be to say it’s a virtual jungle gym riddled with various toys and obstacles that are complemented well by the LEAF suit.
Valley is a mish mash of other games before it, but still retains a unique feeling all to itself and my time with it was pleasantly surprising with it.
Sonic the Hedgehog and Bioshock had a lovechild and named it Valley, a sleeper hit that deserves your attention.
Vibration from the controller and the sheer speed and sense of losing control feels great and makes you believe you are in a powerful suit.
Valley’s answer to one of its main mysteries doesn’t quite satiate the curiosity it taunts, though it wisely leaves others unsolved. The questions it does pose it can’t answer, because no one can. That’s the siren Valley will use to carry you by the song of its story – though it is somewhat betrayed by its lack of mechanical prowess. I'm not normally one to be bothered by technical issues – I'm more concerned with messages and ideas, hence I can forgive a few breakdowns on the way so long as we get somewhere. Whether it’s a trip worth taking will depend on your tolerance for bumpy rides and the many spell-breaking hiccups curtailing the credulity of your experience.
It is unfortunate that the game is a rehash of almost every popular indie game from 2012 onwards, because it starts off fairly well