Valley (2016)

1. Gridhunter

   Aug 29, 2016

   10

   This game was a blast to play and due to its high production value and quality, deserves any gamers attention. It is an indie title casting aThis game was a blast to play and due to its high production value and quality, deserves any gamers attention. It is an indie title casting a shadow on so many AAA developed products. Two thumbs up and three dwarven axes from me!… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful
2. jasper6333

   Aug 30, 2016

   10

   Man what a great little gem this is. gameplay is so much fun and relaxing, story is awesome, graphics looks great and length is reasonable butMan what a great little gem this is. gameplay is so much fun and relaxing, story is awesome, graphics looks great and length is reasonable but there is some replayability (at least for the completionists and speed runners among us) finished first run in just over 3 hours still did not discover everything and second run i wanted to do a speedrun now 2/3 into the game and just one hour in.
   
   this game is really amazing and for the completionists, speed runners and casual gamers a must buy and potential game of the year.… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
4. KillingArts

   Aug 27, 2016

   10

   Wow! Just wow! This game came unexpected. Never heard of it before. The screenshots looked a bit like a walking simulator with a few gameplayWow! Just wow! This game came unexpected. Never heard of it before. The screenshots looked a bit like a walking simulator with a few gameplay elements. The description was vague. I didn't expect too much. To be honest, I just bought it because I had wallet left from trading card sales, so I had to pay only 2€ on top of that. But now that I know the game - it's easily worth the money. It really blew me away.
   
   When you start the game, you will in fact think this is a walking simulator. After just a few minutes - when you get your suit - you will probably think: oh, it's more of a running simulator. This will be fun! Well, the game actually has absolutely nothing to do with a walking simulator. It opens up more and more and more. At some point even combat is introduced. The game takes its time, so that when you have your first fight, you are really surprised that this is in the game. You get new upgrades for your suit on a regular basis. And what awesome upgrades those are. I'd say the double jump is the least exciting of them. Wait until you are in your first speed tunnel... ;)
   
   Aside from all that the game has this really great life/death mechanic. You can take life, and you can give life. This works with animals, trees and other plants. So if you really need it, you can take from nature. But don't take too much. The valley itself also has some sort of HP meter. It's an interesting and innovative concept. I like it a lot.
   
   The story is mostly told through audio logs and notes. This may sound boring to some of you, but it really isn't. You listen to the audio logs while playing, and the notes are pretty short - so neither of those will hinder your game flow. The story is pretty interesting. It didn't take long until I really wanted to know what the hell happened in the valley.
   
   The graphics are awesome. And the sound design is absolutely fantastic. The world is well designed and interesting. Well, almost everything about this game is just great. The only negative thing I can think of is the difficulty. It's a little too easy. But that's really a minor complaint.
   
   My playthrough was exactly 5:57h long.
   
   Overall this is just a great game. A real indie gem. And I hope it get's the attention it deserves.
   
   And if you're using a 21:9 monitor like me, please check this out: http://steamcommunity.com/app/378610/discussions/0/352792037314730094/… Expand

   • 2 of 3 users found this helpful
5. PaulPolicarp

   Aug 27, 2016

   8

   Valley aggresively pushes above and beyond the industry-established scope of narrative-driven exploration games. It fills the gaps between theValley aggresively pushes above and beyond the industry-established scope of narrative-driven exploration games. It fills the gaps between the story bits with dynamic gameplay and fun traversal, offering you a wide array of tools to get across the environments. The valley itself is beautifully designed, offering the occasional breathtaking view and the soundtrack is fantastic. Because of its constant change of pace, I found myself enjoying the storytelling of Valley far more than the likes of something like Everyone's Gone To The Rapture and found the traversal to be far more compelling than what the Mirror's Edge series had to offer. Valley has story for those seeking story, collectibles for those into completion, traversal and combat for the adventurers and nice sights and sounds for explorers. In fact, the heaviest criticism I can weigh against it is that it could have been just a bit more challenging, but at the end of the day, Valley is a textbook case of a "walking simulator" done incredibly right.… Expand

   • 2 of 3 users found this helpful
6. PublicNuisance

   Dec 29, 2019

   7

   Valley holds a special place for me as it’s one of the few platformers that tells a great story. Many platformers that try to include a storyValley holds a special place for me as it’s one of the few platformers that tells a great story. Many platformers that try to include a story usually have a poor one to the point it may have been better to not have one. I would go as far as saying that Valley has possibly the best one I have seen. Luckily the gameplay is fun to go through as well and, save for a few issues I had, was very enjoyable.
   
   You begin the game as an archaeologist that is trying to find something called the “Lifeseed”. You go exploring the Canadian Rockies for it via canoe but end up with the canoe destroyed and stranded in a valley where you find a special suit that was developed in World War II that gives the user the ability to run very fast; jump long distances; and great heights. You also discover that with the suit you can take life away from things such as trees and animals or give it back. This can have an effect as any time you die you take life away from the valley and have to give some back to keep a balance. You can only do this by constantly collecting more energy. You play the rest of the game trying to figure out what went on at this base all those years ago and why nobody is there now. In order to explore the base you must use the suit to solve platforming issues and various puzzles. You pick up various audio logs and notes that piece together the backstory. It made me think of Bioshock a bit with the audio logs.
   
   I enjoyed the platforming in the game as unlike some others it feels a little more natural with the keyboard and mouse. That being said a gamepad would still be easier for the platforming but there are parts of the game that are very much a first person shooter where you have to battle enemies made of energy that I would despise doing with a gamepad. The puzzles were for the most part logical and didn’t feel like they tried to force you into a solution that was pulled out of thin air and didn’t use reason. That being said I did have a few issues. You die if you get submerged in water. The reason given is the weight of the suit drags you down to the bottom to drown. I’ll give the developers credit on coming up with a reasonable explanation as to why water is an instant death. I will say though that it has some real short sighted problems because you die even if you’re only ankle deep in water. That makes no sense. It also made me angry when later in the game in a cutscene you land in water and are somehow able to swim to the top and survive where all game I had been punished if so much as a foot entered the water. Also at certain points I can walk through a waterfall and survive. Basically the rules about when water will harm you are all over the place and annoying. This is a small thing though that didn’t stop my overall enjoyment of the game. I noticed that all flags appeared black. I’m not sure if this was a glitch or not. There was also one time I tried to jump on a tree branch but went through it. This only happened the once though.
   
   The graphics of Valley are pretty decent overall. The lighting; water; shadows; and sun rays are all above average. I can’t name anything that stands out as a negative. I also can’t say that anything is the best in gaming even for when the game came out. I would say for the resources of a small studio they did better than most. The soundtrack of Valley was awesome and deserves mention. It had a great blend of fast paced and slow peaceful orchestra type music.
   
   I played Valley on Linux. It had an option for Vsync; six different graphic options; four settings for AA; and an option for AO. There was no option for manual saves as the game relies on checkpoint saves. You can’t change controls but you only have four buttons to use so it wasn’t a big deal. The game uses the Unity engine. I played the game with everything on highest except AA, AO and motion blur which were all turned off. My resolution was 1080P. The reason I did this was the game would drop from 60 FPS down the the 40’s pretty often. With those options off it only happened once maybe every half hour. Typically it ran at 50-60 FPS. The game used between 12-23% of my CPU; 5-6.6GB of system RAM; 2.6GB of VRAM; and 40-55% of my GPU. Overall it wasn’t the most optimized game I have played but far from the worst. The graphics were great but they didn’t seem like they should drop my frame rate to the 40’s and when it happened was almost random. Alt-Tab didn’t work. One weird issue I encountered was the graphics options wouldn’t always save until later in the game when they would. For most of it I had to set them each time I launched the game. The game used 4.09GB of disk space. The game didn’t crash once on me.
   
   I finished the game in 4 hours 18 minutes. I paid $10.99 CAD and would say it easily worth $20.
   
   My System:
   
   AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 19.2.7 | Samsung 850 Evo 250GB | Kernel 5.4.2-1… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
7. Klewer

   Dec 31, 2018

   7

   A good action platformer with an interesting story and mechanics. It feels like it is building to something and the ending feels a littleA good action platformer with an interesting story and mechanics. It feels like it is building to something and the ending feels a little rushed. However it's still well worth a look with good look, great music and a nice story.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
8. Mandulum

   Apr 22, 2018

   5

   Five Word Review: It's essentially walking simulator.
   Favorite Thing: The LEAF suit can be pretty fun, especially when you're soaring overFive Word Review: It's essentially walking simulator.
   Favorite Thing: The LEAF suit can be pretty fun, especially when you're soaring over the treetops.
   Least Favorite Thing: The save system is inexcusably bad; it's nearly non-existent. If you quit in the middle of a level you get to start over at the beginning, yay!
   
   Date Completed: 2018-04-17
   Playtime: 4h
   Enjoyment: 5/10
   Recommendation: Ennnhhhhh. It was okay. If there was a maybe button I'd hit it but there are better ways to spend your time.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful

See all 19 User Reviews