Uncanny Valley

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
52

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. GameSpew
    Feb 14, 2017
    70
    Despite its few narrative drawbacks, Uncanny Valley remains a genuinely creepy and interesting indie horror experience, and one that should be applauded for its unique consequence system.
  2. GameCritics
    Feb 11, 2017
    65
    Obscure puzzles and technical hiccups aside, Uncanny Valley is a fascinating and disturbing horror mystery that encourages replay. But, I’d only give it two or three plays, max. Any more, and the lingering unsolved mysteries might become as frustrating as the gameplay bugs.
  3. IGN Spain
    Feb 8, 2017
    63
    Uncanny Valley is an unsettling story-driven survival horror where nothing is as it seems. The choices you make have meaningful consequences that will determine your fate, so you need to play times to reveal all of Uncanny Valley’s secrets, which becomes so tedious.
  5. Digital Chumps
    Feb 8, 2017
    60
    Uncanny Valley thrives in the unknown and dies in the familiar. Playing is a push and pull between two opposing conditions, and in time perseveration shoves mystery over the edge and becomes a dominating force. Consequence, the commanding authority of Uncanny Valley, is resistible when it's ultimately undermined by routine.
  6. God is a Geek
    Feb 8, 2017
    55
    Uncanny Valley shows a lot of promise, but the harsh reality of its non-linear narrative structure and reliance on multiple playthroughs to make sense of it all means it is asking too much in the face of the early game's uninspired, repetitive gameplay.
  7. DarkStation
    Mar 22, 2017
    50
    It's a crying shame that Uncanny Valley spends so much of its time crippling your play time with contrivances and strict time limits. Once you learn how to make progress, you'll enjoy a second half akin to what the entire game should have been, but then its endings get less memorable. Uncanny Valley wants to be an engaging survival horror romp, and sometimes it gets to be, but it's ultimately an experience that can be best described as mediocre.
  8. Digitally Downloaded
    Feb 15, 2017
    50
    If the developers had been content to just play to the game’s strengths as an adventure game, Uncanny Valley could have been something really good. Sadly, the shoehorning in of dull “survival horror” pulls the rug out from under that potential.
  9. The Digital Fix
    Feb 8, 2017
    50
    Despite a promising plot and an eerie atmosphere, Uncanny Valley fails to make the most out of its survival horror inspirations.
  10. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Apr 11, 2017
    30
    A boring stealth game, made all the more annoying by Tom's bewilderingly poor fitness (four seconds of sprinting and he's knackered) and the worst gun in the history of games. It's rubbish. [Apr 2017, p.90]
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Awards & Rankings

40
#40 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 27
  3. Negative: 13 out of 27
  1. JuanDeLeon
    Mar 6, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Where to begin? The unintuitive, clunky controls, the barebones presentation, or just the godawful experience as a whole?

    The game actually walks a fine line, though not the one it is hoping for. The plot remains utterly incomprehensible on the first, second, or even third playthroughs, but it doesn't actually matter, as the entire gist of the thing is telegraphed in the first ten minutes of gameplay, leaving nothing to the imagination. This might be okay, except the gameplay itself---limited as it is---is slow, clunky, and dull as all hell. In a game where puzzles, stealth, and combat all come together, nothing is handled well, and each is a lesson in frustration, if not outright trial-and-error.

    And for the latter, boy does this game have it in spades. The player is informed in the very beginning that "every action has a consequence," but nowhere is there any clue as to what these consequences are, or how they're triggered, or what they mean. Instead, the player is simply flung from disjointed scenario to disjointed scenario, and is left to fill in the enormous gaps in between. For several days of the game's cycle, you'll collect tapes, keys, and all manner of things. But you only have about five minutes of real time to do your exploration and puzzle solving before the day cycle ends, and you're forced to abandon whatever task you're doing and sleep, or suffer the consequences. Or not. The game never makes it clear if you're making progress, until you've unknowingly sped your way to one of the game's several endings---triggered by seemingly unconnected tasks---and suddenly the maid, who has only made one previous appearance in the entire game, is acting like she's your wife, until she kills you. No, I am not making this up.

    Handled very well, this style of storytelling can be fine, if the plot is intriguing and its heroes relatable. There has to be a guage of progress. But Uncanny Valley handles nothing well, and its characters are mere bullet points in a script that is completely out of order. We don't care about what's happening because we don't have a reason to.

    The only real relatable character is Buck, the jaded security guard who is the trainer of the player. He seems to be aware that he's in a terrible game, and most of his dialogue revolves around him getting away from the main plot as quickly as possible. "Nothing ever happens here," Buck says to us in the beginning, just before he waddles off as quickly as he can manage. Oh, Buck, if only you were there before I dropped twelve dollars on this game...

    I hated this game so much that I created a MetaCritic account just to leave a review. I guess the only thing that Uncanny Valley did for me was to spur my hatred towards something productive. But at twelve dollars, it's a harsh lesson.    … Full Review »
  2. Glemial
    Mar 4, 2021
    0
    You will be bored from beginning to end. The music in the game is so annoying that gave me a headache. The game will punish you withoutYou will be bored from beginning to end. The music in the game is so annoying that gave me a headache. The game will punish you without explanaition and is repetitive as hell! I like indie games, but that one is unplayable… Full Review »
  3. drlowdon
    May 26, 2018
    4
    Despite its old school graphical appearance Uncanny Valley is able to create a disturbing atmosphere, unfortunately it almost seems to beDespite its old school graphical appearance Uncanny Valley is able to create a disturbing atmosphere, unfortunately it almost seems to be going out of its way at times to make things unenjoyable.

    The first half of the game sees the player controlled character (Tom) starting his job as the night watchmen of a closed down facility in the middle of nowhere. The initial nightmare sequence and ride through the snow with fellow employee Buck set the scene well enough but the game all too quickly settles down into a repetitive gameplay loop. Each night you're given roughly 5 minutes to look around the facility, which essentially just involves collecting cassette tapes to reveal the backstory, and complete a simple task such as meeting a friend or getting the power up and running again after it goes out. For some reason you then have to make your way back to your room, which takes around a minute each time, and is made all the more irritating by the fact that your character can run all of 5 paces before he gets out of breath. Providing you make it make you'll then play another short nightmare sequence which, although effectively creepy, involve no more actual gameplay than the rest of the game.

    This loop repeats for several nights before it is dropped for a more conventional type of survival horror experience but, while it becomes less repetitive, it actually becomes an even more frustrating experience with some sequences and scenes that simply aren't explained to the player at all.

    Uncanny Valley is a short game, apparently designed to be played multiple times so that different endings can scenes can be seen depending on player choices, to be honest though I can't say I even enjoyed my first play-through so there is no way I'll be going through it all again.    … Full Review »
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