Uncanny Valley

 PlayStation 4
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

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  1. Nobilis1984
    Feb 12, 2017
    5
    Favourably in the price and playfully OK.
    Uncanny Valley is a total of one nice mediocre play for you PS4.
    The graphics are Old School
    The play principle very simple
    The tension keeps to a certain extent
    The horror effects dull fast from.
    But it costs only 12€.
  2. 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 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    Despite 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.    … Expand
  3. doodlerman
    Mar 5, 2018
    5
    There was potential for something better, but right when I was starting to sink my teeth into it, the game ended, tossing me an inexplicable bad ending wherein a character that was hardly developed dismembered me. I knew going into this game that there would be multiple endings, but I didn't think any of them would come so soon. I was thinking I could maybe start from where I left offThere was potential for something better, but right when I was starting to sink my teeth into it, the game ended, tossing me an inexplicable bad ending wherein a character that was hardly developed dismembered me. I knew going into this game that there would be multiple endings, but I didn't think any of them would come so soon. I was thinking I could maybe start from where I left off rather than go through the mundanity of the game's opening, but NOPE. At the very least you'd think they'd drop you at a point where your decisions actually matter, but the game simply starts over and you have to go through the same unskippable opening credits and dialogue again.

    I played through it a few times, two of those times getting the same ending (though in one instance I didn't even interact with the featured character in my playthrough). Fortunately I got this game for free via PS+, but I can't imagine paying full price and getting upon what I got.    … Expand
  4. gd01skorpius
    Jan 20, 2018
    1
    Dumb. When your shift ends you have to walk back home and get to your bed before you collapse from fatigue. But it takes so long to get back to your home and to your bed and back to your job again the next day that you only really get a few minutes of exploration time. Plus time is counting down when you're reading stuff or doing puzzles. It's very tedious and annoying, and sometimesDumb. When your shift ends you have to walk back home and get to your bed before you collapse from fatigue. But it takes so long to get back to your home and to your bed and back to your job again the next day that you only really get a few minutes of exploration time. Plus time is counting down when you're reading stuff or doing puzzles. It's very tedious and annoying, and sometimes you'll get back to your bed and it'll tell you that your shift isn't over yet or sometimes your manager will tell you your late. I actually hated it.… Expand
  5. Tellus12
    Feb 17, 2018
    4
    Downloaded Uncanny Valley for free, and glad of it as paying a price would have felt wrong in hindsight. It plays like an old 8-bit game, apart from the voice acting, and somehow creates a good, menacing enough atmposphere to hook a player into it's promisng story. However, a few points about it begin to bring it down, like the clunky controls and the multiple endings which are very sparseDownloaded Uncanny Valley for free, and glad of it as paying a price would have felt wrong in hindsight. It plays like an old 8-bit game, apart from the voice acting, and somehow creates a good, menacing enough atmposphere to hook a player into it's promisng story. However, a few points about it begin to bring it down, like the clunky controls and the multiple endings which are very sparse and quite open ended. The characters are crafted well actually, except the protagonist strangely, as he remains as bland by the end as the first step on day 1. It includes old mechanics of a point and click genre that is hard to fathom what to use where, and finding the interaction point for it can sometimes take ages. Overall, this game has some nice ideas for the retro horror genre, but fails to deliver enough of a punch or a climactic ending to keep gamers interested for long.… Expand
  6. Jessi14
    Feb 3, 2018
    5
    Uncanny Valley is both boring and fun. The game seems lengthy and there are too many endings to get. Tom runs as if he was Buck, which is about 5 seconds of sprinting before he is fully out of breath. If you do 1 thing wrong, you're all like "wait what?? whats happening? where am I?". Also, if you die, you go back to the very beginning. The game can be fun to kick time or if you'reUncanny Valley is both boring and fun. The game seems lengthy and there are too many endings to get. Tom runs as if he was Buck, which is about 5 seconds of sprinting before he is fully out of breath. If you do 1 thing wrong, you're all like "wait what?? whats happening? where am I?". Also, if you die, you go back to the very beginning. The game can be fun to kick time or if you're interested in the "different" graphics. I have played it and had to play it about 4 times until i eventually gave up, always coming to something I clearly shouldn't have.… Expand
  7. blapap
    Mar 6, 2018
    6
    It's one of this game where you don't know what's going on and it's disturbing.
  8. 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 without explanaition and is repetitive as hell! I like indie games, but that one is unplayable
  9. JuanDeLeon
    Mar 6, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand 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.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

40
#40 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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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. 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]
  2. 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.
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  3. 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.
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