Valley

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As the second console game from Slender: The Arrival developers Blue Isle Studios, Valley ditches jump scares for exploration. But can it do for adventure games what Slender did for horror?

If games like Firewatch, Soma, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture are referred to as walking simulators, Valley should be called a running simulator. Although it begins with your character slowly exploring mysterious cave-drawings in the Canadian Rockies, the first action you learn is running. Once you start, you rarely slow down. After emerging from the cave, the music swells to show off a vast, mountainous valley. Birds fly overhead, the trees sway gently in the breeze, and sun-drenched waves on the lake glisten; it’s a beautiful moment that quickly turns alien as your character stumbles up...

Every so often, a year will inexplicably become themed around a certain weapon or piece of equipment. 2012 was the year of the bow and arrow, and it appears that 2016 will become synonymous with the grappling hook. Nathan Drake took one into his final adventure in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, and upcoming games such as Titanfall 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and Dishonored 2 are looking to add the hook to their arsenals. Valley, the second game from Canadian developer Blue Isle Studios, is another one to add to the list. The title appears to have snuck up on everyone with little buzz or co...

The first few minutes of Valley show a lot of potential, but it quickly falls short, and gives way to repetition, a bad narrative, and some downright disappointing game design. Lasting only 3-4 hours, $20 is a steep price for an experience that leaves you bored and frustrated as often as it proves to be an enjoyable experience.

Valley is simply a missed opportunity at creating something with a decent narrative, good movement mechanic because it relies so much on the DNA of earlier games. You can literally point to each strand and go “hey, look, this bit is like (insert recent indie game i.e. Journey, Firewatch etc.). The game would have benefitted from a more original script, a lusher and more dynamic presentation and world just to say the least.