While this game was visually appealing, creative, and smartly designed, it also felt quite short. If it looks like something you might like you may enjoy it, and I did, but it does feel lacking in content. There seems to be some expansion content but unless it's really substantial I'm not too interested. And it's attempts at storytelling and backstory didn't impress me all that much TBH. But this game is visually gorgeous and really smartly designed. It just feels a bit lacking to me in content. Check it out if you're interested.
Biting the bullet and accepting that phone apps can, in fact, be video games. Heaven help me! This was a cute little puzzle game based on M.C. Escher optical illusions in an isometric grid. I tacked on the charity level and DLC for completeness because why not? Cheap, quick, easy, delightful. There's nothing not to love here, even seven years later.
What’s the difference between delicate indie beauty and the louder aesthetics of the AAA blockbuster? To love a videogame for either is to love the video more than the game.
Monument Valley exists to be admired more than played. It is lovely and hollow, a contraption that says: touch me once, then watch the wonders unfold. It doesn’t even seem to understand the appeal of the isometric, of moving through two dimensions as if three, not just staring at them.
It might make for a beautiful set of posters. It certainly makes for an empty game. Play Crystal Castles instead.
Monument Valley exists to be admired more than played. It is lovely and hollow, a contraption that says: touch me once, then watch the wonders unfold. It doesn’t even seem to understand the appeal of the isometric, of moving through two dimensions as if three, not just staring at them.
It might make for a beautiful set of posters. It certainly makes for an empty game. Play Crystal Castles instead.
It’s very rare that a mobile game gets as artsy as an indie console or PC games. Monument Valley is Journey meets Echochrome straight out of the gate. It has the aesthetics of Journey and the gameplay of Echochrome. Flipping levels to create illusions that create new pathways, that’s what Monument is all about. The game isn’t really all that hard, in fact, it’s a cakewalk, but it’s all about the experience.
There’s an underlying story here and the ending is a bit touching. You’re a princess (that resembles close to a White Cloak from Journey) who is trying to restore gems at the end of each level. If I say more I will spoil the experience. New gameplay elements are slowly added in like crows getting in your way that you must avoid or use to press switches. Walking on different planes is another while an interactive column (that’s actually a small character) becomes an ally. The game is strange yet so damn beautiful.
But there is one huge problem. The game is only 10 levels long and they are extremely short. For $4 you’re getting a fantastic experience, but it’s over way too soon. I would have liked an endless mode or some sort of puzzle mode that didn’t include a story added in. The puzzles are just so fun to solve and each level is like opening a present. The more you fiddle with the level the more beautiful everything gets and more fun it becomes.
As it is, Monument Valley is a rare gem on mobile devices. It looks and plays beautifully, but the shortness will enrage people who fall in love with it.
There’s an underlying story here and the ending is a bit touching. You’re a princess (that resembles close to a White Cloak from Journey) who is trying to restore gems at the end of each level. If I say more I will spoil the experience. New gameplay elements are slowly added in like crows getting in your way that you must avoid or use to press switches. Walking on different planes is another while an interactive column (that’s actually a small character) becomes an ally. The game is strange yet so damn beautiful.
But there is one huge problem. The game is only 10 levels long and they are extremely short. For $4 you’re getting a fantastic experience, but it’s over way too soon. I would have liked an endless mode or some sort of puzzle mode that didn’t include a story added in. The puzzles are just so fun to solve and each level is like opening a present. The more you fiddle with the level the more beautiful everything gets and more fun it becomes.
As it is, Monument Valley is a rare gem on mobile devices. It looks and plays beautifully, but the shortness will enrage people who fall in love with it.