Monument Valley
A sweet, enticing puzzler that even Escher would scratch his head at
This contemplative, quiet trek through illusion-soaked puzzle lands is all about altering the perspective – moving your view or tweaking a dial to make two disconnected parts of the levels meet, letting your character walk to the exit. Change one small thing and a bridge might fall into place, or a barrier is removed. Inspiration is no doubt pulled from the surreal artwork of MC Escher, but also possibly from Echochrome, an ultraminimal puzzler released on PlayStation platforms. Frustration is thankfully rare across the 10 multistage chapters, though some solutions do require a fair bit of tinkering to discern the right pattern of moves to guide your heroine to the exit.
What makes Monument Valley really magical is its sensational presentation. It’s a compact experience – less than two hours in total, unless you dawdle around a bit (which would be understandable, considering the sights) – but we kept taking screenshot after screenshot from start to finish, as each locale proved more magnificent than the last. The settings are cleanly, precisely drawn, punched up with a vivid colour palette, and made divine with rich animations. Add in the haunting soundtrack and the adventure builds incredible atmosphere inside a short span of time.
Occasional hints of story serve as a nice hook to pull you through to the dazzling later areas (and a nice conclusion), though we wish the puzzles required a little more contemplation as the game progressed – or at least that there was a bit more of the game and its terrain. There’s no question of worth, however: Monument Valley is surely one of the most beautiful games we’ve ever played. Andrew Hayward
Monument Valley’s dazzling aesthetics and deceptive terrain combine wonderfully to form a rich, memorable experience.