Valley feels like a good first act. Despite obstacles that tend to abruptly kill your momentum, running and bounding through wilderness remained exciting. The world's history is so intriguing that I left wanting to know more. I didn't want the adventure to end, and like a jogger who's forced to slow down in the middle of a run, I was frustrated that Valley had to end so soon after it began.

Granted, it’s easy to see this unique take on the first-person experience fall by the wayside, especially when you consider its initial technical follies and weak player onboarding, but flaws aside, Valley has the potential to serve as an introduction to the first-person adventure genre for players who are used to more combat-heavy experiences.

The studio behind Slender: The Arrival tried to combine Mirror’s Edge with a first person shooter and inject it with Ori and the Blind Forest’s atmosphere, but only managed to prove that it’s often better to focus on one thing and get it right. [11/2016, p.70]

Valley tries to do so many things. Bless it for that, really. It’s just so damned frustrating that, in its first hour, it was really onto something fresh and exhilarating and beautiful. Then, far too soon, it shrugs it off in favour of not-awful but less inspired and more familiar first-person action-adventuring.