Monument Valley

[h1][i]Monument Valley[/i] - 8/10[/h1] [b]"How far have you wandered, silent princess?"[/b] [hr] [i]Monument Valley[/i] is a delightfully simple puzzle game, inspired by the works of M.C. Escher. The art direction is incredible at every turn, in the environmental design both grounded and abstract, all the way to the minor details of the UI. The soundtrack, though I find it to be unmemorable and uncharacterized, compliments the mood wonderfully. The puzzles are quite simple and didn't require much effort, but the pieces come together remains satisfying. If you're a fan of simple, atmospheric games, definitely give this a shot, although I have no idea how you would be unaware of [i]Monument Valley[/i] if you were. Honestly I don't even remember how this ended up in my library, and I didn't realise it was there until I saw a friend playing it, but I had fun with it despite it not really being my thing purely because of how good the visuals are. If you like the way it looks you'll probably like it even if you don't like puzzle games. Diving into what mostly amounts to [i]nitpicking[/i], I do have some problems with the game, or at least it being on PC. [b][i]Monument Valley[/i] is a mobile game[/b], and while it's not going to throw ads and gacha banners in your face, it's control scheme and mechanics were obviously designed with the platform in mind. Again, this is just nitpicking [strike]to pad out this review[/strike], but turning an object without the tactile feeling of your finger on a screen dragging can feel a bit awkward, with wheels suddenly spinning a full 180 degrees. The game is pretty short, and will only take you about an hour or two, but it still lacks a bit of variety. The "Forgotten Shores" set of levels don't have this issue, but the base levels play mostly the same. There's also a light narrative, but it's hard to follow because it doesn't seem to be of much concern to the game. There's some text in the title cards of each level, some NPCs who'll talk to you, and things you can piece together from the environment, but nothing particularly concrete outside of two scenes near the end. Some levels also take place on structures floating a the void without much indication that they exist somewhere in this world, which can be a bit strange when you were actually journeying somewhere in previous levels. It still serves to add some depth to the world and doesn't take away from anything, so I can't complain. It's a bit shallow and doesn't really lend itself to repeat playthroughs, but for what is it, it's pretty clear why it won all those awards.