Rue Valley

The appeal of having a time loop mechanic as the central gimmick of an isometric RPG is self-evident. What is usually done through save-scumming, replaying or simply trying again after a defeat, in a game like Rue Valley could become an active component of the game's narrative. The branching path structure of a cRPG also goes hand in hand with a knowledge-based structure: the match is so self-evident, so "made in heaven" that I don't understand at which point of the pipeline the dev team stumbled. As bluntly as possible, there is not a single knowledge-based quest in Rue Valley: the entire thing is so railroaded that at times it hardly qualifies as a "branching-paths" experience. Its most crucial moments are depicted in montages, the most significant choices are taken by the protagonist while we click at regular intervals on the same exact pixel, the basic gameplay mechanics are dependant on a form of abstract progression that comes up independently from your actions. Event the stats, tepidly copied with the skill checks in their concept from Disco Elysium, are irrelevant: passing a check or not only partially changes how you solve an issue, but not ever in a meaningful enough way to make me want to see the alternative. I can't say the gameplay is dysfunctional because it barely exists, which is an improvement from the gameplay actively trying to make me kill myself (I am looking at you, Planescape Torment...), but not as much of an improvement that I can declare the experiment successful. Because yes, this was an experiment, perceived as one by the developers and the audience alike. The first disco-like to win the race and come out as the flagpole of a nascent genre: that, in and of itself, contains many of the issues here. The developers are Serbian, yet the setting is a weird Americana reenactment; the aesthetic style is cartoonish and slick; the gameplay makes it impossible to miss out on stuff or get stuck; the writing is well-finished, but not as elevated or poetic as Disco Elysium's. In other words, Rue Valley attempts to cast a wide net and have a broader appeal than its predecessor, but by doing so it loses the uncompromising nature that the hardcore base enjoys. Considering that no one aside from that base is ever going to play Rue Valley anyway, that's another gamble going to the bin. Half the guilt lies on the gamers themselves (most of them wouldn't be caught dead having fun by reading something), and the other half on the game itself, as it squanders all that appeal with a truly excruciating amount of lists, instruction manuals and endless useless information that goes on and on and on. Every single quest seemed to have the "Oops! Here you can either read this whole thing for 20 minutes and learn nothing of value or you can skim through it and risk losing out on important info! Have fun!" and by the end of the game I was genuinely burnt out. I won't mince words about it: Rue Valley might be one the most boring games I've played recently, as even when it passionately tells you the story of its characters and setting, nothing ever truly comes together as it should. It mistakes the fascination we all felt for the lore of Elysium for a passion for random information about a fictional place, but I truly don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about the Apex Ore mine, the Kay family or Benjamin's paramilitary group. I give even less of a ♥♥♥♥ about Internet archives, reddit forums for anti-ghost reinforced doors or magnetic locks, yet Rue Valley seems to beliebe that to make you perceive the mental exhaustion of a time loop, it has to make you go through that very same mental exhaustion. Fundamentally, it's not a problem of competence, but one of creative bankruptcy. They could have told this story in a medium more coherent with the rigidness they required, like a novel or a movie, and it would have improved massively as a result. If we do tackle the themes this story brings up, then we can also gleam into a different kind of creative bankruptcy. The root of the problem is a certain obsession of certain contemporary artistic communities with therapy and therapy-speak, most often observed in the USA. Therapy is (like the game keeps reminding you over and over again) good and necessary for a wide variety of people; in fact, I can't imagine that it would do harm to anybody to try it out, even if they don't feel the need to. I can't and won't criticise the social function of works like Rue Valley that argue so much in favour of it, but waging the material benefit of an art-piece is no way of evaluating it. The incompatibility is not perceived because therapy is today propagandised as a means to probe the human psyche, while that never was its purpose. It's a clinical practice, it deals with what works and what benefits, not what is "true": the answers it gives are definite, a result of a scientific and probabilistic process because they need to reach a specific goal. Point being, there is no poetry in therapy. There is no transcendent meaning to things, even the language of therapy doesn't aim to make you feel like what it describes, but rather make you understand it. From this point of view, characters are understood not as people whom you get only glimpses of, but rather little puzzles entirely explained by their specific pathologies. No wonder that most of them are forgettable, and the only one given a shred of humanity is the goat himself, Dr Finck: when you understand yourself as the doctor who needs to convince the patient to get treated, you're going to end up having more empathy for him than for the patient himself. Art that discounts itself as a means through which its observer can cope with their own struggles often ends up spending the cheap coin of grief to justify its existence, because even its creators understand that, fundamentally, art should make you feel something and not necessarily explain that something to you. It reminds me of last year's "Hamnet" movie, which I didn't like because of this very same reason, and I agree with Ian McKellen's criticism of it in which he says that imagining that Hamlet was just Shakespear's way of coping with the loss of his son is speculative and downplaying of his artistic intent. As Rue Valley got to its last few hours of gameplay, there are a couple of twists and explanations that made me appreciate its narrative more. Granted, there are no breadcrumbs to be picked off here, there's just a few lore drops to be endured that leave ample space for interpretation. For one, I appreciated that the game didn't feel the need to beat you over the head with answers. Frank's story is touching, greatly helped by some standout vocal performances and a prose that finally finds its pace, albeit it's weird to have it completely overshadow Eugene's, and I expected a greater connection between the two. At the end of the day, what really disappoints of Rue Valley is Rue Valley itself, the umteenth American desert a mode literay videogame is set in, but one that lacks of identity and awareness of what the standards of the medium are. It's a valiant effort, but also one that teaches, once again, that sticking too close to your inspirations can make you blind to some evident flaws of what you're making.

if you find yourself unable to wrap your story you might at least try not to double it's length with the description of drying paint and say it's all about the pathologic paint gazer

Disappointed. Started out as something of an interesting adventure, but then devolved into a visual novel where you simply clicked "continue" or selected the one dialog option that was presented over and over. Would not recommend.

I'm very very torn on this one because I want to love it and as most people say I wish there was a middle of the road recommendation I could give. I'm not sure if the Disco Elysium comparisons are something that the dev advertised or whether this is a label that has been unfortunately thrust onto them by the lack of Disco in everyone's lives but, please do not go into this expecting Disco Elysium. Firstly some positives before I move onto the negatives. The art style is stellar. The music is fitting for the vibe of the actual place of Rue Valley. The voice acting is top notch, some genuinely really good performances in there. The actual self contained story of the game is very good and very enjoyable, it just falls a bit flat in terms of being a game. I think the actual timeloop mechanic is well executed to an extent, as it mirrors the mindset of your character and other characters in the game and maybe even the town itself. The first maybe 30 loops do really capture that sense of a fish out of water, a man in an unfamiliar town in the middle of nowhere trying to piece together all the intricacies and relationship dynamics at play, and investigate the loop. Now onto the negatives. I played the demo for Rue Valley before release, the premise, and art style had me hooked from the off. A narrative driven story where my choices would matter with interesting personality traits that would have an effect on my choices in game. Sadly most of these "choices" are purely aesthetic and flavour text. My character is introverted so I can't ask certain questions but ultimately I still end up at the same result in the end, I might just have to listen to some rambling about key cards. Certain dialogue is blocked by some personality traits, which is interesting, but ultimately the dialogue option you can pick will lead to the same outcome anyway. My choices don't really matter, because as you find out later the last 40-50 loops essentially devolve into a visual novel. You essentially click next to get more of the story and your character will occasionally throw some flavour text based on his personality that ultimately doesn't effect anything. I did say that I enjoyed the loop and I did... initially. The loop can get very tedious very quickly. Ultimately while my review does come across as quite negative, I am going to recommend the game. Everything that makes Rue Valley worth experiencing is there: beautiful art, good music, the performances, the story. What ultimately ends up missing is the game underneath living up to the premise sold in the demo. If choices actually mattering is your sole reason for looking at this game maybe temper expectations going in. I am also recommending the game because I want to see the dev supported, Rue Valley is a strong first outing and there's clearly a team here with a lot of passion, taste and the ability to craft a really special story, the underlying mechanics maybe just need to catch up slightly. I personally can't wait to see what they make next.

For one of the first times, I don't necessarily recommend this game to all players. The stats you choose at the start of the game are your stats throughout your entire gameplay- as you play there are little to no fluctuations to them. When you receive "stat checks" they feel arbitrary and out of place- with little meaning behind them. When you fail a check you can't always just go to the next time loop and redo it- which feels like it defeats the purpose of the time loop entirely. Why shouldn't I be able to attempt things another time, with higher odds, if I failed a previous outcome? It made the game feel slow, and made me feel like my actions during the game were pointless and frustrating. The game attempts to be a choices matter/adventure based story game, but falls short when you find yourself lost attempting the same dialogue options with little to no instructions on what to do next. There's no "hint" option, so within your 47 minutes of time you have to run around talking to different npc's hoping one of them gives you new dialogue options- or that you have enough time to drive to a new location- or you just restart the loop and try again. I wanted to like this a lot. I played through the whole game, got what I think is the "good"? Ending? But honestly, I can't really tell- literally none of the npc's get actual endings/none of them get resolutions to their stories. I think they could have made some sort of "post game" to wrap up what happens after the loop to tie up loose ends- because so much of it feels unfinished. Maybe some additional content will be released eventually- would give it another shot then.

Вместо игры я получил 15 часов психотерапии🤯

因为是轮回系的作品，场景与对话都是高度重复的，很容易让人失去耐心，因为根本不知道什么时候才能走出轮回。 如果是没有玩过这种类型的游戏，缺乏充分的心理准备的玩家，还是不要接触了。我觉得即便这作品的内涵足够优秀，迫于表现形式实在太洋葱了，我也没得耐心一层一层流着眼泪忍着熏人的气味剥开看。只能给差评

Игра приятная, последовательная, но имеющая неочевидные механики, которые могут существенным образом повлиять на сюжет. В целом очень душевная, резонирует с реальными чувствами. Если оценивать её с точки зрения морали и чувств - это сильное произведение.