Valley

Absolutely breathtaking.
An incredible experience with gorgeous visuals, superb movement and traversal, wonderful music, and a fascinating story.
Honestly one of the best games I've played in a hot minute, and one I can't recommend enough, go give this a try, you won't regret it.

Valley is a first-person 3d platformer and parkour game. There's a little shooting later on, not really difficult, but that's not the focus of the game. Great running and jumping. Can be exhilirating when you go at full speed and jump high and far. Beautiful in the outside areas. Acceptable but too dark in the inside areas. Decent level design overall but with lusterless lighting. Would have benefitted from ray tracing or at least more dynamic lighting. I liked the upgrade progression. It lacked variety in terms of chest contents and enemies, but again, fighting was secondary. The gimmick of draining or giving life to trees and animals was novel and nice. Game could be pretty short if you rush through without exploring.

First things first
Launching Valley for the first time was pretty unwelcoming. The Game started on my second monitor by default and had no ingame menu to change keybinds. It didnt help that the developers have chosen the most obnoxious sound possible whenever you hover over options in the menu. I've googled possible fixes for quite some time before almost giving up. Then i noticed the sticky post in the discussion hub. When you launch the game via steam library instead of the desktop icon, you can select the "Launch Controller Layout Tool" which helped me fix the wrong monitor issue aswell as rebinding my keys. There you can change the resolution aswell. Little advice if you try to remap mouse left- or rightclick, you have to click on the newly opened window for it to register (seems to be a Unity bug). I'm glad i pulled through tho because the game itself was surprisingly fun
Valley
You play as a nameless Archeologist that gets washed ashore on a lonely island. As you delve deeper you'll notice that the place you're at is strange to say the least. Early on, you'll come across a WW2 military vehicle with a chest containing the so called L.E.A.F suit, an experimental body device originally created to revolutionize warfare and create the "super soldier". It's main function besides improved movement is the ability to give and take life with the stored energy of your suit. To fuel your suit, you can run over little orbs/wisps, the lifeforce of the Valley, or drain life from trees or animals you come across, killing them in the process. If you die by falling in the water, you'll be ressurected at the cost of the Valleys lifeforce. Dying too often will destroy the Valley so in order to prevent that from happening you can revive dead trees or animals to restore the Valleys health again. In my opinion a very interesting way to approach the interplay between the player and the environment, it's beautifully connected. The Story is told by old audio tapes from scientists that used to work in the Valley. Additionally you can find notes in chests or scattered around for more Lore
In essence, Valley is a first person platformer. While beeing linear for the most part, there are some areas that invite you to explore. As you progress in the game, you'll find upgrades for your L.E.A.F suit like the ability to double jump, a grappling hook and the Jesus Mod that lets you traverse over water for a short period of time. The leveldesign and the pacing is great as you gradually discover new stuff that builds on top of the games foundation. Controls are sharp and responsive and movement feels great. The music is beautiful and sets the mood perfectly. Graphics are good for a 10y old game and they did a great job at creating some stunning moments when you leave a close and narrow area to be greeted by a beautiful vast open plane. Using the grappling hook sends off strong attack on titan vibes and other levels offer highspeed traversals like in Sonic the hedgehog. In short: the levels are interesting.
Fighting is only a small portion of the game. The few enemies you encounter are starving creatures that you can pacify by giving them life with your suit. Don't let them hit you as it will slowly deplete your suit's energy. Along the way you'll find plenty of chests containing suit energy upgrades, acorns (to open secret doors) and artifacts that are needed to enter the ancient pyramid you'll visit later in the game. Most chests are visible in plain sight, but some require extensive search or revisiting early areas after unlocking suit upgrades.
Expect around 4.5-5h to finish the game, quite short but nontheless a fun experience i wholeheartedly recommend. After beating the game, you can revisit old areas and a message will inform you how many collectibles/upgrades are still up to be claimed. I followed a great steamguide that i highly recommend if you have trouble using the grappling hook or need help discovering remaining chests. It took me more or less 2.5h to revisit and collect everything in order to unlock all achievements.
Finally, the artwork shown in the endcredits is top notch and i can definitly say that:
Yes, Blue Isle Studios, i did really enjoy your little adventure game! :)

Honestly loved it, it was one of those games that even though its a little short its a masterpeice, the gameplay is fun, the raising and elding life aspect is neat and the movement is so satisfying. The game was well worth the money, would buy again happily! Bravo to the devs

Full Price: 8.5/10
Sale: 9.5/10
I can't stress how much fun this game is for how little money I paid for it. As I'm writing this review, this game has a 88% off sale for a measly 20.000VND (<1USD) and for less than a meal, you get a fantastic minimum 5-7 hours of just fun.
- Story -
In short, you're an adventurer who accidentally washed up and found this exosuit that provides you with superhuman movements and a quest to explore the secrets behind the suit and this valley. Overall, there's not much to praise or criticize with the story and it's delivery methods. It serves the game well enough so you won't get bored or confused but doesn't leave you with any mystery to uncover or deep rooted question or philosophy.
- Gameplay -
Smoother than bread and butter - at most points in the game. And it's *really* smooth on 100% completion, but I'm aware not everyone will seek it out. The enemies are easy enough to combat, except for the final boss. The map design was made for fast movements and sightseeing. There are frustrating areas but those are few and far between many breathtaking scenery that will make you unwilling to put the game down.
Edit: As of Feb 1st, 2026, having officially 100% the game. some noticeable cons include:
1. Poor Optimization: my Laptop can play much newer, more advanced games (e.g. Black Myth: Wukong with 60fps on Medium, 45fps on High) but struggled to keep over 80fps with Anti-Aliasing on.
2. Collectables: their placement, while plentiful and fun, have a minority placed at areas that forces you to slow down very unnaturally. There was a exceptionally great collectible placed near the end of the game however, forcing you to put your skills to the test, so all in all, some misses are permissible.
- Final Remarks -
I'd highly recommend getting this game on sale and just run around. Fantastic way to get a breath of fresh air.

interesting story, beautiful environments, fun easter eggs

Ultimately a "gotta go fast" game like this is useless if it doesn't have buoyancy, speed and momentum on its side, but Blue Isle Studios did nail it, and almost ten years(!) after release that feeling of floating fun holds up. Don't expect a great deal of creativity in your platforming, there's a strong linear path, and I made the mistake of exploring in an open area before I was supposed to unlock an ability to progress further.
Valley's pro-environmental theme about exploitative resource extraction is also pretty rote at this point, but it works for the game, and justifies stomping past a few beautiful areas and fun stages. What I would say is don't bother looking for any of the hidden unlocks, there are only two that make your energy management easier, but you get so much "running and jumping" fuel anyway that there's no need to care unless you're achievement hunting. Just have fun bouncing and sprinting along and you'll get three to four hours of good fun with a fairly relaxed story plodding away in the background.