Sleeping Valley

Sleeping Valley

Absolute crap. It’s not megacrap - it’s playable - but it’s definitely NOT enjoyable. The controls are slippery on keyboard and controller, there’s no way to navigate the game menu with a controller (and there isn’t much need to do that, UNLESS you die and need to click the restart button on the menu. The main character doesn’t have a sprite for turning - it’s like a 2D paper model you’re just guiding along a flat path, like the cheapest puppet show in the world. The collision boxes for the numerous hazards are iffy, there’s nothing new offered by this “platformer” (I’m allowing this label out of great generosity), and every time you die, there’s a BALLOON POPPING NOISE. And no, the protagonist does not swell up and pop - he just falls to pieces at his joints in a fake paper puppet way.

Real player with 5.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Abstract Casual Games.


Remember Limbo? That unsettling artistic platformer that won the hearts and minds of players everywhere, the game widely considered to be one of the Indie Darlings?

How about a discount Fisher Price version of that?

Much like Limbo you start out in as a big headed child, (?) thing in a big scary world while looking for some sort of female creature (at least I assume it is female but generic creepy child laugher can fool anyone’s perception of gender) for no good reason you chase after the stock creepy monster creature in the hope of something. I am going to be honest, I did not finish this game because of the game breaking (more on that later) so I don’t know if there is any reason for us to find the monster girl or that the child is in fact our sister or our mum but story is really underwhelming to nonexistent. I would not be too mean and claim there is no effort in trying visual storytelling with the industrial setting and the corpses of other big headed robots similar to the one we are playing littering the background; one might think that White Dog was going for some sort of dehumanising theme which can be the case. The problem is, if that were the case it is totally lost as the story is not made explicit enough and the visuals only give shallow insight, unless it gets better. ( I really doubt it does to be honest) I really don’t think the story, if any is well told or expressed. That does not mean the game is bad per say (expect that it is) if the gameplay is good.

Real player with 2.2 hrs in game

Sleeping Valley on Steam