Be honest, being able to run and jump with ease, at tremendous speeds and as high as you possibly can, was something each of us pretended we could do as kids, so a game that allows that experience was always going to be something I wanted to play, by the end of my trip through this valley though, was it something akin to childlike wonder, or was it better in my imagination.

Valley has you stepping into the boots of an explorer looking for something called the Lifeseed, a massive seed that has the power to grant the wish of anyone who finds it, but it only appears every ten thousand years or so. After failing to raft into the Rocky Mountains, the explorer soon finds a large crate and contained within is the L.E.A.F Suit, which without any thought, they put on and then the game begins in earnest. As you move forward on the hunt for the seed, more things about the suit and how it came to be are revealed, the end of it all is that the seed is powering a machine, which is working with a second machine, to slowly drain life from the valley and if left unchecked, could destroy it and more.

The story takes a very predictable route, but no-one is playing a game about a supersuit for story, they want to use the powers and get around as fast as they can. The game introduces you to powers in a very slow manner, giving you plenty of time to adjust to one, before it thinks of giving you another one. The first one you have to speed and height, which work in tandem together, allowing you to clear large gaps, and large amounts of ground with minimal effort. Holding down the left trigger sees running being the focus and thankfully it only takes a short distance for the speed to reach its top speed, with this system in place, even if you have a little space before a jump, you can clear it with ease. Jumping of course is dependent on the speed in which you move, should you walk, your jump height will be quite low, compared to if you are running at full speed.

The game also begins to introduce you to new mechanics, a grapple hook, double jump and what not, though they are called other things in the game, their functions are the same as above. As you discover more crates that contain these upgrades, more and more movement abilities combine, to allow for some really incredible gameplay. There are not a lot of times when you have to use more than two different upgrades at once but being able to adapt to each situation is critical if you want to discover all the valley has to offer. There are a couple of times when you can run along old train tracks, which when you connect to the rail, supercharges your suit and propels you forwards, but this highlights a flaw with the game.

Now I am not sure if this because of the Switch, or the game, but running at full speed was never simple, or easy as making turns would bleed any speed off, as if you had hit a giant wall and then when you add in that the game requires a lot of turns and jumps at times in quick succession, it feels as if the game is slowing you down a lot. The other issue the gameplay has is the death system, as it is possible to die, but doing so respawns you a little ways back, at the cost of trees and other life in the valley. As your suit requires energy to power itself, you can collect it from orbs that are floating around on the ground, or through packets of power left over in little boxes but dying has the suit draw enough power to keep you alive, which does not come from the same reserves. Using any ability, other than running or jumping, uses up one segment of suit power on the gauge and collecting orbs refills that, the issue is that when you respawn and see trees dying around you, you can use that suit power to bring them back to life. The message is clear, your actions have an impact on the world around you, but it is odd that the power you collect and spend with your suits abilities, is not the same that you use for coming back to life.

Life though is funny that way, one thing that I did like though, were the visuals, at least for the most part, the game sports a look that has the environment being the star, but on Switch at least, the game just can’t support that vision. There are a lot of times when the game looks impressive, the locations feel authentic, but the problem is that there is so much pop-in, it distracts from anything else you see on the screen. Small things like flowers to large things like buildings and trees only show up inside of a set radius from the player character and once outside of that radius, they just vanish, which once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The other issue comes from the speed at which you move, combine that with pop-in and you get an even worse effect, as there were a number of times when the game would just not be ready for me and have to load in all sorts of assets, such as the ground once I had arrived.

On the audio side of things, there are some things to be quite excited for and somethings to not want to worry about, most of the voice acting is really well done and while the two people that you hear the most via recordings are great, one falls into cheesy villain quite easily, and the remaining dialogue you hear, is quite bland. Hearing a voice that could easily be for a 20 something year old female, as the alert system for a military base in the 40’s is just so out of place, it removed me from the experience completely. Thankfully, there is a blessing among blessings here and that is the score, which has been lauded for its amazingness in the past and it is fully deserving, as there are times when you are moving at speed, the games visuals bleed away, just to leave you listening to the score, whilst running free, the combination is just incredible.

Valley is a game that is easy to suggest for a playthrough, its arrival on Switch means that it is just about everywhere now and giving yourself a few hours to enjoy it is something you should do. The visuals issues though, especially on Switch, do make it hard to recommended as they result in the experience becoming more broken than anything and it removes you from the game. While the voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, the score is incredible, but of course, getting to run around and jump like superman, who could honestly pass that up.

Thanks to Blue Isle Studio for supplying the game for review