A Valley Without Wind PC
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 42 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 42
  3. Negative: 12 out of 42

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  1. andrew77
    Aug 16, 2012
    2
    I really wanted to like A Valley without wind but after about 12 hours I just had to call it quits. It doesn't go anywhere other then the same things over and over. I tried out a couple things and learned some stuff that wasn't in (but should have been in) the big whopping encyclopedia, but was still stuck trying to earn money and keep my people happy and well, it felt like a super cheap version of Terraria.… Expand
  2. Cygon
    Aug 16, 2012
    1
    Seeing this game mentioned as an insider's tip several times and reading about how you could build your own settlements, I decided to try it for myself, hoping that it would surprise me with depth or atmosphere. No such luck:

    The graphics look like a patchwork gallery of placeholder art. I wouldn't mind SNES-style graphics or cartoon characters at all, but in this case, nothing fits tog    ether and it looks like the artist had taken random 3D models and rendered them into sprites for the characters, photographed some trees and painted some houses in Photoshop.

    As I tried to ignore the off-putting graphics patchwork, I looked for interesting gameplay. Again, the game had nothing at all to offer. Run around, kill ever-repeating randomly placed enemies. Sometimes you encounter buildings, which you can enter. Inside, several stories with rooms full of more the same enemies. Five houses later, having shot the same few enemies in dozens of randomly-generated rooms, all you can think is: "Kill. Me. Now."

    So where is the game's motivation? Is it the story? Nope, there is none. You can't even complete the game as you'll walk over one randomly generated world or boredom after the next forever. Leveling? Nothing motivating here, just a simplistic, uninteresting number play. Building settlements? Oh great, more pointless houses to spent time walking around in.

    After giving this game several hours of my time, which have all been spent in utter boredom, I asked myself why I'm doing this for the final time and I just shrugged and deleted it. It's not even horrible enough to leave a bad taste... it's only empty, pointless and forgettable.    … Expand
  3. RectalTerror
    Jun 24, 2012
    1
    Seeing the (weird) hype around this game, I had to try out the demo, because I couldn't understand it from screenshots alone, as it's honestly the most horrible thing I ever saw, there are no words to describe how awful this game looks. There is nothing retro about it, it simply looks like a bunch of random images mixed together with absolutely no taste. I love retro pixel art and this is totally nothing like it, unlike what some are pretending when talking about this game.

    So I thought, maybe the game is an undercover gem, maybe the gameplay is great? But no, it's as horrible as the graphics, the randomness only help making the game even more boring. It's also no metroidvania as some pretend, as a metroidvania relies on carefully, human-crafted levels, and this can't work with random-generated levels.

    I also don't understand how Steam let this pass, if this meets their quality requirement, it means it must be pretty low. So this game looks bad and is bad, but I encourage you to try out the demo to see for yourself. I give 1 "for the effort", though (but I see some weren't as nice). But IMHO, there are styles a programmer can choose from when he's not an artist.    … Expand
  4. paramime
    May 15, 2012
    2
    I invested in this game at alpha level believing i was getting a good deal but this was a horrible waste of time and money. The game places the player in the role of a chosen one called the glyph bearer who explores randomly generated 2d levels, casting dull spells and killing enemies with no intelligence, just character levels. The levels are repetitive and bland, repeating the same basic gameplay over and over. If you're looking for a 2d game try Trine or Trine 2 or even braid for a better experience. Don't waste your time with this.… Expand
  5. Tritonio
    May 14, 2012
    0
    I tried the trial and got tired after like 20 minutes of gameplay which were no fun at all. The graphics are terrible by any standard even for someone that likes retro games like me. The camera movement is spasmodic and need a little smoothing too. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
  6. DiscOH
    May 2, 2012
    0
    The game promised customization and a game that adapts to your play style. Unfortunately, what the game actually delivers on is an endless cycle of exploring levels that differ only by changing the background and re-skinning mobs with identical AI. There are no customization choices, only recolors of spells that do essentially the same thing. There are no choices in character progression other than increasing your health or increasing your damage (losing all your health results in permanent death though, so this is really a non option). Its hard to put into words just how poorly this game was designed.

    A shining example of what not to do.    … Expand
  7. Mesona
    May 2, 2012
    2
    This has to be, by far, the worst game I've played. I don't know how other players have reviewed it above a five, and even then, that's being generous. Not only is this game not fun to play, it actively punishes people for playing multiplayer. It utilizes a loot system (if you can even call it that) where whoever picks up an item first keeps it. Without the ability to drop items, or even tell what many of them are before picking them up, it creates frustration between even the most well meaning players. Except that some items don't function this way, and will stay on the ground for other players to pick up. And some are shared amongst all the players when picked up.

    Enemies also scale proportionally to the number of players in such a manner that additional players don't actually contribute significantly more damage to fights. The graphics are terrible, the animations are absolute **** and the audio sounds like what you would expect to hear as Cthulu awakens and attempts to turn the world towards insanity and chaos. The in game audio options also don't work, so if you can't isolate and mute the application's sound, then you'll stop playing even quicker than I did (it's a good thing, trust me).

    I really wanted to like this game. I was looking for something that had the cooperative feel and exploration aspect of Terraria and Minecraft, but this has nothing. Attrocious sound, terrible gameplay (I don't know what these people talking about strategy are referring to, Energy Orb has almost 2x the damage per mana and one of the highest DPS in the game, which makes it the best ability even against enemies with resistance to it, and the AI is absolutely easy to abuse garbage), and a total lack of direction or plot. A game can exist without direction OR without plot, but not without both.

    After nearly five hours of hoping this game would change, of reading the forums and seeing other players with similar complaints get flamed out for "playing wrong," I can see absolutely no redeeming qualities in this game. And the developers have the galls to charge money for this waste of time. The only reasons I gave this game a 2 over a 0 is because no one takes 1 or 0 reviews seriously, but also because this game is a PERFECT example of **** design that might, some day, be used in a classroom as what NOT to do.

    This doesn't even cover the awful minimap, how the core design of random generation is flawed, the unintuitive and clunky menus, and the dozen other major flaws with the game. Trust me, stay away from this game. A Valley Without Wind might have potential in a year or two, but by then I will have forgotten about it and be playing far superior free flash games.    … Expand
  8. Hagop
    Apr 27, 2012
    4
    This looks like it should be so much fun, but it never seems to happen. I keep playing it longer and longer hopping I that the game is just a slow starter, but it does not seem to ever get better. Maybe like Terraria they will release a big patch in a year or so that will make the game truly fun. So much potential that just never goes any where.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 12
  3. Negative: 2 out of 12
  1. Gaming Nexus
    Jul 17, 2012
    65
    Valley lacked any redeeming fun factor to make up for the time I spent playing the game. While the game offers plenty of opportunity to explore a wide world, there is no real story that explains where you are going or where you are.
    Read full review
  2. PC Gamer
    Jun 19, 2012
    29
    A hideous collage of unconsidered platforming and vapid combat in a procedural world bleached of meaning. [Aug 2012, p.70]
  3. PC PowerPlay
    May 30, 2012
    50
    Don't hope to be blown away. Little stirs in this valley. [June 2012, p.56]
See all critic reviews »