Monument Valley is a relaxing puzzle mobile game from ustwo studio where you play as Ida, who must solve the monument puzzles to unlock her story. From the outside, it looks like a very simple game, but there is much more to it once you begin playing.
You play as Ida, a girl wandering the valley of monuments. The valley has been left uninhabited, and you’re going to learn why while solving these puzzles.
If you’ve read other reviews of mine, you’ll know that I love art in games. And Monument Valley has some really stunning and adorable art in it, which is a big bonus. The art also really plays a significant part in the story because it sets the tone of the scenes. And the art really lends itself beautifully to the puzzles.
Speaking of the puzzles, I was genuinely surprised by how good the puzzles are. They look so simple at first, but they get harder as you play but you also get better at them as you play which is nice. They are very perspective based, where you have to turn monuments in certain ways to line up paths, change the plane that Ida walks on, and alter your view of the scene. Once you pick up on how perspective plays a huge part in these puzzles, you really start to enjoy how well done these puzzles are made.
There is a full story to this game as well, which I was not expecting. I thought it was just going to be puzzle after puzzle with no real reason behind it, but the story is actually very deep and beautiful. I don’t want to spoil the story, because I think that is truly the cherry on top of a beautiful game and I think you really should play this game yourself.
This is a very short game. It’s divided into chapters, with ten chapters total and each chapter has a few puzzles and pieces of a story. It took me maybe an hour to complete it in full. This game is also not free, which is 100% fine and absolutely worth the cost with how beautiful and well-done it is. I know people complain about when mobile games are not free, but if you want games of this quality on mobile, pay for them.
This game looks so simple and unexciting, but it truly is a gem and I enjoyed it greatly. There are additional puzzles and a special story called Ida’s Dream that you can access and play as well, which really help add to the value. There is also a sequel that I plan on checking out with a different story.
Monument Valley is available on iOS and Google Play and is $3.99.
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Monument Valley is gorgeous – I had it downloaded a few years ago but I think I got stuck and stopped playing. I didn’t realise that there’s a story to it, I think I’ll give it another go!