The main question of Monument Valley (review)

I do not know if an art installation can be called a game.

Monument Valley takes place in an hour, at first it causes a strange feeling of misunderstanding, and then it gives catharsis. It is somewhat reminiscent of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, in which the genre also faded into the background.

It's not about a puzzle, it's about an adventure into another world, a magical feeling without five minutes, if you want — a magical atmosphere, which is given by the ustwo project, which previously created custom applications.

From a gaming point of view, Monument Valley is akin to a perfume bottle. It looks beautiful, smells delicious, it's not worth drinking. Let the game formally be attributed to puzzles: it is not so easy to figure out how to drag the princess to the right door or button. But, in fact, there is no challenge in the project. The player only needs to lazily poke at the screen, periodically activating the mechanisms in the right sequence.

Is this a problem for Monument Valley?

No.

The project is the very case when you should not start talking about money, monetization, user cohorts, in general, about business. And at the same time, it's not about mechanics and gameplay. It's somewhere above the first and second. Monument Valley — for its own sake: beautiful, mysterious, touching. That's why it's art.

But whether it can be called a game, I don't know. To me, he's something else.

P.S. The game was not developed by indie, but by quite a successful and large team, which, apparently, just wanted to make it "beautiful".