Seeing there is no review yet for The Vale, I decided to write a short one. It is a first for me and English is not my native, so pardon potential mistakes and weird phrases :)
At the time of writing, The Vale is still on offer with Games with Gold and it is a very pleasant surprise for me. Even so very few people played it, so if you decide to give this game a chance after reading this text, I'll be pleased.
If you're like me and watch gameplay videos of games you've never heard about before deciding to start them, in this case you might think "what is this, a game about staring into an empty space?" But in this case, watching a video is useless. An interactive audiobook, that's how I would describe this game in two words.
Storywise, The Vale is set in a medieval fantasy land, where you play as blind, young princess Alex travelling the country with her companion to come back home. Nothing revolutionary, but gameplay itself is, at least for me, since I never played anything similar before. Game is made mainly for blind people so that's why you can't expect any graphics elements except menus and a map (but you don't need it, it is just a tool to confirm you want to travel to your next destination).
Controls are very well explained during early game, so no need to worry about them. You'll use mostly both sticks (moving, turning, in fights they serve as shield and a weapon - move them left, right or up in direction of an enemy). Also very important is RT to confirm every quest or an offer to do something you come across, if you want your 1000G in this game :)
This means that you rely all the time on sounds and voices and I have to say, devs made a great job with audio. Voice actors are professional actors and everything sounds as if you were there too. But what I have to stress, headphones or a good audio system is a must! First I tried to play normally on my stereo TV and it became annoying very soon. During "open world" moments or in fights, you have to listen on which side (left, right, straight) is something happening and it can be very difficult to do so with a standard stereo.
I'm praising this game so far so why didn't I give it 5 stars you ask? For me, one big complaint is a lack of subtitles or languages other than English (at least I didn't find any option to change it). Of course, if you're blind, you don't need subtitles, but what if you overhear something, you're not good in English or worse, you're deaf? In that case, bad luck.
Other than that, I don't see other cons. I didn't encounter any glitches, checkpoints are common and on easy setting, the game is a breeze. Also length of around 6-7 hours for completion is ideal for this type of game, I wasn't bored at all but at the same time, I felt that if the game was longer, it could be too much.
Achievement-wise, basically the only thing to rememeber is to accept everything you come across and in towns, double check you met everyone there is before opening your map and continuing.
All and all, what I wanted to say is that if you're on a fence - try or not try - definitely give it a go. Even if it is on sale later, it's worth a buy!
4.0