Review Comic for the game Monument Valley 3.

Page 1

Review: Monument Valley 3

Two Stars out of Five

Developer: ustwo games.

Reviewed by Dan McAlister

Panel 1:

Noor’s world is one of twisted walkways and antigravity towers.

Image: A ghostly figure stands atop a small platform, with a red moon behind her. Surrounding that platform is a tower whose floor and ceiling bend at strange angles. Just below the ghost is Noor, a simply illustrated girl in a purple an pink dress, holding a staff.

Panel 2:

As it crumbles around her, she is told to seek another way. Something different from what came before.

Image: The ghost sends Noor away with a gesture, and Noor starts running as rocks fall into the dark waters behind her.

Panel 3:

She does not.

Image: Noor looks back as rocks continue to fall.

Page 2:

Panel 1:

Monument Valley 3 is a narrative puzzle game. You control Noor, a new lighthouse keeper tasked with rebuilding her community after disaster tears it apart.

Image: Noor slumps on a stone walkway connected to a crumbled lighthouse sitting atop white waters, set against a white sky. A golden lotus floats in the waters before her.

Panel 2:

Like previous games in the series, this means using cranks and moveable blocks to navigate illusory ruins.

Image: Noor stands on a structures whose floor, ceiling, and walls intersect in impossible ways. Her staff glows as a platform draws closer to her.

Panel 3:

Every level is gorgeous, beguiling in its clean, neat impossibility.

Image: The platform from the previous panel meets the floor where Noor stands with a “Clonk!!”

Panel 4:

But in play, mystery collapses into a series of straightforward paths.

Image: Noor crosses onto the platform.

Page 3:

Panel 1:

The game isn’t lacking for intriguing set-pieces, but they only fit together in so many ways.

Image: Noor holds a two puzzle pieces, one in each hand.

Panel 2:

A twisted bridge doesn’t need to be possible to be understood.

Image: A bridge twists through space. Noor stands on the side of it, unaffected by normal gravity.

Panel 3:

I was never left wondering how I would get past a challenge. I didn’t have to. The answer would always reveal itself within a few seconds of poking at the screen.

Image: Noor stands on a now-straight bridge, angled upward and out of the panel.

Panel 4:

These levels speak to a specific kind of design cleverness. One that is impressive in how each level is constructed…

Image: The bridge from the previous panel leads into an amorphous portal, which Noor walks through. She and the bridge both emerge from another portal, and she looks back at where she came from.

Panel 5:

…but doesn’t ask for your thought in return. There is much that dazzles, but very little to consider.

Image: Noor emerges from another portal, as she and the bridge continue off in a new direction, one that crosses her old bridge.

Page 4:

Panel 1:

I appreciate the beauty here, the cleverness. I had two moments where I said “Wow” aloud, to an empty room.

Image: Close up of a lily held in Noor’s hands.

Panel 2:

But I’ve played the prequels. I’ve been to this valley before. I remember being impressed, and not much else.

Image: The lily now rests on a small stone pedestal before the feet of a statues. Noor is on her hands and knees before the lily.

Panel 3:

Monument Valley 3 builds to little to linger in your mind, especially in light of its too-similar predecessors. Instead of finding a new way forward, it retreads a familiar path.

Image: The lily is shown to be resting in between statues of the previous games’ protagonists. Noor walks away from the scene.