Have You Played... A Valley Without Wind?

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Have You Played… A Valley Without Wind?No, see, you’re LOOKING for the valley

No, see, you’re LOOKING for the valley

Have You Played?is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.You have a game or two like this, in your mind somewhere. It lurks. You wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a particularly good game, or even your favourite. You might even forget it exists for long periods. But occasionally, perhaps twice a year, or every two or three years, you get an unaccountable craving to play it again.That’s whatA Valley Without Windis to me.Arcen released AVWW, a procedurally generated open-world adventure, in 2012, to a largely disappointing reception. Acknowledging player feedback, they put it through major revisionsthroughout the following months. Barely a year later, theyreleased a sequelthat tried putting the same ideas together in a new configuration, and even bundled the two games in together for free, as a gesture to players who were still unsatisfied. I barely touched that one (although I’m listening to its lovelytitle musicright now), but this complicated journey is emblematic of what a strange gameA Valley Without Windis.Like most of their games, it’sinterestingand bold enough to try unusual things. But where, say,Bionic Duesjust needed some time and adjustment of habits on the part of the player to show its greatness, Valley never got there for most players. It just didn’t quite come together.And yet I get a powerful urge to play it every few years, have a solid, comforting time with it for a couple of weeks, and then put it back in its box. I don’t even know why I kinda like it, I just do.

Have You Played?is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.You have a game or two like this, in your mind somewhere. It lurks. You wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a particularly good game, or even your favourite. You might even forget it exists for long periods. But occasionally, perhaps twice a year, or every two or three years, you get an unaccountable craving to play it again.That’s whatA Valley Without Windis to me.Arcen released AVWW, a procedurally generated open-world adventure, in 2012, to a largely disappointing reception. Acknowledging player feedback, they put it through major revisionsthroughout the following months. Barely a year later, theyreleased a sequelthat tried putting the same ideas together in a new configuration, and even bundled the two games in together for free, as a gesture to players who were still unsatisfied. I barely touched that one (although I’m listening to its lovelytitle musicright now), but this complicated journey is emblematic of what a strange gameA Valley Without Windis.Like most of their games, it’sinterestingand bold enough to try unusual things. But where, say,Bionic Duesjust needed some time and adjustment of habits on the part of the player to show its greatness, Valley never got there for most players. It just didn’t quite come together.And yet I get a powerful urge to play it every few years, have a solid, comforting time with it for a couple of weeks, and then put it back in its box. I don’t even know why I kinda like it, I just do.

You have a game or two like this, in your mind somewhere. It lurks. You wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a particularly good game, or even your favourite. You might even forget it exists for long periods. But occasionally, perhaps twice a year, or every two or three years, you get an unaccountable craving to play it again.

That’s whatA Valley Without Windis to me.

Arcen released AVWW, a procedurally generated open-world adventure, in 2012, to a largely disappointing reception. Acknowledging player feedback, they put it through major revisionsthroughout the following months. Barely a year later, theyreleased a sequelthat tried putting the same ideas together in a new configuration, and even bundled the two games in together for free, as a gesture to players who were still unsatisfied. I barely touched that one (although I’m listening to its lovelytitle musicright now), but this complicated journey is emblematic of what a strange gameA Valley Without Windis.

Like most of their games, it’sinterestingand bold enough to try unusual things. But where, say,Bionic Duesjust needed some time and adjustment of habits on the part of the player to show its greatness, Valley never got there for most players. It just didn’t quite come together.

And yet I get a powerful urge to play it every few years, have a solid, comforting time with it for a couple of weeks, and then put it back in its box. I don’t even know why I kinda like it, I just do.