Critical Play: Puzzles

Monument Valley is a beautifully designed puzzle game by Ustwo Games. I was initially fascinated by the visual aesthetics of the game. The game relies on optical illusions and incredible geometries to enhance the puzzles. The visuals are deeply integrated with the mechanics of gameplay, design themes and narrative which creates a rich, pleasant and institutive experience.

Monument Valley does an excellent job with combining basic motions with impossible geometry to encourage gameplay and exploration. Most of the game relies on simple sliding or rotation. Yet despite this reliance on basic actions, the novelty comes from the optical illusions in the game.

I enjoyed how every stage has an underlying theme, involves similar actions, and builds off of the previous level. However, each stage is also distinct enough to increase in difficulty and introduce new elements to the game to keep the perfect level of challenge. I loved exploring each new level to uncover new possibilities for movements and actions.

Despite this game following the classic structure of sequential stages, Monument Valley adds a bit of narrative and we follow the arc of Ida. This narrative makes the game more cohesive and provides motive to move the game along without distracting from enjoying the fundamental aspects of the puzzle. Overall, Monument Valley was a wonderful game that I hope to emulate in our final project.