A Valley Without Wind 2 Review

The winds are ever changing and it’s time to free the land of a demonic presence. A Valley Without Wind 2 is from the Arcen Games, the creators of AI War, and it presents the player player with a unique blend of turn based strategy combined with a side-scrolling experience. So, is this valley easy to cross or will gamers get the wind knocked out of them before they can begin to take their first step?

The Good

Magic can be a great tool: Throughout the game you will be able to unlock different levels of magic. Each magic tier grants you an entirely new set of magic abilities. There are numerous combinations of how each magic ability is used since there are 3 main attacks for each magic ability you select. Sometimes you will find that you have equipped a lighting bolt that fires randomly in front of you, an exploding time bomb of magic, a fast traveling ball of fire, and much more as the list continues to grow as you explore more areas of the world.

If I can throw fireballs you can too: Valley actually supports 2-8 players in Coop. So, you can traverse the world with your friends and try to purify the area before it’s too late.

That’s quite an engaging song I hear: The music in this game is quite appealing and dynamic. Each level set has their own unique song and it really blends well with the world around you.

What an interesting combination: The game is a mixture of turn based strategy and a side scrolling platformer. In the world map you need to watch your enemies as they could wipe out your fellow resistance members at any turn. In addition, you must choose to either level up, explore already purified areas for additional resources, build structures, or progress and destroy wind generators. This game can feel like a race between you and your opponant.

Every time you move forward and destroy a wind generator it makes monsters more difficult and moves a turn which can generate more monsters on your world map. So, you need to level up as fast as you can and strategize your moves.

Be careful and watch your step: Valley 2 allows you to adjust the game difficulty for both the strategic and platformer elements of the game. So, you can cater the game to your expertise. Just be warned if you aren’t careful enough it could be game over sooner than you think.

Randomly Generated Worlds at your finger tips: Every time you start over the world is randomly generated. This gives the player new opportunities to approach the game in a different direction and adds some replayability into the mix.

The Bad

Needs a bit more animated fluidity: You have a great amount of control over your character, but the game can feel like it is lacking some transition animations at times. For example, when you walk forward and fire you just see the walking animation with the magic effects popping out. Another instance is when you initially jump you do see an animation, but when you start to fire and jump it displays the character as if he was standing on the ground firing. So, some additional 2D artwork would have been nice in some areas to fill these gaps and provide a slightly more fluid appearance.

I hope I don’t break my mouse/ controller: When you lose all of your resistance members that’s it, game over. There is a feature to back up your game, but perhaps it would have been nice if there was some sort of auto save to help you along. If you don’t manually back up your stuff you may find yourself a bit frustrated in knowing you have to start all over again.

A bit repetitive: The Valley can get a bit repetitive at times. You will find yourself doing the main basic tasks, which include leveling, building, exploring, and avoiding monsters on the world map over and over again. The game can be outright addictive and have you playing hours at a time straight through, but at the same time the formula can be a tad exhausting once you get to that point.

Conclusion

If you are a fan of turn based strategy games and side scrollers than this is the game for you. Valley presents the player with a unique combination that can prove challenging depending on what difficulty you choose. When I was playing A Valley Without Wind 2 I really had a sense of that old school feeling that brought me back to the early to late 90s, and that’s a good thing. However, there are some drawbacks, the game did get a bit repetitive at times, the 2D transitions could have been a bit better, and I would have liked to have seen some sort of auto save feature. Overall, if you want to combine two genres and challenge yourself with a few friends you should not pass up A Valley Without Wind 2.

A Valley Without Wind 2 Review by FacTor-X