A Valley Without Wind Demo

Original indie productions can always surprise you, but they can also let you down quite quickly, depending on how prepared you are to be disappointed. However, when they get it right, they seem to be even more successful than triple-A productions, such was the case with titles like Minecraft, or many other similar games developed by small-time studios.

A Valley Without Wind is an interesting project and it aims to combine a variety of curious elements into the same pot, including platforming, role-playing, crafting, exploration, and even perma-death. Moreover, everything takes place in a magical world, where monsters and various other nefarious creatures are constantly on the lookout for easy prey.

To begin with, you are allowed to choose a character and give him/her a name, although as the game itself warns you, do not get too attached to it. Death is certain, although you can prolong the inevitable more and more as you learn to play better. You can also build a base for yourself and use it to work together with other NPCs in order to explore the world and kill everything that stands in your way.

When you are not jumping from ledge to ledge and exploring the environments, you can use the items from your inventory to craft various useful items, including powerful weapons. Magic can also come in handy during combat, because a lot of the enemies you stumble into might prove to be resistant to certain elements, or even immune to some spells altogether.

Although it doesn’t look bad, the game’s 2D graphics engine is not very pretty either, mostly because it doesn’t handle details very well. Hence, while the levels as a whole do look quite majestic and sometimes even beautiful, the smaller objects are not always discernible and neither are the characters that appear on screen. The graphics are good enough for the genre, however, so they shouldn’t bug you too much anyway.

All things considered, A Valley Without Wind is quite the curious contraption, so you should consider giving it a chance. However, do not expect too much either, because originality in indie productions usually comes at a pretty high price.