The Vale: Shadow of the Crown Review – An Audio-Based Action Adventure Game

Curious Arcade

Exploring the world of immersive audio gaming with The Vale: Shadow of the Crown.

The Vale places you in the shoes of blind princess Alex. Your father is dead. Your brother has been crowned the new king. Meanwhile, you are being whisked away to a small keep in the Borderlands, on the outskirts of the kingdom. That is until your caravan is attacked by an invading army. From there you find yourself alone. But not for long. This is a heroine’s journey, set in a medieval fantasy realm brimming with colourful places and characters. Except the colours are left largely to your imagination.

Similarly to the blind swordsman Zatoichi, you must heighten your sense of hearing in order to successfully navigate the realm. This one is full of vicious animals, monsters, and tribal warriors. Being able to pinpoint the position of your enemy is vital for combat. The creaking of armour, the snarling of a wolf, the grunting of a soldier. The sound of feet shuffling around you in a quarter-circle. You must listen before you act, whether it be with words, a shield, or a sword.

What makes The Vale special is not so much the individual elements as the manner in which they are presented. A routine rat-hunting mission gains a new dimension in the world of audio-based gaming. Skulking across a squelchy cellar floor, you must listen out for the sound of squeaking and gnawing to locate each individual rat, before striking out in their direction with a shovel. Traditional role-playing missions gain a new level of intimacy, as you are forced to slow down, and make note of your surroundings, before making a move. At the same time, the immersive audio places you right in the centre of the action.

The Vale is built for the visually impaired in mind, but it can be enjoyed by sighted players too. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as an interactive radio play. The voice-acting, sound effects, and music are of the same quality you would expect from a top-tier radio drama. But the binaural audio adds an immersive quality, more so because the audio reacts in real-time to the player’s movements. Which is all to say that playing The Vale for the first time is like experiencing a brand new type of videogame, made up of elements that are at once strange and familiar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro

0:49 Development

1:30 Story

2:29 Gameplay

5:49 World

7:13 Likes

8:05 Dislikes

9:03 Conclusion

#TheVale #Audio #Gaming