While everybody today is focused on improving the graphics further or capitalizing on the love for pixelated styles, one studio has dared to attempt to make a game with nothing to see. In fact, Falling Squirrel has created The Vale specifically for those who are sight-impaired to enjoy a game of their own. It is interesting to see this type of game approached in modern gaming days and I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t been done before. I can see this being the first game of a new genre.
Gameplay
From the initial load of the game, you can already hear how well they set it up for those who are blind and wish to play video games. Everything and every action is voiced in full with nothing missed. When you first load up it tells you the game name and what to press, then it goes to the menu and tells you how to move around it. From here it lists off each of the menu selections that you choose and this pattern continues through every aspect including options, controls, and selecting the difficulty when starting the game itself.
There is a good back-and-forth in the games set up where you are given the story and then sent back to the days of training to learn how to play. You start off in a carriage, just before an attack where things go south. Then you go to a training that tells you how to do the first set of actions. Back to the story to put what you just learned into play and then back to training to learn the next aspect. This continues until you learn how to fight, block, guide yourself, and more.
The way they have it set up is that you HAVE TO USE HEADPHONES. This is MANDATORY because you will need to listen to where the enemies are around you. The screen is literally black – you are blind to your surroundings. You can hear whether sounds are coming from behind your, either side, or in front of you, which in turn is how you know where to swing your sword, block an incoming attack, avoid detection from enemies, and so on.
Yes, this is an in-game screenshot.
Fighting itself is actually rather easy, but that could just be because it was the demo and they expect the people to be playing this game to be new to the gaming world. When under attack it could be up to three enemies and you typically get attacked one at a time, although the spacing of these attacks vary. How you decide to fight is up to you as you can swing before they land the blow or block then counter. They do a loud build up before attacking, so you always know it is coming.
Most interesting about the game is when you need to be stealthy or guide yourself through the village. You must use the sounds around you to figure out where to go or to stay out of sight. This ranges from chains rattling, people muttering, animal noises, and so much more. They can sometimes bunch up, so this will be a great chance for players to see how well their listening skills really are.
Graphics and Sounds
There are no graphics. You can see little dots on the screen that indicates yellow for outside daytime and blue for outside night time / inside. They also show you walking past them, but these don’t really count as graphics. There is nothing to see the entire game. It is the same experience if you close your eyes during the playthrough.
Sound effects are where it is all at. There is very subtle music during certain moments, but the majority of the game is about listening to your surroundings and figuring out where you need to go or what you need to avoid. This game is all about the sounds and they put a lot of detail in this matter with excellent voice acting and sound quality.
Expectations
While I understand this game is for the blind and new gamers, I would like to see a difficulty that is actually challenging to those more attuned to playing games. I tried the demo on the Hard difficulty and it still seemed pretty tame. It would be interesting to see aspects like shorter notices of where the attacks are coming from and easier detection by enemies for those that enjoy a challenge. You have the option to change the difficulty at any moment in-game, so I don’t see why not push players?
The campaign they have set up seems to be a long and challenging one. There was a hint to a foresight ability from the protagonist and a mention of magic in the controls, but neither of these were expanded upon in the demo. I look forward to seeing what they are going to do with this.
Conclusion
The Vale is doing something that should have been done a long time ago. Bringing a new gaming style to players with a disability or impairment is always a welcomed sight. The demo was pretty entertaining, although rather simple difficulty wise. I hope to see this come to fruition and that they are able to bring it to a level where players of all skill levels, with or without vision, can enjoy.
