The Vale: Shadow of The Crown Review

Gaming is a wonderous pastime. It allows us to relax from a stressful day at work, spend time with the family, or just appreciate and get lost in the creations of the many developers that have spent months creating some of the most intricate and expansive worlds out there. For those with visual impairments, however, the world of gaming isn’t so simple to navigate, and whilst the Xbox does include features such as a narrator to make things easier, not many games cater to or bring attention to blind or low vision gamers.

The team over at Fallen Squirrel look to change that, however, with their latest release The Vale: Shadow of The Crown, which they have developed in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).

The game begins with players taking on the role of Alex, a blind young princess, cast out from her kingdom and looking for a way home to the safety of the castle and her brother she finds herself hundreds of miles away from. The challenge in this is that a war has begun, a war that is seeing the land ravaged by a dark, hostile, and invasive army that looks to put anything and anyone that crosses their path to the sword – including Alex, for there is a reward for her.

The Vale: Shadow of The Crown is a highly unique game thanks to the game being entirely focussed on audio cues, with no visuals to speak of besides a few coloured particles floating around the screen. All gameplay here is done through that of listening and reacting alone which creates one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever endured in gaming.

Whilst you’d expect a game with no visuals to speak of to prove rather basic in general design, here we are instead treated to a showcase in fantastic storytelling and surprisingly engaging gameplay. Throughout the game, players use the typical movement and turning methods seen in most other games with the left stick providing movement whilst the right stick allows for turning. As you begin to engage in different situations, the controls will shift, for example when entering combat, you’ll no longer need to move around the environment but instead focus on the sound of your enemy to better understand which direction to push your trusted sword and shield in.

In fact, the controls are kept simple through with only the rear triggers and both sticks being used throughout.

The biggest praise for this game however must come down to the incredible work that has gone into making the audio as believable as possible. To truly engage in the experience fully, I played through with a face mask to fully obscure my vision and ensure I was focussed on nothing but the audio, and it seems the team over at Fallen Squirrel have excelled in making you really feel like you’re part of the experience with this adventure.

Each action is met with perfect audio cues and just the right amount of vocal guidance from our protagonist to ensure that you know both what you need to do, and what is around you at all times. Should you enter into combat, the enemies can be heard shifting around on either side of you or in front of you, with noise focussed into the area you’d expect them to be and vocal cues from enemies so you know when you’ve either hit or missed your target, whilst rustling of bushes can alert you to predators and the hustle and bustle of the local market can help to guide you to and from quests.  

During my playthrough I utilised a stereo headset to fully explore the rich binaural audio sounds in all their glory – which it has to be said is the best way to play and I would fully advise should you wish to also jump into this fantastic adventure, but even playing through a TV speaker the sounds are easy to follow.

To assist with gameplay, players are guided by a narrator for all essential things such as pause and menu options whilst certain parts of the game will also see the narrator step in to give useful and important information. Fortunately, this is kept to a sensible minimum, and you won’t find your experience being marred by an intrusive voice, with your main focus being purely the sounds surrounding the adventure.

Whilst taking on the role of a blind individual doesn’t seem like it would make for an exciting heroine story, our protagonist isn’t quite as vulnerable as many would expect with fighting skills proving more than capable courtesy of some valuable lessons from Alex’s uncle, and a sense of courage that paints quite the picture. Even with the guidance of a local shepherd who Alex helps out early on, there is never a time in which our protagonist is ever made to feel incapable or vulnerable compared to that of the shepherd who tags along for the journey.

What’s more, is the game ensures players have the freedom of choice with side quests that appear proving optional, and players able to aid as many or as few villagers as they want, although the nature of our protagonist pulls in the direction of wanting to help as many as possible. Other choices include choosing whether to travel in the dead of night and use the darkness to your advantage to remain undetected from the sweeping army that is invading the land, or travel during the day and take guidance from enemy locations and points of interest through the eyes of the shepherd.

With merchants to barter with, quests to complete and money to be made, there is plenty to keep players engaged from start to finish, and given you’ll be spending the entire playthrough using nothing but your ears to guide you, it surprises me to say that this is possibly one of the best adventures you’ll stumble across this year.

Besides the gameplay, other audio features sit well with a soothing soundtrack that accompanies the game befitting of any RPG setting and whilst RPG features aren’t as strong here as they are in your typical titles, the RPG feel is certainly present and The Vale: Shadow of The Crown is certainly a capable offering.

The final things to note comes down to the vast array of talent that is on show throughout this adventure with Alex voiced by none other Karen Knox of Far Cry, Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed fame, as well as Samer Salem known for The Expanse and The Handmaid’s Tale and Steve Cumny of Far Cry 3 and Versailles acclaim.

Conclusion

Overall, The Vale: Shadow of The Crown is a game that brings to light a rarely experienced disability for many gamers whilst also showcasing just how much audio can bring a game to life. With fantastic storytelling, engaging gameplay and a story that keeps things fresh from start to finish, this is certainly one of 2021’s standout titles and will no doubt spawn new audio focussed titles in the future.

*Editors Note: We've omitted our usual 4 score system here as it would be unfair to judge a game with very little visuals on the Visuals score. As such, you'll see just the three relevant scores below - JC*

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.