Monument Valley 3: The Garden of Life review - "More puzzles, interesting story"
- More chapters with more story
- Interesting puzzles
- Optional side quests
Back when I reviewed Monument Valley 3, I was interested in the missing chapters, as it ended the story in a way that it would clearly continue. Now that the puzzler has launched on Android, for those who have played it on Apple devices, there is new content as well.
Monument Valley 3: The Garden of Life is an update that completes the whole thing, where you can now play the rest of the story along with optional side puzzles for a bit more fun.
At first, these puzzles felt extremely easy, as I breezed through them. The story itself is still subtle, showing the water that has flooded these places, the broken lighthouses, and the people who have been separated.
But, at the same time, there is hope through you - through the things you are building and the people you are bringing back together. I quite like the bit of story, along with the subtle meaning that is woven through the chapters.
I did find the first few new ones extremely easy, but then the world started twisting the paths, bringing plants in with the buildings, to create a harmony of hope. I do find this meaning to be very lovely, but at the same time, I find these levels where the paths twist, particularly the last chapter, extremely challenging all of a sudden.
Monument Valley 3 doesn't have any sort of hint system, so you will need to work it out over time, which is a bit of a challenge at times!
Monument Valley 3: The Garden of Life is a fantastic puzzler that has real meaning in its subtle story and a lot of beautiful moments throughout. There are some optional puzzles that can be found and played, though I wasn't too tempted to play anymore after my struggles with the last level.
I do like this option that makes the whole experience feel complete. It's a wonderful adventure for those who are fans of the previous Monument Valley entries, or people who want something that feels elevated in the puzzle genre.
Monument Valley 3: The Garden of Life review - "More puzzles, interesting story"
Monument Valley 3: The Garden of Life is a fantastic puzzler with a story throughout, though the difficulty curve does feel like it could use a little work.
Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, and judges many jams and events. You can find her on Twitter as @Jupiter_Hadley