Ever since Disco Elysium stormed onto the scene in 2019 and promptly realigned expectations for what a narrative driven adventure could be, I think it’s fair to say that in the intervening years between now and then, there haven’t been quite the deluge of similarly inspired offerings. Though we’re not quite looking at a deluge now (one title in six years can hardly be classified as such), Rue Valley from Emotion Spark Studio nonetheless represents the closest to ZA/UM’s masterpiece (shoddy PS4/PS5 launch, notwithstanding) any other developer has gotten, albeit with some twists, caveats and flaws of its own.
Certainly on the face of it, Rue Valley‘s premise is enticing, if not outright compelling. Presumably the elevator pitch for Rue Valley would have been something like, ‘Disco Elysium meets Groundhog Day’, because that’s precisely the concept Rue Valley onto which anchors its entire setting around.
Rue Valley PS5 Review
In Rue Valley, players find themselves grappling with the agency of one Eugene Harrow, an emotionally distraught man with more layers of neuroses than there are zeroes in Elon Musk’s bank account. Awakening at 8PM each day and sitting in the chair opposite a seemingly compassionate therapist he has no memory of, let alone being aware of the reasons for the therapy sessions taking place to begin with, Eugene soon realises that at 8:47PM a ball of fire scorches the sky, and then he is subsequently whisked back into the therapists chair, albeit with all of his memories intact from the previous cycle.
Clearly then, the overriding goal is to break this loop and with just 47 minutes to work through – though not in real-time, as the clock only ticks when you complete actions, start conversations or simply choose just to wait around, Rue Valley is the sort of game where repetition is, for better or worse, part of its design DNA. Where some much needed spice is applied to the proceedings however, is in how Rue Valley leans into a number of the elements that defines, and continues to define, Disco Elysium as one of the most essential role-playing adventure games ever made.
Viewed from an isometric perspective and boasting a similar kind of watercolour-meets-graphic-novel visual aesthetic as Disco Elysium (making Rue Valley nothing less than an unabashed treat for the eyes in the process), Rue Valley has players traipsing about a number of environments such as a motel, gas station, space-themed bar and other such locales as they attempt to unravel the mystery behind the time loop and unearth the secrets necessary to break it. Though pointedly, the similarities to Disco Elysium are arguably more keenly felt in Rue Valley‘s moment to moment gameplay beats.
“Become a hero or an absolute disaster of a human being.” That is the tagline which has long been synonymous with Disco Elysium and one which also, quite handily, serves as that game’s compelling elevator pitch as well. In the case of Rue Valley, that tagline also applies, though on a somewhat different scale. You see, much like Disco Elysium before it, progress in Rue Valley is entirely dictated by your words, actions and introspective thoughts. There’s no combat here – just lots of dialogue punctuated by the odd physical action every so often and a whole lotta speeding up time to get to an event you need to trigger in the time cycle.
Oh and Disco Elysium players will also recognise Rue Valley’s stat system too, in which at the beginning of the game, players can pump skill points into various personality sliders which in turn enable and disable different actions and dialogue choices within the game. Add in cumulative status effects, such as a total lack of motivation, alcoholism and even having soggy clothes, all of which can also affect the personality and dialogue options on offer and it soon becomes clear that there is a fair amount of creative freedom in terms of what you can do with ol’ Eugene on his time-loop breaking odyssey.
The rub then, is that within each 47 minute time loop cycle, Eugene can access new emotions and personality traits while discarding old ones and in doing so, new paths through the story become available and bring him closer to solving the mystery of his decidedly odd circumstances. This is achieved by collecting inspiration points which can be obtained by completing certain dialogue choices or scouting out certain elements in the environment which have an emotional trigger. Once collected, these are used to complete side-quests of sorts by recalling memories that can alter your mental state, while willpower points are permanent and are awarded when you have an epiphany or an especially significant emotional breakthrough.
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Of course all of this would be for naught if the setting, characters and quality of writing was crud. Happily then, though the writing isn’t quite so sharp or incisive as Disco Elysium (and certainly lacks much of the political militancy that runs through the DNA of that game), it makes for great entertainment still and still weaves a compelling tale of denial and regret against the backdrop of what is essentially an existential detective mystery writ large. Oh and also, in case you’re wondering about how much repetition you’re looking at with each cycle, Rue Valley does a good job of abridging and curtailing what would be repetitious dialogue exchanges and events that would otherwise prove to be immensely frustrating if you were forced to engage with them in their entirety each time.
As such then, I think it’s fair to say that Rue Valley tries very, very hard to be like big bro Disco Elysium and while it certainly wears those influences upon its digital sleeves in so many ways, it’s also true that being so inevitably invites comparisons that it cannot possibly survive. For a start, both Rue Valley and Disco Elysium boast a quasi-hostile narrator that torments the player with their actions, dialogue and innermost thoughts. Where Disco Elysium absolutely pulls ahead here however, is in its employ of the seminal Lenval Brown as its voiced narrator who gives a landmark performance that arguably defines the ZA/UM effort as much as any other aspect of its construction. In Rue Valley though, the lack of a voiced narrator means that the narration in general doesn’t land quite as well as it should, while also totally lacking the gravitas that a vocal performance would bring to the table.
Of course, it’s likely that this is a symptom of the fact that Rue Valley‘s budget is rather low to say the least and as such, Rue Valley‘s relatively modest production values can be seen elsewhere too. From a visual perspective, while the art style is striking and the character animations are frequently impressive, sometimes the voice acting and text don’t match the character animation (Eugene was crying but his animation just had him tapping his foot and stretching out on the couch in one example), which can break the illusion somewhat.
Elsewhere, it’s also true that in addition to some odd bugs, such as audio cutting out rather frequently during cut scenes, there are also far less dialogue choices in Rue Valley than necessarily what you would see in Disco Elysium, never mind the fact that your agency overall feels a little compromised by the fact that Rue Valley‘s tale is almost inherently linear in nature and so the ability to meaningfully change the fates of its various characters, feels far less impactful as a result.
Much like its primary protagonist then, Rue Valley certainly has no shortage of faults or shortcomings and it’s also practically impossible for Rue Valley to escape the vast, looming shadow of ZA/UM’s epic adventure, Disco Elysium. Taking all of that into account however, Rue Valley‘s Disco Elysium meets Groundhog Day concept is a compelling one that finds itself ably anchored by a great art style, good writing and interesting characters and it’s one that will surely tide over Disco Elysium fans looking for their next existential adventure fix.
Rue Valley is out now on PS4 and PS5. While Rue Valley loops you through emotional revelations, players chasing rewards like no deposit free spins will find excitement of a very different kind elsewhere
Review code kindly provided by PR.