Monument Valley - delightfully puzzling musical illusions

I don't play games very often, but after hearing about Monument Valley I thought I that it might be up my alley. It was a pleasure to play, a game that with tantalizing sounds, visual effects, and simple mechanics creates a sublime experience. Each level contained a variety of special moments that were in their own way beautiful and amazing.


Monument Valley - "an illusory adventure of impossible architecture and forgiveness" - is a fairly easy puzzle game that doesn't take very long to complete. However, I don't think I was alone in getting absorbed in the gorgeous levels. The key mechanic entails rotating the levels in order to fit pathways together for the main character to access and press buttons that open up the next part of the level. This rotating mechanic is accompanied by musical audio feedback that feels like turning the crank on a music box. 


The levels are often designed in an impossible way reminiscent of works by Escher. The player has to forget normal physics and accept certain optical illusions as real in order to complete the level. I wouldn't describe this game as flashy; it is juicy in a subdued, more subtle way. The process of solving each puzzle is more like a delightful meditation than a beat-the-clock challenge. I often found that I was taking more time on the puzzle than I actually needed just so I could appreciate the beautiful forms from different perspectives and play with the different sounds to be made.  


The main character is a little princess in white with a pointy hat, while the "adversaries" - they mostly just get in the way, but can sometimes be used to help - are black crows that use basically the same forms except reversed. Each level uses balance, contrast, and interesting negative shapes to create an experience that doesn't get old and conveys a sense of graphical harmony. I don't think I ever felt lost in a level, as there were always clever visual cues indicating the next move. 

The sequence of 10 levels also included short texts at the beginning of each level that hinted at some sort of narrative and background story, but I was too absorbed in playing the levels to really pay too much attention to how it unfolded. Who the little princess is and what she is doing didn't really matter to me; the sounds and the graphics were enough to motivate me through the game. Perhaps playing the game a second time will unveil even more beautiful moments to be enjoyed.