Monument Valley 3 review – the best new video game on Netflix

Monument Valley 3 – no innovation but plenty of fun (Netflix)

The Christmas special for video games on Netflix is a new sequel to mobile classic Monument Valley and it’s just as beautiful and mesmerising as ever.

Netflix was originally in the business of posting rented DVDs to their customers, replacing an arduous journey to Blockbuster Video with a leisurely stroll to your local postbox. It was the later pivot to streaming video that proved to be their masterstroke, annihilating competitors and inspiring a dreadful new generation of streaming services from seemingly absolutely everybody, so that now you have to spend a small fortune on subscriptions to be allowed to watch everything.

As a way of holding onto customers who might otherwise switch to Disney+, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, or any of the plethora of smaller offerings, Netflix started adding video games to its offering. When Google briefly flirted with games, a fundamental misunderstanding of development cycles meant their grandiose plans failed to pay off as quickly as anticipated, leading Google Stadia into the same graveyard as so many other abandoned Alphabet projects.

The Netflix approach has been different. Rather than starting from scratch, with a scattering of partners, they applied the philosophy that worked so well in TV and film, by licensing games from existing developers en masse. Instead of chasing triple-A titles they instead went after mobile, and rather than settling for any old rubbish studios had knocking about, their focus has been on quality; and thanks to private equity financing, that wasn’t at the expense of quantity.

That means their current line-up includes Braid, Anniversary Edition; GTAs 3, San Andreas, and Vice City; Dead Cells; Into The Breach; Blooms TD 6; Kentucky Route Zero; and Immortality. Sure, there’s a bit of chaff mixed in with all the classics, but it’s a superbly curated list, and considering most people turn up for the TV, feels effectively free.

This week’s addition to their roster of champions is Monument Valley 3, the latest iteration of a franchise that’s enjoyed monumental and deserved success. With so many games released every year, there’s a real discoverability problem in mobile, so games that cut through to the degree Monument Valley has, usually have something special about them.

In the third instalment, the premise remains unchanged. You control Noor, a little stick figure with a pointy hairdo. Tapping a point on the screen gets her to walk towards it. The object is to pilot her towards specific floor pads or doorways to progress, but generally those points are in unreachable parts of the level when you begin.

Your job is to slide and rotate different parts of each level to clear her path and, like an M. C. Escher drawing, when 3D objects meet on the 2D plane of your phone screen Noor can traverse them, ignoring the impossibility of those broken perspectives. It’s a process that’s not at all intuitive, requiring pleasurable minutes of trial and error as you grab and swivel different pieces of scenery in search of a viable route.

Accompanied by an ambient soundscape, each tap you make or element of the level you rotate makes its own distinct and sonorous tone, adding to a sort of minimal, Philip Glass style soundtrack that’s at least partly of your own making. It’s an especially rewarding game to play wearing headphones, the deep bass notes and tinkly treble creating an almost hypnotic effect with the gradual unfolding of each puzzle.

Levels are formed from a mix of organic features and dramatic architecture, the rumbling as bits of it move and swivel, mixing with the sound of the surrounding water and subtle background bird and animal calls. Especially with noise cancelling switched on, it really transports you, its whimsy and tactile puzzling proving surprisingly captivating for something on such a small screen.

However, going back to the first game, as we did while writing this, it’s surprising just how similar the two experiences still are. The original Monument Valley arrived fully formed and apart from a few new bits of window dressing, this second sequel remains the same highly rewarding, beautifully drawn and mesmerisingly soundtracked set of puzzles.

Once again the difficult it pitched just right, requiring a bit of experimentation or a brief pause to consider, but never holding you up for more than a minute or two, and very rarely even that long. Instead, it’s a digital walk in the park, a peaceful and lovingly constructed piece of escapism that amounts to a couple of hours of light puzzling.

Anyone letdown by the comparative brevity will be relieved that its end screen promises ‘seasonal stories’ due in the coming weeks. Surely episodic gaming, something that never really took off for traditional titles, is a potentially winning match for a subscription TV service. Either way, and despite the relative lack of innovation, it’s a delight to have more Monument Valley to look forward to.

Monument Valley 3 review summary

In Short: A brief new slice of Monument Valley’s unique and minimally drawn perspective-bending puzzles, with the promise of more to come.

Pros: Looks and sounds beautiful. Puzzles that test you just enough to be interesting and a sprinkling of, minor, fresh ideas.

Cons: Not for those who like their puzzles taxing, and it remains very similar in content and looks to both previous instalments.

Score: 7/10

Formats: iOS (reviewed) and Android
Price: Included with Netflix subscription
Publisher: Netflix
Developer: Ustwo Games
Release Date: 11th December 2024
Age Rating: 4+