Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2012
A Valley Without Wind
Developer Arcen Games
A Valley Without Wind is an action-adventure and indie game developed by Arcen Games. The game was released on April 24, 2012 for the operating systems Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on Steam. Players play as a random survivor in an unforgiving world that is shaped by the choices the player makes. The setting of the game is a post-ice-age world in the distant future. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
185 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Apr 25, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
54
Mixed
95 positive · 81 negative
95% range 47–61%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 95 | 81 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
9 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
313 of 521 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 185 · most liked firstOvercomplexity. This is the one word summary of the reason this game is bad. Do you need a longer summary? Ambition. Miscalculation. Over shooting. What is the problem here? There are many. Maybe you checked out the screenshots and already feel bad about the game. I am not such a guy. I spent 20 hours to understand what is going on, since as all of Arcen's games, (maybe with the exception of Bionic Dues), you really can feel the love developers spent for the game here. Go to wiki of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You could easily rename this as "We Had Lots of Ideas: The Game" because that's honestly the best way to describe it. A mashup of numerous ideas, art styles, and gameplay mechanics. Let's start with the first and most easily noticed one, the look of the game. It's fairly inconsistant. This is compounded by the gameplay, too. At times it's trying to be Terraria where you're gathering resources like wood to make platforms, at others it's trying to be Diablo with a Mana Pool for spells and skills…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy it. Word of advice: try this one before the sequel. Good: +Perfect Metroidvania. Unlike Starbound and Terraria, the areas are broken into classic levels via a world map, and you choose where you go. The levels size are pretty good, and feature enough interior/exterior zones to mix things up. +Great ARPG elements. +Very easy co-op access, with many players able to join (seriously, a ♥♥♥♥ ton). +Easily editable sprite. I made Neith and Nu Wa from SMITE. Unlimited possibility with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Valley Without Wind is a unique game. The combination of randomly-generated levels and metroidvania-style platforming gives it a great deal of replayability. Something that I find interesting, however, is the game's emotional impact. While the game's story isn't particularily impressive, the combination of easily-learned gameplay, beautiful graphics, and incredibly memoriable music give a profound sense of solitude and loneliness. As a Glyphbearer, you are one of the only people in the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This could be interesting multi-genre game, with strategy, metroidvania and some RPG elements. Unfortunately, after some time in development it went to hard "random action mission" way, and never returned back. Strategy and RPG are still here, but too insignificant now. So if you are fan of random platforming with neverending monsters and several types of monster-killing, it can be quite fun. I had some fun with it, even if I don't very fond of such type of games. But it not worth any…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some interesting ideas in here but it's put together in such a way that completely kills my interest. Mainly how progression works seems pointless. Add in frustration from some messed up controls and a general clunky feeling and suddenly I'm done lol. Hard pass on this one.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a strange game; an endless metroid-style game where you explore a desolate world while you build structures on the overworld map to help you do so. The graphics are bizarre, mixing realistic buildings and backgrounds with PSX era particle effects and low animation sprites. The music is NES-style chiptunes mixed with high fidelity instruments. Like I said, strange. Much has already been said of this game's strengths and weaknesses already. I enjoyed my time with it, but I will always…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Maybe I'm just dumb, but I'm over 4 hours into this game, and still have no idea how to properly read/navigate/warp using the dungeon and region maps and my frustration is building. To help fill in the blanks, I even went looking for an online instruction manual, but none exist. Nor does there seem to be anything posted in the community/forum about how to read the maps. I've gone so far as reastarting the game TWICE thinking that I missed some instructions along the way... but from what I can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very deep, over whelming, confusing and complex. That is why it is simply just a fantastic game, there are barely any boundaries to what you can do within the game scope. You do literally progress how ever you want, with your settlement and advancing character(s), you will defiantly loose a few when playing. The game is not linear at all. The game has a combination of RPG and platformer elements, which opens up to some crazy combinations of abilities, spells and gear enchantments…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great argument against procedural generation. Very repetitive, and poor interface doesn't help. A pity, it has(had?) potential and I really wanted to like this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's a lot to love in A Valley Without Wind - freedom and exploration in a randomly-generated world, crafting and upgrades, lots of perilous platforming challenges and a Rogue Legacy-style new hero system - but the experience is somewhat marred by the fact that the game looks like something that would barely pass muster for freeware back in the 90's. If you can past the somewhat dated visuals (although it can hit 60FPS, which is always nice), there's much fun to be had. Just be mindful that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →12 year old game nobody plays. A game that is/was often offered in bundles or even free and nobody wants it. This is basically like abandon ware but i am going to write about it anyways. For me personally i think i have started to play this game at least 2 times before and always quit early on. 'Too much to learn. Too janky. Too hard'. I suppose i needed to take a good tour of more well known Arcen games to learn how they do their games. AI War, Last Federation and Bionic Dues are great…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very odd curiosity but I don't feel like there's a "good game" in here. Constantly picking up crafting materials but the "town building" element only seems to be through instantly-built structures you earn from missions. Bizarre world generation that expects you to carry hundreds of expendable crates and platforms. Gamepad support but only really playable on M+KB. Loads of unscaleable (??) text, hard to read at 1920x1080. One of the ugliest aesthetics I've ever seen... good music though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game. It has some fun elements, things I usually enjoy in games, such as random loot, directed character development, and procedurally generated levels. Problem is, it's wrapped in a package that obscures it all, and a control scheme that's clunky at best, maddeningly frusrating at worst. I never felt as though I had complete control over my actions due to this. The art style isn't my taste, and seems a bit hodge-podge. Sounds are nice and satisfying for the most…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Valley Without Wind is a game that I recommend because: - is a method to banish boredom - is a adventure game - have trading cards - is indie Enjoy!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More like "A Valley Without Fun." Enjoy not knowing what to do, getting lost in same-looking environments, and completely unsatisfying "Spell"play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Paladin’s Review: A Valley Without Wind. It’s a Unique Experiment into 2D Open World Procedural Generation and I Like It. Genre: 2D Action Sidescroller and City Builder. Developed and Published by: Arcen Games Platform: Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Business Model: Dual Pack Free Press Copy Was Supplied [url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2012/04/23/my-review-a-valley-without-wind/]Read the Full Review on A Paladin Without A Crusade Overall Gameplay Thoughts A Valley Without Wind. AVWW is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A sad case of ambitious overreach. Better to aim for the stars than create something bland, of course, but sometimes a shot aimed very high will still land somewhere... disappointing. The music is quite good, as one would expect from Arcen Games. The gameplay is... basic. Action and platforming. You run, jump around and shoot spells at enemies. Some spells have weird attack patterns, others have quirks like "bounces off things" or "affects a specifically shaped area around you", but for the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You may say "holy crap, this game is so interesting, I really like it...", and play for hundreds of hours, or just say "what the hell am I playing", and just quit & uninstall. Some facts about the game. - Very weird. - Unique. - Complicated. - Strange. - Bizarre. - Funky. - Weird as hell. - Unique art style. - Cool 2D graphics. - Good strange atmosphere. - Very well optimized for old and/or weak PCs & laptops. If you are tired of games and looking to play something different, a platformer,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Haven't found any valleys as of yet. I'll continue my search. I must remain strong for my loved ones.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A metroidvania crossed with a Terraria-style roguelite with Soulblazer elements thrown in. Really not a bad mix, especially once you get the hang of it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting Metroidvania-style platformer with a heavy focus on long-ranged attacks, as well as city-building and general crafting. Pretty neat hidden gem.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you can get it on the cheap, a great buy. Challenging, fun and satisfying (if you turn the difficulty up one notch) and manages to capture the bleak setting fairly well. Graphics and story are nothing special, but a great time sink.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is amazing. I can't stop playing it. The MetroidVania style gameplay with procedural worlds is so satisfying.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's really weird, it's not for everyone, and it has it's flaws. But if this is the sort of game that you like, then you're going to _really_ like it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's alright, but not at full price. Much like a metroidvania but with worse level design, better variety of weaponry (spells) and a bright outdoors atmosphere WARNING: If you're annoyed by games with sub-par graphics, look elsewhere. This game looks like it came out for Windows 95. The immersion factor is 7/10, but there's a lot of text and need to grok a lot of concepts to play, but you get through that about an hour in. Technical problems prevent the game from being totally immersive. For…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Until this day, I still don't know what the game is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Watching a KusoGrand8 match from the other day, game called Anima: Ark of Sinners And it's so strange being able to just look at this game I've never played, just eyeball it and tell you: The jump definitely has the same subtle but terrible weirdness as A Valley Without Wind.
unlabelledView post →A Valley Without a Clue What I Liked It was a memorable experience, as I still remember playing it years later. What I Did Not Like I tried to force myself to like it, but, it's just not a good game. It's a weird game that makes no sense. Nothing makes sense. I mean, they developers gave people who purchased the first game the second game, for free. Why I Stopped Playing It just wasn't fun. Disclaimer I have been a gamer for over 30 years. I tend to play mostly PC games. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My playtime is inflated from that time I forgot it was running and went to bed. Actual playtime more like 1-2 hours. It is interesting? Very 1990s indie/shareware feels. I hate platforming so much, and this game tacks a bunch of other systems on top of platforming. I couldn't finish the tutorial (which is pretty huge actually), but there are all kinds of interesting sorta secrets and worldbuilding. Very, very small text. I didn't 100% hate the platforming until I encountered acid pools which…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unchallenged proof that I can't trust reviews. I think most people are turned off by the art-style the game has. If you desire, the game supports custom resource packs. I prefer the default one. The graphic style reminds me of games like Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo, but with a much more horrifying spin. To summarize the story, the entire universe has collapsed in on itself. As a survivor, it's your job to break wind generators, expand your settlements through completing very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I jumped around a lot while watching X-Files.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's been called a divisive game, and its thoroughness is what has made many fans, based on Steam reviews. I am not such a case, though it offers at a unique take on the punk/fantasy theme combination. Heavy balancing with clumsy action and jarringly contrasting in-game object models make it hard to tell what's important to interact with, and the narrative is cryptic at best. A complex effort that lost me, in the end.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For playability, it gets an A+. Plotline gets a C+. For graphics, a solid "meh". As a developer, if I put a program like this together, it would honestly be as an experiment, not as a release. However, it would be a successful experiment. The game procedurally generates everything, and well; it shows the power of sandbox environments that don't rely directly on player input. However, the AI is pretty clunky and the graphics are just blocky, so if you're overly concerned about that, I would…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nope. I just didn't find this game interesting or fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Valley Without Wind is an ambitious indie action-adventure platformer created and published by Arcen Games. Released in 2012, the game attempts to merge multiple genres into a single large-scale experience, combining procedural exploration, magical combat, light strategy mechanics, and survival elements within a massive dynamically generated world. Rather than guiding players through a strictly linear narrative, the game embraces an open-ended structure where exploration, experimentation, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A VALLEY WITHOUT WIND. To date, one of the most interesting games I've ever played. Part strategy game, part citybuilder, part platformer, part action RPG, all bonkers, this wonderfully strange game is well worth sitting down and spending some time with. Great music, too. 74/365 #365games
unlabelledView post →Good action-platformer, just really don't try and 100% it, not the achievments, that's doable, but don't try and explore everywhere, it'll take too long and it's pretty tedious, but not required for progress.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lot of things to understand and lot of freedom for player to do and go as you want. Game has old school vibe in it so I really enjoyed it. I liked worlds and doing quests, so I recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a great time playing this for the time I did. Put it down and come back to it, fun again.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An experiment in procedural generation gone wrong. There are many systems in the game if you care to explore them, personally, I can't get past the fact that the generated platforming levels feel empty and generic, in addition to being plain ugly with an artstyle that's inconsistent to say the least. The combat is also looks and plays horribly, consisting of shooting and receiving in the face fluffy blobs of vaguely defined shapes and colors. Enemies attacking you may also look like fluffy…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A modern 2D side scroller that blends the feel of an RPG and Adventure game really well together
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I for some reason have it in my head that A Valley Without Wind 1 was a game everyone wound up with in their steam library in like 2011/2012 and has no earthly idea why. I have that and more
unlabelledView post →My friends and I call this "A Valley Without Fun."
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. I bought it ages ago way before it was on Steam and I've been coming back to it all these years. You're going to love it or hate it. There's really nothing else like it out there and I like the procedural worlds, they're always different.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Valley Without Wind (2012) No real tutorial to help, the tutorial they do offer don't really tell you much, like when you need to use a warp gate to teleport out of an area its really hard to use as you can actually just keep teleporting to the same area over and over with no real way of figuring out how the hell to get away from there. On easy difficulty you can just spam the fire spell you start with, everything dies to it. You get all these cool spells certain enemies are weak against but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The visuals are what really made me get buyer's remorse.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a confused sci-fi version of Terraria with a plethora of design and conceptual problems. Control a sci-fi dude in a 2D platformer world, with loot and RPG elements and city building. Power up and fight the end boss, if you can be bothered. The gameplay really wasn't well thought out here. It's easy to come up with an idea for a game. It's not even hard to put that idea into the game along with all the others. For some, it seems to be really hard to stop and ask "Is this a good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have no idea why I can't write a review for the second game so I'm just going to write one here for both. Here goes... Bro. These games. KICK. ASS. I got them both on a humble bundle deal for pennies but the kicker is I haven't played them for like two years, maybe a year and a half after obtaining the steam keys. I've always been a fan of Metroid-Vania style dungeon crawling platformers so imagine my surprise when I find out these games are Metroid-Vania mixed with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mountain Blade…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyable overall, though the game might not be for everyone. The concept of a 2D side-scroller without a linear path is pulled off decently well. The building aspect of the game isn't too in depth, but is a welcome break between missions. The levels that are generated are pretty large, which can be tedious and time consuming if you have a tendency to want to explore 100% of every level. Can be described as another Terraria/Starbound without terrain manipulation, and with an overworld. Might be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First off, this is not for everyone. This game can come off as an graphically ugly, poorly orchestrated complex, repetitive mess of a game, lacking any tangible story. But I like it. Something drew me in and it tickles me in a wholly unique way. It is eerie. It is odd. It is atmospheric. I don't regret the 64 hours I have put into the game. Looking forward to trying out the sequel.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No. Has way too much of an amateur feel for me to even bother with.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story was somewhat intriguing, but got lost in the gameplay. Gameplay was interesting, but got lost in the grind (I've read warnings about the size of dungeons, and still!) and dungeon-navigation (meeeh). In the end (keeping in mind that I played this one at work when servers were stopped, so it's like 8 hours a day and you have nothing to do at all!) I dropped the game even before I've defeated the 1st lieutenant. Soz...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A unique Metroidvania with procedurally-generated levels and an overworld strategy metagame. The graphics are a bit off-putting, resembling a late-1990s shareware platformer, but the gameplay is solid and fairly rewarding. There isn't much story, however, and it can get repetitive. I managed to beat it once, but it did get to be a bit of a slog towards the end. I bounced right off the sequel because it was too different and you apparently play a villain or something. It's ironic that they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game. It had so much potential. The idea is good, but execution is really poor.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I regret buying this game. Not enough of a game to be fun. Too much of an abstract art project (or at least it feels that way).
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a platformer with RPG and survival elements. Perhaps a bit like Terrarria (not too familiar with that one, so take the comparison with a grain of salt). The graphics are fairly dated and I had to mute the music almost instantly. The platforming controls are good, but nothing amazing. The game pretty much beats you over the head with walls of text of various sizes to explain the different mechanics within the game (gathering resources, crafting spells, slotting abilities, elements,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →friends are s**** this game is s**** the people are s**** and EVERYTHING IS S**** IN THIS GAME Do you know i destroyed everything thinking it was fun i burned down the village an murded everyone that my friends worke so hard on for so you know what have fun figuring out this peice of s****
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not much to say about this game. The game is ok in its own right, but gets boring extremely quickly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In the grim far future, there is only the mass destruction of cardboard boxes in featureless hallways.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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