Rue Valley review: A psychological dance with destiny 

Challenging fate in an attempt to change your destiny is no small feat, yet it’s the task that you and Eugene must complete if you’re to escape the time loop of Rue Valley. The time loop trope is a well-used narrative tool, and thus it’s one that’s heavily scrutinised, especially if it fails to deliver a thought-provoking experience.

As this Rue Valley game review will detail, this title, for the most part, has managed to succeed – and not just because the game is very reminiscent of the beloved Disco Elysium. Despite the obvious similarities, this title stands on its own merit for several reasons. Without further ado, let’s dive into what they are.

The Escapist recaps

• The Rue Valley release date was 11 November.
• Rue Valley is a narrative RPG in which its protagonist, Eugene, attempts to break the time loop he’s stuck in. 
• Sporting a troubled protagonist and a unique art style, Rue Valley bears a striking similarity to Disco Elysium, yet it’s so much more than an imitation. 
• Understanding Rue Valley’s time loop takes, well, time. To accomplish this, players will solve puzzles and navigate through the game using point-and-click controls to reach the end. Every time. 

A lot can happen in 47 minutes

Minutes are all you have – 47 of them, to be exact. These in-game minutes offer quite a lot of wriggle room if you know how to use them. 

Initially, 47 minutes seems like too small a timeframe to work with, and at first, it kind of is. But that’s the point: you need to feel the despair and pressure that Eugene is feeling.

This is a game about mental strife and the burden of dealing with its challenges, in which the time loop also acts as one giant metaphor for being stuck in an endless cycle of despair. In this way, the tight constraints work especially well because it often feels like you have little to no time to try and turn your life around.

Yet, once you start to open up the small but curious world of Rue Valley, you’ll find plenty of ways to usefully fill your 47 minutes of research. By your fifth or so loop, you’ll better understand how much time is used carrying out certain tasks, and will be able to plan accordingly. You’ll still struggle to complete your to-do list before the timer is up, but you’ll slowly but surely piece together an action plan. 

The butterfly effect

The Rue Valley time loop is affected by your choices. And while the decisions you make won’t always feel monumental, the subtle changes they bring about can have quite powerful effects.

Players will notice this during their first loop. The type of personality you create for Eugene impacts his ability to interact with those around him. For example, if you’re too introverted, you’ll be forced to listen to endless drivel from Robin, a kind but somewhat overbearing receptionist.

The ways in which you can tailor Eugene’s personality are minimal when compared with stats and perks in games like Fallout; however, they’ll still determine the course you’ll take during each loop. Similar to its time constraints, this is another aspect of Rue Valley’s gameplay that works exceptionally well. Even more so, thanks to additional status effects that can be applied. 

Not only do you need to be mindful of your personality traits, but you also need to look out for status ribbons. Although Eugene may be very extroverted, a total lack of motivation will render him quite useless. In that respect, the impact of his unstable psyche, mixed with his time loop confusion, is frustratingly realistic; a seemingly simple choice can have quite an annoying and/or devastating effect. It’s masterfully done.

A beautiful sundrenched town with some clunk

Rue Valley has much beauty, but it’s not without its clunky issues that can clog up the gears of this well-oiled machine. 

Now, I’ll preface this by saying I was playing on my docked Steam Deck, using a controller, and thus my experience of stilted controls may be unique to that setup. Nonetheless, I experienced some issues, albeit minor ones. 

The biggest bugbear is that the controls feel clunky. Oftentimes, I’d select an object for Eugene to examine, and he’d stumble about in front of it, with me having to select it again for him to actually interact with the object. Stairs, in particular, proved quite challenging for poor, ol’ Eugene. 

Additionally, some objects are highlighted as interactable, yet I couldn’t select them at all; this mainly consisted of wall decorations, such as posters. 

The items you can interact with in Rue Valley are highlighted either orange or white, with the colour dependent on the item’s purpose. Orange indicates that it has some narrative impact, while white symbolises contextual information only. 

Thankfully, it was only some of the white highlighted objects that I couldn’t look at, and so they’re not as important. Still, it proved irritating to see something I should be able to select but couldn’t. 

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