Mayhem in Single Valley is an arcade puzzle game developed by Fluxscopic and published by tinyBuild Games. The apocalypse is here and it’s up to the main characters to save the world.
You play as a kid named Jack who is preparing to leave home to go to college. The game begins in a dream in which Jack falls out of a burning plane, and a clone of himself also falls. Jack can be moved to grab his clones, but they inevitably lose their grip and fall to their deaths anyway. Besides, I felt out of place.
Anyway, just as Jack wakes up and prepares to leave the house, a brief tutorial begins. You walk around the house and get to know Jack’s family better. You move around the place, nap your siblings, pick up dog poop, and distract your father with beer cans to make him tired. You can sneak into his room and steal his passport and money while he is taking a nap.
This tutorial will teach you how to walk, dodge and jump. It also explains how to pick up and throw items. For example, take a can of beer out of the refrigerator, throw it in the living room, and give it to your father. Now you know how to play the game.
Green goo is dumped into rivers, polluting water sources. Therefore, the wildlife in the area becomes ferocious monsters and zombies. A ferocious squirrel breaks into Jack’s garden and steals his backpack. The game officially begins with Jack leaving home and his first task is to retrieve the backpack. It’s a weird start, but manageable and I appreciate the tutorial.
Simply put, the gameplay is based on clearing each area without getting caught by monsters. But of course, this is easier said than done. Sure, you want the gameplay to be challenging, but Single Valley Mayhem can be relentless: Jack has only one hit point, he’s one, and expect many deaths as you learn animal patterns. The game autosaves frequently, but you just keep repeating the same thing until you go insane, respawning exactly where you came from. A trash can lid is provided that Jack can grab and use as a shield, giving him extra hit points. However, there were very few of these trash cans, and most were attacked as soon as they got their shield.
Now, this is where Single Valley Mayhem is unique. Instead of picking up weapons and fighting off wild animals and humans (who bite you turn you into a zombie), just throw food at them with a slingshot. You can shake trees to get acorns to distract squirrels, pull carrots from the ground to distract rabbits, or collect hot dogs to distract humans. Finding food ammunition is not a problem. It’s an inventory system and throws items.
Jack’s initial inventory is limited. Of course, you can upgrade them later, but it’s very frustrating to have so little to carry when you start the game. is. Thankfully it stacks similar items, but the item variety is limited.
In Single Valley Mayhem, instead of fighting, you throw food to distract enemies and encourage them to flee. Unfortunately, while this is a great idea in theory, it wasn’t executed very well. Hitboxes just didn’t make sense to me. Food was often thrown near the enemy so as not to be distracted. And it will be eaten by running out of bullets. Jack runs only moderately, but the rabbit rushes at you in the blink of an eye. Needless to say, I often threw the wrong kind of food, and switching between items in my inventory is a one-button he process, but for some reason, the wrong item was thrown most of the time. I don’t know if the button didn’t register, there was a problem with the game, or I did something wrong. Anyway, it wasn’t annoying.
Additionally, the game has platforming puzzles. For example, Jack has to jump on platforms, cross rivers, and go to high places. These puzzles were decent, like figuring out how to cross a toxic river. It wasn’t too easy, but it wasn’t too hard either. That doesn’t mean he didn’t die many times, though. The buttons are sensitive and I over jumped where I wanted to jump many times, leading to death. So to jump over the platform and die, you have to start the puzzle all over again. Rinse and repeat.
Each area also has a collection. For example, you can collect Jack’s clones. But I didn’t mind this. It was often not worth it, as it would only distract me for so long that the animals hunted me down while I saved the clones.
I quit Single Valley Mayhem many times with rage. I think the game was intended to have more stealthy elements, especially since there is no time mechanic. However, some enemies were so fast that it didn’t take long to pass through each area.
The pixelated graphics were appealing and the chiptune tracks were fun to bop. Single Valley Mayhem certainly looks and sounds good. The premise is also interesting, but the gameplay doesn’t complement it very well.
