The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
Worth it · RPG · 2021
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $19.99, a BANGER if it drops to $8.76.
- Length
- 6h 7.6h to 100%
- Value
- $3.33/hr
- Reviews
- 97% of 386 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at $8.76 or less.
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4. Calls like this were right 83% of the time in a backtest over 70 weeks.
Discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
CLOSE YOUR EYES. BECOME A WARRIOR: Feel your enemy’s rasping breath; a foot shifts on swampy ground; the crack of steel on wooden shield. The Vale is an audio based action adventure that sets out to breathe new life into medieval combat and fantasy narrative.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, Shader model 2.0+, 1 GB of storage. Windows only.
The value story
Across all 29 discounts in the 5 years tracked, the median cut is 50 percent, about 10 weeks apart. The math puts its BANGER price at $8.76. The record reaches that level 2 times.
Value puts it in the top 5 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 88 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 98 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Black Myth: Wukong ($59.99, scores 80) beats it on value, while it beats God of War Ragnarök ($59.99, scores 63).
More about The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
Steam's global achievement data puts about 16 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. On a 6-hour game, the hours short of it still count in its price per hour. Of the 308 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 2 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written September 2021 to July 2026.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, and at 6 hours it is short enough to finish on one.
The drop-off
73% start to 16% finishA normal fall-off for a game this long. Steam global achievements
What players say
I was diagnosed with glaucoma about three years ago, and my vision has gotten worse since then. I'm now completely blind in my left eye and have lost more than half the vision in my right, so it's become much harder for me to play the games I used to enjoy so easily. That's why games like A Blind Legend, and now The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, are so incredible to me. I would even say The Vale was better than A Blind...
2 more reviews
Wow. Haven't finish this game yet, but it's absolutely wonderful. A beautiful execution of a game where you are MEANT to play with your eyes closed The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is such a fascinating experience. I am not blind, though I do find my eyes feel strained a lot, and it's a wonderful experience to be able to have a video game I can play fully blindfolded and give my eyes a rest from screens while still...
I am sighted, but loved this game! It's innovative and has an engaging story and interesting characters. Would love a sequel and more games in this vein!
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
The Vale: Shadow of the Crown scores 70/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/989790/the-vale-shadow-of-the-crownReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Oct 2, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.