You Can Download Puzzler Monument Valley 2 Right Now
File this under cleverly concealed, first-time-ever, totally unexpected Apple WWDC revelations Monument Valley 2, the sequel to indie studio Ustwo Games' acclaimed indie puzzler and one of TIME's picks for 2014's best games, is available now. You can download it from the App Store for 4.99. That's about all I can tell you. The game was suspected, but unannounced, and certainly not among the list of things the rumor mill predicted would pop up during Apple's annual spring showcase of software developments and inventions today. The original was a clever puzzle romp that vamped on non-Euclidean geometry, asking that you guide a character through architecturally minimalist levels that seemed at first blush impossible to traverse. Monument Valley 2and I'm playing the game as I type this so it could pull the rug and transform into something else entirelylooks very much at the outset like its predecessor You tap to direct a character named "Ro" along orthogonal paths that fold into Escher-like optical illusions. Occasionally you're presented with strange mechanisms that require you tap-hold and slide to maneuver platforms that facilitate movement from one portion of the "impossible" illusion to the next. Is more of the same sort of puzzling sufficient to the cause? Has what seemed novel in 2014 aged well? We'll see. The original was a delightful collage of brain teasers, quietude and visual elegance, and with so little of that happening in mainstream gaming, it's hard to imagine not succumbing to its charms all over again.