Monument Valley 2

About Monument Valley 2

So I finally caved and bought this game after my coworker Jessica wouldn’t stop talking about it. She said her daughter was completely hooked, and I was curious but also nervous—I’ve wasted money on apps before that looked pretty but were boring after ten minutes. Monument Valley 2 is definitely not that. It’s a puzzle game where you guide a mother and her child through these mind-bending, impossible-looking buildings and landscapes. The whole thing feels like walking through an M.C. Escher painting, but calm and beautiful instead of confusing. I played it for the first time on a rainy Tuesday evening after the kids went to bed, and I couldn’t put it down until my phone battery died. It’s not a fast action game—it’s more like a quiet, thoughtful experience that actually makes you feel something. The mother and daughter story really got to me, which I wasn’t expecting from a mobile game.

Features & Highlights

The best part is how the game looks—I’m not a graphics expert, but every level feels like a tiny piece of art. You rotate towers, shift platforms, and create paths by tapping and dragging with your finger. It’s simple but tricky enough that I had to stop and think a few times. My seven-year-old watched me play and wanted to try, and honestly it was easy enough for her to figure out with a little help. There are no timers, no enemies jumping out, no ads popping up—just you and the puzzle. The music is really nice too, soft and kind of dreamy. My daughter actually fell asleep listening to me play one night. The levels are short enough that you can finish one during a coffee break, but they’re satisfying. There’s also a hidden collectible in each level—a little secret thing you can find—which gave me a reason to go back and replay some levels.

User Experience

The controls are super easy. You literally just tap where you want the characters to go, or swipe to rotate pieces of the environment. I never felt lost or frustrated. The game doesn’t throw a million instructions at you—it just lets you figure things out. That said, some puzzles took me a good ten minutes to crack, and I did look up a hint online once because I was stuck in the same spot for way too long on a Saturday afternoon. The game itself has no hint system, which is fine, but younger kids might get frustrated if they’re stuck alone. My daughter needed me to guide her through a couple of tricky parts. Overall the experience felt smooth on my iPhone 14—no crashes, no lag, no weird glitches. I appreciated that the game doesn’t force you to create an account or sign in. You just open it and play.

Pricing

It costs $3.99 upfront, and there are no extra purchases inside the game—no fake coins, no boosters, no “watch an ad to continue.” I actually didn’t believe that at first, but after playing for two weeks, I haven’t been asked for a single penny more. For a parent, that’s huge. I hate when my kid asks to buy something inside an app and I have to say no or risk accidental charges. This is a one-time buy, and you get the whole game. The downside is it’s fairly short—I finished most levels in about three evenings of casual play. It’s not a game you’ll be playing for months, but the quality makes up for the length. I’d compare it to buying a nice paperback book that you finish in a weekend. You’re paying for an experience, not endless content.

Updates & Support

I actually emailed support because my game froze on a level once—turns out I just needed to close and reopen it. They got back to me in about three days, which felt slow but their response was friendly and helpful. They explained that it’s rare and gave me some tips. I know they added a few extra levels in an update after the original release, so it seems like the developer actually cares about keeping the game alive. I haven’t seen any updates since I downloaded it, but the version I have runs fine. For a $4 game from a small studio, I think that’s totally reasonable.

Security & Privacy

This is important to me because I let my daughter play on my phone. The game doesn’t ask for any personal information, no location tracking, no microphone or camera access. It doesn’t even ask for your name or email. There’s no chat feature, no friend list, no way for strangers to contact your kid. The only permission it needed was to access my photos (I think for saving screenshots), and I just denied that and it worked fine. I checked the privacy policy online—it says they collect basic analytics like what levels you play, but nothing that identifies you personally. That’s way better than most free games that are full of ads and data tracking. I feel completely safe letting my child play this unsupervised.