The Valley is a graphical roguelike RPG with a simple interface and semi-real-time combat system. The background story is all but non-existent, suffice to say that you're the hero and you want to explore the name-providing Valley to slay monsters and find treasure.

Character creation is fairly quick -- enter your name and choose one of five classes (Warrior, Wizard, Cleric, Barbarian and the not-so-common Thinker), differing by their magic and fighting abilities. After that, you're ready to explore the Valley and its contents. You start out at a one of two castles, where you can rest and save your game. The road between the castles is safe, but every other place is teeming with monsters, magic places (upgrading or downgrading your stats) and, of course, treasure. The valley also contains a multi-level tower as well as some swamps and forests, which feature some other dungeons.

The game is played in a turn-based manner, except fighting, which is timed delay. You only have half a second or so to enter your next move. You can attack the monster's head, body or legs, or you can cast one of three magic spells. Of course, some monsters can do the same to you. Finally, you may sometimes surprise a monster, getting a free attack or the choice to retreat (which is not possible in a normal fight).

Each level is randomly generated at the beginning of the game. The game provides a saving mechanism with ten possible save games.