Chris Moyse of Destructoid gave the game 4 out of 10, stating, "Vane has a very strong opening, some unique visual ideas, and an atmospheric electronica soundtrack.

Though Vane‘s abstract approach to storytelling is genuinely liberating, the player remains caged with simplistic gameplay tropes, immersion-breaking technical problems, boring puzzles, and a terrible save system."

Adventure Gamers gave the game 2 stars out of 5 and praised the sound design and the bird's-eye view of the world while criticizing its clunky controls, lack of objectives, incomprehensible narrative, and obfuscated mechanics.

GameSpot lauded the visual style, soundtrack, and changing environments while lambasting the presence of severe glitches, vague presentation of themes, and technical issues with the camera.

Push Square negatively reviewed the game, giving it 4 stars out of 10, writing, "Vane is exhausting, ponderous, bewildering, endlessly frustrating, needlessly obtuse, narratively unsatisfying, mechanically clumsy, and technically shoddy, all shot through a camera so ill-equipped to deal with the rudimentary task of showing you what's happening on screen that you might as well pop a blindfold on and try using The Force".