War Has Changed
Review
Valiant
Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft (PS4)
Abstract: Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a fantastic side-scrolling puzzle
adventure game. The game explores love and loss during World War I in a story
that follows four protagonists through the brutal first years of the conflict. The
team at Ubisoft Montpellier shows a great respect and knowledge for WWI, which
permeates every element of this beautiful game. Valiant Hearts’s simple gameplay left me with some mixed emotions
and a little more could have been done to improve the story. That said, Valiant Hearts is still a powerful game
in which I connected with the characters, learned a little about WWI, and left
feeling totally satisfied. I recommend checking it out.
As with all
my video game reviews, I would like to run you guys through the history leading
up to my acquisition, and play through, of Ubisoft’s Valiant Hearts: The Great War. During the late spring and early
summer of 2014 Ubisoft released a pair of downloadable titles, each created by
a small team within the development studio. The first of these was Child of Light, a 2D sidescrolling
role-playing game (RPG) with a beautiful children’s storybook aesthetic and
plot. Child of Light paid homage to
some of the best RPGs of the 90’s, with excellent turn-based combat, a likable cast of party characters, and some fantastic music. In many ways Child of Light pared down the often
grind-heavy RPG experience, creating a delightful 15-hour fantasy romp. Child of Light just barely missed the
cut for The Impact Factor’s Top
5 Games of the Year in 2014. Needless to say, I really liked it. The second of these two smaller games was Valiant Hearts. Unlike Child of Light, which came out during a
slow point for new game releases, Valiant
Hearts came out during the summer when I was busy with a lot of different
games. Just like I wrote about in my review
for Rayman Legends, as more games
came out, Valiant Hearts
unfortunately fell further and further down my backlog. My patience was
rewarded once again, though, and this time it took the form of Valiant Hearts being released as a
complimentary PlayStation Plus game. Score. Game in (digital) hand, I was so
happy to finally take the time and jump in.
I was
initially attracted to Child of Light
because I am a big fan of the RPG genre. In much the same way, I was interested
in picking up Valiant Hearts because
a handful of games have recently reignited my infatuation with adventure games.
I’m not sure you have noticed a trend by this point, but I cannot get enough of
the genre. Telltale has been making extraordinary adventure games recently,
from The Walking Dead to Tales from the Borderlands to The Wolf Among Us. I also excitedly
picked up, played, and reviewed
the remastered version of an old school adventure game, Grim Fandango. I really enjoy the ways in which adventure games
allow for deep character exploration and stories in which the player is so
intimately involved. Valiant Hearts looked to do something
new and fun with the genre, set within a compelling world.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War, created by Ubisoft Montpellier and
released for PS4 in June 2014, is a side-scrolling adventure puzzle game. The
game takes place during World War I, set in the highly contested boundary
between France and Germany. You follow the story of four characters (and a dog, Walt) as they are
thrust into the brutal conflict of the Great War. The game is split between
these four perspectives: Karl, a German citizen deported from France at war’s
onset separating him from his wife and son, Emile, father-in-law to Karl who is
recruited into the French army, Freddie, an American fighting for France after
the tragic loss of his wife at the start of the conflict, and Anna, a Belgian
student who serves as a battlefield nurse. Each of these characters is likable and distinct, creating a compelling narrative that moves briskly throughout the
roughly 8-hour experience. Their stories are all interconnected, creating a
narrative that weaves several moving parts into one cohesive narrative. Central
to the story are the themes of camaraderie, love, and the sacrifices so many
endured during WWI. The events of Valiant
Hearts were inspired by actual letters written during the war, which gives
this great sense of authenticity to the story it presents. Valiant Hearts has some great set pieces and moving emotional
moments, and I connected with the characters and the story in a way I never
expected.
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| The cast of Valiant Hearts. Left to right: Emile, Anna, Freddy, (Walt) and Karl. |
I want to
take time to commend the team at Ubisoft Montpellier for creating a game set
during WWI. We have had so many titles that focus on the events of World War II
and perhaps even more set during “modern” warfare, but only a precious few set
during the Great War. This is of course generally reflective of our society, as
I can remember covering WWII in school in a much greater extent than WWI. Having
taken the time on my own to learn about WWI, I really appreciated the motifs
and historical moments represented in Valiant
Hearts. One of the most significant takeaways for the entire world
following WWI was that war had changed. Essentially every major European
military conflict prior to WWI was fought using Napoleonic tactics. This style
of warfare involved placing large regiments of infantry onto the battlefield who
move in lines, rush towards the enemy, and fight in close quarter skirmishes.
Horse-mounted cavalry units were used charge into groups of soldiers to break
ranks, flank enemies, or secure a strategic position on the battlefield. With
the advent of new and devastating tools of war, like mounted machine guns,
bomb-dropping airplanes, and chemical agents, the early years of WWI were a
massacre. Charging infantry were no match for machine gunners, who mowed down
hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers in a single belt of ammunition. Each side
had to adapt to the new style of warfare, by digging trenches, using barbed
wire, grenades, and more. More so than any war before it, WWI was hell on
earth. It was physically and psychologically devastating and resulted in the
deaths of over 5 million people. And Valiant
Hearts captures so much of this so well. Battles take place in the game in
which you can see dozens of your companions gunned down, large piles of bodies
littering the battlefield, and whole cities under a cloud of the poisonous
chlorine gas. Valiant Hearts explores
the tragedy of WWI in other ways, too. Similar to the American Civil War, WWI
tore apart families with brother fighting brother or, as the case is in Valiant Hearts, father fighting
son-in-law. For many of those along the boundary between France and Germany, or
those living in Belgium, you might have to fight and kill your neighbor, your
teacher, your baker.
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| The trench warfare in WWI was hell on earth. Valiant Hearts captures this so well. |
Valiant Hearts is a game that wants you to know
more about WWI. The genuine portrayal of the violence, tragedy, and devastation
is just one of the ways in which the team at Ubisoft demonstrates this. Within
each level the player can discover hidden trinkets that give insights into the
people and world of the Great War. At the start of each level you can open up a
menu that contain historical facts, which contain descriptions of the battle,
location, and people in the scenario you are about to play. Historical photos
accompany each of these facts, adding to further heft to their inclusion. The
combination of the in-game items and facts give Valiant Hearts a certain educational nature, one that I really
appreciated throughout my time with the game. While playing the game itself you
are taken through a greatest hits of the events and battles of WWI. Your
characters are involved in an assault on Fort Douaumont at Verdun, The Battle
of Somme, and the suicidal Nivelle Offensive. It was great to get to experience
these definitive moments from the perspective of the game’s protagonists, and
fascinating to see any of these major events in video game form.
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| The historical facts were quick & informative reads. I loved their inclusion in the game. |
Valiant Hearts, in spite of its depiction of
horrific warfare, is a beautiful game. Powered by the UbiArt Framework, the
entire game features animated hand-drawn characters and environments. The game
has a terrific aesthetic, which successfully combines comic art and contemporary
WWI iconography in a way that, even as I am writing this, sounds like it would
not work. But it does, and it is gorgeous. Each character in the game has a
comic book feel to them. This helps to soften some of truly terrible things
that take place during the story and help to highlight their striking
personalities. The look of the game manages to blend this comic book-like
lightness so expertly with the darkness and heaviness of the source material. Environments
are great to look at and explore, ranging from the bucolic French countryside,
to body-strewn trenches, to POW camps and more. A powerful title theme and all
around successful soundtrack enrich the visual presentation. The characters in Valiant Hearts communicate via pictorial
speech bubbles and characteristic vocalizations, but not dialogue. An
interesting choice for sure, but one that works within the confines of the
game. Overall, Valiant Hearts is a
solid visual and aural package that is memorable and distinct.
Valiant Hearts’ gameplay consists of light
side-scrolling exploration and classic adventure game puzzle solving. Puzzles
range from figuring out how to move obstacles out of your way, move a bomb into
location, or navigate poison gas filled trenches. Puzzles are made to feel different
between different characters, as each one has a special ability they can use.
For example, Emile has a trench shovel that allows him to dig through the
environment, Freddie has a wire cutter to move past barbed wire fences, and
Anna can heal injured characters. Many of the standard puzzles involve your
character throwing an item to knock something free or distract and enemy. With
a simple button press an arc appears on screen when you have a held item, which
made aiming your projectiles frustration free. I enjoyed the puzzles present in
Valiant Hearts. Each felt at home it
and game and fit the scenario you were placed in well. The game incorporates a
clever hint system to assist you with puzzles should you ever get stuck. After
a certain (small) amount of time passes during a puzzle, your character will
receive a carrier pigeon holding a picture that hints at your next step towards
solving the puzzle. This is a great addition, which removes a lot of
frustrations caused by many of the hint-less adventure games of yesteryear. That
said, the puzzles are all very easy
to solve. This is both a good and bad thing. I understand why the team at
Ubisoft Montpellier would want this from a game design perspective. Easy
puzzles allow the player to move past them quickly, which keeps the narrative
going. Story is so essential for Valiant
Hearts, so having easy puzzles is not necessarily bad. The ease of solving
puzzles did leave me wishing for a little more, however. I completed them so
quickly I am having a hard time remembering them as I write this review.
Further, the quick completion of puzzles made the actual gameplay of Valiant Hearts feel decidedly secondary
to the plot, characters, and setting. Thankfully, Valiant Hearts also included gameplay that moved beyond its
traditional point-and-click styled puzzles. One section involved racing a taxi
away from a zeppelin, dodging obstacles along the way. Another involved
rhythm-based mini games used when Anna is healing the wounded. These instances,
though small, helped to invigorate the gameplay and see me through to the
completion of the game.
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| Gameplay in Valiant Hearts is fun and simple. Maybe a little too simple. Also pictured here: hint pigeon! |
As I just
mentioned above, Valiant Hearts
places a heavy emphasis on its characters and its story. For the most part, I
enjoyed what Valiant Hearts presented
me with. The characters have vibrant personalities, interesting backstories,
and are likeable. The story covers love and loss in WWI predictably, but not
poorly. Where I was left wanting was in the depth of the two. The characters
and story in Valiant Hearts are fun,
but fairly shallow. You are able to experience some character development as
the plot moves forward, but not as much as is demanded by the story the game is
trying to tell. Further, Valiant Hearts
wants to cover so much historical ground that the story suffers. “Simple” is probably
the best way to describe it: not terrible by any means, but filled with
predictable moments, reliance on standard war tropes, deus ex machina moments,
etc. Because of this, Valiant Hearts
comes across almost like a dark children’s storybook. Part of this storybook
feeling emerges from each of your four characters very minimally participating
in the violence—not a single one ever uses a gun. While I get that gunplay
might have been wonky in game and its absence potentially makes the characters more
likable, it removes them from the reality of the war happening around them and
weakens some of Valiant Hearts’s
strong depictions of trench warfare. Overall though, I liked this storybook
feeling and I liked the savvy depiction of WW1 violence as I described above,
but just wished the two synergized better. Still, by a very early point in the
game I was invested in the characters and rooted for them to succeed. A tragic
moment at the end of the game had my eyes tearing up, too.
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| A very dark storybook indeed. |
Valiant Hearts is a wonderful and powerful game. Where
it succeeds, it does so with a confidence that is beautiful to behold. Perhaps
more could have been done to merge the storybook feel with depictions warfare,
or add some more depth to the plot, but it affects the final package in only a
minor way. Playing Valiant Hearts is an experience. One that has stuck around
with me for a while following its completion. I hope you all get to experience
it too.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
4/5
4/5
