PC Review: "Valiant Hearts - The Great War"

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier

Release Date: June 24 [PSN], June 25 [XBLA, PC] 2014 (USA)

Premise:

Valiant Hearts is a Puzzle Adventure game set during the First World War (World War 1). Unlike most war games, this one doesn't involve shooting or killing, but rather focuses on the people affected by the war as well as the war itself.

Gameplay: 

The game is a 2D Side-Scrolling Adventure. You move from left to right, sometimes pushing and pulling objects in the world, climbing over some and going up and down ladders to reach your objective.

The main gameplay involves Puzzle solving. You play as multiple different characters throughout your journey in the game, as well as temporarily giving commands to a Dog through one of the characters who can help you solve puzzles. Puzzles in the game can be as simple as climbing atop ledges to reach the next doorway to as intricate as having to give commands to another character to move while pulling objects and raising platforms to reach the next part.

The violence in the game comes from the environment and the world itself, rather than from the characters you play directly, aside from a few times where you bonk a few soldiers on the back of the head with a rifle butt, a cooking ladle or whatever item your current character happens to have on him or her.

Graphics:

The graphics are 2D based on the UbiArt Framework used most recently in Child of Light. If you're looking for 3D Crysis graphics this isn't it, but that's not what this game is about. The art style is of just that, art. Characters appearing drawn into the world and which move as such. 

Sound:

I really enjoyed the soundtrack in this game. The music was composed perfectly for the environments in which you're playing. It's all really what you'd expect during scenes like a chase sequences with fast paced, hurry-to-make-it tones and the like, but what really brings it home is the somber tones during the more touching moments in the game that help you connect with it. 

Length:

Valiant Hearts is a strictly Linear game with collectibles to be had with each character in every level. There is also a wealth of information to read about that tells you the true history of the war as you progress in the game. The further you get, the more diary entries you unlock for the characters, which give you an even further glimpse into their psyche. Including all of the collectibles and reading material combined with the actual gameplay, you can easily squeeze between 3-6 hours of game time out of Valiant Hearts, depending on your play style this could even be more.

Value:

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with Valiant Hearts. I went in expecting an emotional tale of loss and pain and although those moments are there, I feel that the developers chose to include more light-hearted moments in the game as a way of reducing what some would call "monotony."

 In my opinion, the game would have been perfect if it stuck to the dark depths of the war and kept its stride of portraying the war as the rotten, horrible thing that it is, rather than throwing in up-beat music during car rides, for example, just to change the pace up in a game that didn't need its pace changed.

All in all, the game was well worth it and should be played by any who enjoy games as art and can appreciate a story about the horrors of war and mankind's persistence to survive when being torn between love and battle.