War is the Only Enemy Worth Fighting
Valiant Hearts is a World War I puzzle adventure game with an elementary school approach to education. It's simple, clean and very straightforward. Historical facts abound through hidden collectibles but the focus of the game is the human relationships in the middle of the war. And not necessary those of the "main" characters - no, Valiant Hearts is just about relationships in general. Well, relationships during a fucked up time.
The game has four main characters who are also joined by an adorable and pet-able dog companion. The crisscrossing of stories is well done and the main narratives are strong enough (father and step son on different sides of the war; man wants to return to his wife and child; man wants revenge for wife's death; woman wants to find lost and in-danger father) but what's most poignant here are the smaller interactions. Walt, the dog, is a German medical hound who two characters save from barbed wire. Very late in the game you will meet Walt's long lost dog trainer. Because of your relationship with Walt, Walt's affection for his trainer upon meeting him again is heart-warming, regardless of the fact that he is a GERMAN ENEMY. And this type of humanizing of bad guys is really where Valiant Hearts shines. Throughout the game you have small moments - sometimes two soldiers from opposing sides cooperating or a medic refusing to show race favor - where binary relationships are complicated by the reality of people being human, and not monsters. And then we have the reverse. Moments where the French Command is as culpable for evil as the artillery coming down from the other direction. War is the enemy, and while this is an obvious enough trope, Valiant Hearts is subtle and slight with its storytelling. The grade school style presentation keeps things moving along and the tone never succumbs to that sad error most "serious games" make, which is being far to serious and sepia.
The so-called bad guy of the game is the only outstandingly Gamey (and largely unnecessary) aspect of the narrative, but the game itself *is very much a game* - a puzzle game. The trailers showed very little of this so you may be surprised just how puzzly it is. Usually these are a good level of challenge, allowing you to complete the puzzle with just a little bit of headscratching. The visuals certainly help keep you going when you get stuck on the 2-3 not-so-cleverly designed bits of the game. Only once or twice was my progress impeded because of some visual muddiness or a button prompt acting erratically around a key item. A few reviewers have had completely bizarre and unsupportable views of this game, which is that "it's barely a game". These people are liars and must have not actually played any of it. This is very easily a 90 / 10 game to story split, it just so happens that the game part isn't a balls out difficult explosion of challenge; you'll progress at a steady clip but there's a good amount of game here. I put about 10 hours into Valiant Hearts and am just now going back to get the collectibles I missed. Your mileage will definitely vary based on your puzzle-solving speed.
World War I is a very rare theme for video games, especially with it being a war and all (we love wars in games!) so for some of you this game just existing is a treat. Seeing all the German/French/Canadian infantry getups and all the tanks and all the flags and battlefields rendered in this beautiful hand-drawn style was just absolutely incredible. The authenticity is more than what you need in a game like this and a real bonus for history fans. The opening infantry charge of the game is jaw-dropping. Because the tone of the game bounces from "War is awful" to "funny car mini game" you're never crushed by the oppressive setting and the narrative as well reminds us often that we can all find happiness and hope even in conditions which seem so obviously to spell doom.
While I didn't burst in to tears playing Valiant Hearts I haven't stopped thinking about it since setting it down two weeks ago. If there's any message in there it's just that war sucks. Humans aren't supposed to be chits on a board to be chewed up by nationally-oriented death engines. In a war, everyone and no one is your enemy. Your commander, the shrapnel falling from the sky, and men on the other side of the trench are all just as likely to get you killed. Inhumanity prevails whenever we reduce people to groups and nations. All Valiant Hearts wants to say is that every soldier is someone's father, brother or son. They have wives, daughters and friends. They love their dogs.
