Valiant Hearts: The Great War

A video game about a world war is probably one of the least innovative things you could produce in today's market. How many world wars have you played through guns blazing with shrill Germans screaming and butch Americans cheering? Probably a fair few. But that's not the case with Valiant Hearts: The Great War. This time the game doesn't start you in a trench, rifle in hand ready to shoot endless waves of enemies who all seem to be aiming for you. In fact throughout the entirety of the game you never fire a rifle, so if you were looking for a shooter your in the wrong place. Valiant Hearts instead attempts to show you the side of war which is so rarely portrayed in games. It tells the stories of the individuals forced to fight against their will. The impact on the people left at home that try to make do without their brothers, fathers and husbands. The emotions that they feel and how war affects and changes them.

Set in the era of World War 1 we follow the intertwined stories of 4 different characters. Karl a German living in France who is forced against his will to return to Germany and fight for a country he no longer calls home. Emile, Karl's father in law who is drafted into the French army. Freddy an American who is driven to fight by pure personal vengeance and Anna, a Belgian student who takes to the roads looking for her father while helping out with her medical skills as best she can along the way.

These 4 characters a long with a dog we meet on the way continuously bump into each other somewhat conveniently in a war torn world that is Western Europe during 1914-1918. Some times this takes away from the experience in the way that it makes it a lot less believable. Though It could be argued that the nature of the game itself allows for these artistic liberties due to the overall cartoony style of the game. It makes up for it however in the gripping stories of the 4 characters who are fleshed out with diary entries which progress with the game. Though apart from these entries and some grunting, there is no other verbal communication. Instead the game relies on communicating almost entirely through visuals. This is where the UbIart Engine really excels. All the emotions are seen through this comic book inspired art-work. This engine has previously been used with Rayman origins but Valiant Hearts has really utilised its potential. The game relies on the players to empathise with the heroes and only spells out the basic details. But we know through the small details in the background, the faces and body languages of our heroes what is going on.

Apart from it being visually beautiful which it is. It should be admired for the way it lets the player experience the game completely on their own. The game never tells you how you should feel about a particular scene, it leaves clues and hints in the art which then allows you to interpret it in your own way. All this is also complimented with an effective classical inspired soundtrack which helps set the tones of the scenes. The music is also used in a somewhat surprising way during certain parts of the game where you are dodging obstacles in a self-propelled cab in tune with classical music.

The majority of the game consists of simple navigational puzzle solving with nothing all that challenging. Usually at the start of a lever you are presented with a main task which has to be solved to allow you to move on. The game then has you complete other smaller puzzles in order to acquire the objects we need to solve the main puzzle. For example in one sequence you have to repair a car, in order to do this you have to among other things cool the overheated engine. There is a water post nearby but you need something to pour the water into. The object you need turns out to be a glass bottle which is acquired through preforming another task for a lady in a house who then rewards you with a glass bottle. These puzzles are just about challenging enough not to make them seem like mindless tasks to move on to the next bit, however sometimes they can more or less unrelated to the story and then become mundane chores.

Even though some of these tasks are slightly comical and may seem out of place they somehow manage to pull it off and make it feel like they fit into the game. The one part that does let it down is when an evil baron shows up, and suddenly the main goal becomes to find and beat him. Whereas previously you as the player have been dealing with the faceless evil that lies within the horrors of war itself, It has now manifested itself in this one character which results in a boss fight. Its almost as if Valiant hearts is trying to prove that it is and should be a game and not a comic book.

And it should be a game, it wouldn't have had the same effect if you were to read it as a comic strip or watch it as a cartoon. Playing the characters yourself allows you to connect with them on a different level. And even though it has a flaws in its underlying game design and doesn't offer the most exciting gameplay, the interactive nature of some of the heart rendering scenes are more than enough to demonstrate that there was a point in turning this story into a game. Whether or not you are a historical fanatic Valiant Hearts: The Great War It is well worth seeing through to the end.