Valiant Hearts: The Great War Review

World War I has proven to be a difficult subject to adapt into a game. While there have been attempts to faithfully depict The Great War in games, the trench-warfare aspect of the conflict makes it difficult to create engaging shooters or interesting strategy games. The harsh conditions the soldiers experienced also create problems when trying to accurately depict World War I. It is a bit surprising, then, that a side-scrolling puzzle game with a cartoonish art style is not only one of the most faithful representations of WWI, it also manages to be a fun video game with a decent amount of challenge.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is the latest game built on the UbiArt Framework and follows a group of soldiers as they fight their way through one of Europe’s bloodiest conflicts. Players take control of a French farmer named Emile, a German born farmhand to Emile named Karl, and an American fighting for the French named Freddie. Later on, the player will encounter a nurse named Anna, as well as a dog named Walt, who is used to solve various puzzles the human characters cannot. The game swaps between these characters at various points, although their stories intertwine in several sections. Despite the lack of major dialogue, Valiant Hearts’ characters are still endearing thanks to the game’s use of narration. The narrator not only explains the character’s back stories, but also describes their feelings and emotions in between sections, giving them a level of humanity.

Like Rayman Legends and Child of Light before it, Valiant Hearts’ art style is cartoonish in nature, while also providing a strong amount of detail as well as a singular and compelling aesthetic. Primary colors are bright and vibrant, while the use of brown and grey reinforce the grim atmosphere of the war. The juxtaposition of a cartoon art style used to depict one of the most horrific wars in human history is admittedly strange. However, this is balanced out by historical facts being available through the options, where players can opt to look though an overview of the major events of WWI , a summary that’s highlighted by colored photos and detailed descriptions of the war. There’s even a link to buy a book on the subject in the menus if you’re so inclined.

The game is broken up into four chapters, each taking place within the span of about a year. Each chapter contains various puzzles that must be solved, many of which involve finding an item that can be used to advance. Players move the characters by tapping the screen from left to right, and pick up usable objects by tapping on them. Swiping the screen will make the character attack whatever is in front of them, an option that also allows players to clear piles of debris and occasionally knock out an enemy soldier. For a game that was originally designed around the use of a gamepad, the touch controls work surprisingly well, although trying to pick up an object can be a bit finicky at times. Also, while the game looks gorgeous on a modern phone or tablet, be prepared for some major slowdowns.

The puzzles aren’t especially complex, although they still require a decent amount of thinking. While most of them boil down to finding an object, giving it to someone for another object or placing it somewhere else, figuring out how to go about solving them is still a lot of fun. Many of them also require the use of your dog to pull levers while the player performs another task, or simply sending your canine through a tunnel a human would not be able to fit through. Even if you do manage to get stuck on a puzzle, the game offers a helpful hint system that becomes available after a certain amount of time. Of course, if the player decides they don’t want any help, they can simply choose to ignore it. Having this kind of option is great for the more hardcore players who want to experience the game’s challenges as they were originally designed.

Whether for its gameworld depiction of WWI, it’s cool, distinct art style, or for its superb puzzle solving mechanics, there is a lot to like in Valiant Hearts: The Great War. The cartoon style mixed with the game’s grim atmosphere works surprisingly well, and the puzzles are engaging enough to make the player want to continue moving forward. The game can either be purchased separately by chapter, or together in a single package. How you go about buying it doesn’t really matter in the long run, the important things is that you do as Valiant Hearts is an experience that is definitely worth checking out.