An excursion into history and works of art – Valiant Hearts: The Great War

War is cruel and this cannot be changed. And the war will change people in a matter of days.

Most likely, when you hear the words “game about war,” some kind of shooter or strategy automatically appears in your mind, but this is not the case today. Today we review Valiant Hearts: The Great War (beware of spoilers).

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a 2D adventure platformer developed by Ubisoft Montpellier on June 25, 2014 and released on PS3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, PC and mobile devices, as well as Nintendo Switch.

Five threads – one ball

The story begins with a French farm. The head of the family Emil, his daughter Marie, her son Victor and husband Karl. There were no signs of trouble, but after the white stripe there is always a black one..

The war has begun. Karl was taken first and since he was German, he had to fight on the German side. A couple of days later they took Emil, but to the French side. Now you have to examine the enemy twice so as not to kill a loved one.

War brings only pain.

War brings only pain.

During the war, Emil met an American – Freddie. He had personal scores with one German general – Baron von Dorff. Although Freddie is called lucky, fate did not spare him – on his wedding day he lost his beloved due to an aerial bombardment. Soon Emil learns that Karl was appointed to serve with that same general.

At the same time, Emil finds a new companion – Walt. Walt is an ordinary dog ​​who was taken into service as a medical dog. Walt had a sister – Cassie. Cassie was smart and playful, and Walt was kind and always came to the rescue. The dogs suffered the same fate as our heroes – they were also taken to war. Cassie became a messenger dog, but one day she didn’t have time to dodge an artillery shell.

The last heroine will be Anna, a young nurse who is looking for her father. Her father was a scientist. In war, such people are needed and von Dorff took his work, as well as the scientist himself, with him to the airship.

The connecting link of all stories was the war. So throughout the game our heroes will try to survive in the harsh conditions of war and get to von Dorff.

Two sides of the same coin

No matter how cruel the https://ukcryptocasinos.co.uk/tether-casinos/ war is, humanity must remain in a person. Throughout the game, our heroes will save both their own and the soldiers of the opposite side. This game can be compared to This War of Mine – only if it was about civilians, then here we will see the horrors of war while participating in it.

The game often gives us fairly ordinary tasks – find ink and pen, fix a car, etc.d. Such ordinary actions in such difficult times are what make us human, but no one has canceled the war and very often such peacetime will be interrupted by bombing or another attack.

Sounds of gunfire and puffs of smoke

In terms of atmosphere, the game is simply perfect, just look at the scene of the first battle – everything is quite colorful and inspiring music is playing, but after the death of the first soldier the colors turned gray and the music changed to alarming.

The soundtrack in the game is beautiful and plays well with the atmosphere. And everything is fine with the sound design – it conveys the desired atmosphere well.

Link to full soundtrack.

The game is made in a drawn style and it suits the game very well. The developers say that they did this to show complex things in simple language. As for me, this style is ideal for a story about 4 ordinary people at war, because there were hundreds of thousands of them.

The game has collectibles – a common thing in the game. But instead of: “collect 100 feathers just because,” here they are really interesting to collect, because they give a piece of information about that period. You will be able to find letters, military supplies and household items – the game will tell you what the significance of all this was during the war. Also in the game there are records about the events shown in the game.

Here is a historical chronicle and a collectible item

Here is a historical chronicle and a collectible item

Throw, spin, repeat

If the plot and atmosphere were done perfectly, then the gameplay part suffers. We either run forward trying to dodge projectiles, or solve a simple puzzle. Although they are trying to diversify the gameplay with QTEs, runner stages in the style of Lost in Harmony and boss battles, this does not really save the game.

Walt the dog, you could even say it’s a gameplay feature. He will go on adventures with all the characters, but most often with Emil. Apart from climbing into small passages, carrying objects in his mouth and pressing levers, he can do nothing.

The game is the same for all characters, but I noted some minor differences.

Emil knows how to dig and most of his levels will be tied to escaping from bullets and bombs.

Freddy has wire cutters and his levels are more action-packed, we’ll even ride a tank.

Anna heals people and her levels most often do not occur in the midst of hostilities. Well, more stages of the runners take place on her behalf.

Karl knows how to change clothes… everything

Boss tank and airship… Wait what??

Finally, it’s worth talking about the absurdity of the game. Remember I told you that we help both ours and others? Well, we kill them very often too. Either we’ll throw a grenade, because there’s no other way, then we’ll drive over in a tank, or we’ll just hit you in the back of the head. Yes, this is war, but from the plot of the game it doesn’t always look appropriate.

Boss battles are even more absurd. To do this, it is enough to give one example – a fight with an airship using an organ in a church. Thank God there are few such strange moments and the story never ceases to be atmospheric.

Game 2.5D and more

Although the game is made in 2D, it often tries to create perspective. For example, the remains of a burning airship – they are specially made as if in 3D. Also, our characters often use doors and move to the background or foreground.

There is no difficulty in the game (but you can choose a mode without hints). Maybe you’ll die a couple of times or get stuck solving one riddle. By the way, the checkpoints are not very nicely located – sometimes you have to replay a good part of the level, but as was said, you almost never have to start from a checkpoint.

The game is completely Russified, which is nice, but some of the text in the character’s diary does not fit and the text cannot be read. The game has bugs, but they are not critical. The duration of the passage is 5-7 hours, and the controls are normal.

The gameplay part of the game is not the best, but the story and atmosphere are just wonderful and the game is short enough that you don’t get too angry at the gameplay. After the credits, by the way, there is a hint of a sequel or something like that, but you yourself know that there is nothing like that. You should definitely play through the game once for the wonderful storyline and history.