How many times have you respawned in CoD or Battlefield and given thought to your characters wife and child waiting at home, whilst you recklessly press forward into enemy lines, bullets raining all around you? Never? I thought so.
When it comes to many of our much beloved war based games we do not give our characters another thought, as long as you make sure your load-outs and perks are ideal, polygonal family doesn’t get a look in. This is what makes Valiant Hearts so unique as it tries to deliver the experience of heartbreak the characters you control endure when their name is called at a time of war.
It seems this latest Ubisoft entry into their growing UbiArt engine catalogue isn’t meant to be a run and gun platformer but a more delicate puzzle based adventure whilst following the misfortunes of five very different people whose lives entangle in the midst of the horrors of the First World War.
The game starts immediately pulling at your emotions as you are introduced to Karl, a German husband living with his French wife and child on his father-in-laws farm. Due to the impending conflict with Germany, the French government deported all German nationals living in France (historically true). Before you can get to know the family, Karl is taken from his wife, his kid and his whole world. Then before you even have chance to feel sorry for his wife, French officials order her father and farm owner Emile to enlist for duty, leaving mother and baby alone in uncertain times. At first you follow the journey of Emile as the French army meet the Germans head on, on your way you befriend an American called Freddie who enlists with the French to gain revenge on a German general. Valiant Hearts draws your attention to the horror of WW1. Although the character stories may be fictitious, they’re inspired by the personal tragedies experienced by families from all sides of the conflict.
As you play through each stage the characters journeys become entwined in the chaos directed brilliantly by the game, often making you feel like all will be well until the unexpected happens. It has you fall in love with a K9 friend that you meet early no. He can perform tasks at the click of a button and helps aid your progression through the game. I won’t ruin the story for you, no spoilers here, but be prepared to feel attached to the characters as you work round the puzzles and meet new people along the way.
Valiant Hearts is effectively a 2D side scroller, but that fact is easily forgotten. Ubisoft’s UbiArt engine goes to great lengths to providing stunning scenes and beautiful depth. There will be a lot of action in the fore and in the backgrounds that make you feel you are in a more open world even despite being restricted to a 2d plane. The puzzles are not overly difficult, you must find certain items to proceed along the stage, often the puzzles are a sequence of conditions you must meet. For example you may need to save a man from a burning building with help from your Dog, who will then give you the key to enter a door you need to go through. The puzzle do get a little tougher as the game goes on, it’s worth keeping your eye on the background too, as often you can access certain parts that will help you solve certain challenges. The animation suits the art direction of the game perfectly and the comic book style pop-ups have a way of making you fearful. Doom can be thrown your way at a moments notice, but the game provides an early warning system via these pop ups.
The game is well narrated and goes to great lengths to suck you in to the drama, but what stood out for me is the way the characters communicate. You see speech bubbles with images rather than words which give you hints of what to do but also allow you to make up in your head what you believe they are saying to each other, tapping in to your imagination. It’s certainly a clever way to make the player feel more engaged with the characters and yes, I even gave them French and German accents.
The controls are basic but that’s all you need, standard left stick movement, button prompts for certain actions and an aiming line for throwing objects ensure the game isn’t complicated and allows you to concentrate more on the story. A jump button would’ve have come in handy when on stages that have different platforms and obstacles but it’s not a noticeable absence.
The game is designed to make you think about the personal stories of individuals who experienced World War 1. It takes you through the chapters based on real events during the war. One nice touch to the game is that you’ll often be invited to read up on the history of the war with information and a remastered photographs from 1914 onwards.
If you are as interested in war history like I am, this is a fantastic way to learn what actually happened in the war and why your characters are going through the same ordeal. From zeppelins to mustard gas, you could call Valiant Hearts an educational tool but if you are not interested then the informational prompts might feel a little intrusive at times.
Valiant hearts is not interested in who was winning the war, it wants you to lose yourself in the misery of those just trying to get home, rescue their loved ones or avenge their losses. The game itself engages your mind and imagination, the fun is to overcome the puzzles laid out in front of you, but admittedly, it is not as challenging as it could be. The graphics won’t win awards, the controls are very basic, it likely won’t be on any top 10 list and despite 100 collectables to gather as you go through, there’s little to entice you to replay it. But that’s not what it was made for, it was made to tell a story, to educate us, to sit back, reflect and experience The Great War, lest it be forgotten.
Villz was a community contributor to ICXM, writing 3 articles in 2014–2015 covering game reviews. ICXM operated as an independent Xbox and Windows gaming outlet through the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming, drawing from a rotating bench of editorial volunteers. They post on X as @Villz85.