The best and worst thing about playing Valiant Hearts: The Great War is that you feel guilty enjoying it.
Developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and running on the UbiArt engine, Valiant Hearts is a puzzle game that tells the heartfelt story of those affected by World War I. As much of a history lesson as a narrative — each of the game’s chapters are littered with collectibles that do a great job of providing historical facts about the Great War — the game weaves together stories of compassion, revenge, love and ultimately, what it means to be human.
The game’s gorgeous, cartoon-like art style is in direct contrast to the graphic nature of war. As characters use something akin to Simlish to converse during actual gameplay, you can’t help but smile and coo at the characters and their animations.
That is, until they’re shot or hit by a mortar and the screen explodes in a wash of blood.
In the same way, you’ll giggle as you progress through the game’s tutorial, learning to throw grenades and beatdown enemies with the butt of your rifle. It’s extremely cutesy, but with the game’s narrator painting a bleak picture of the situation as you push forward, it’s hard not to think of the real-life conscripted soldiers who were ripped from their homes and told they needed to kill.
As violent as the game is, it’s not the focus of gameplay. A majority of your time will be used solving puzzles, using visual clues and pictograms to deduce how you’ll need to progress. You play as a number of different characters: Karl, a German man living in France with his French wife and their child, who is forced into the German Army; Emile, Karl’s father-in-law, who’s conscripted into the French Army; Freddie, a gruff African-American who befriends Emile; and finally, Anna, a French medic who positions herself on the war’s frontlines in an effort to save lives.
Each character has their own specific skills; Anna can heal others through a rhythm-based mini-game, Frankie can cut through-barbed wire and Emile has a canine companion named Walt that can be used to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. The characters and their narratives intertwine at various points of the story, and characters bond and help each other in very touching ways. Again, and much like Child of Light before it, I wasn’t expecting to get so emotionally connected to a game that looks the way Valiant Hearts does. Nor was I expecting a game that’s so inspiring, yet utterly depressing at the same time. What’s up with Ubisoft’s latest digital releases doing just that?
The juxtaposition of cute fun and bleak war really sums up what Valiant Hearts is. As you first take control of Anna, she’s driving to the frontlines of the war, soldiers clinging to the sides of her taxi; you’re charged to steer around obstacles in order to get there. With a tremendous version of the can-can playing as you do so, you can’t help but delight in the task. Pulling up to the frontlines, that all washes away; fun clearly over, Anna rushes to the side of a soldier trapped under rubble and does her best to save him.
With the last of our World War I veterans having passed years ago, Valiant Hearts: The Great War does two very important things: accurately mixing those few and far between flashes of fun and merriment into a bleak, war-torn environment, ultimately ensuring we’ll never forget the sacrifices made by those who fought for our freedom.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a digital-only title, available from 25 June on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and Windows PC.
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