Valiant Hearts: The Great War (X360) – Review

With so many different titles to choose from over a given year of gaming, I find it hard to justify replaying any game when there’s so much I haven’t played. Yet there are certain titles that I play almost on a yearly basis, with Super Metroid consistently finding its way on to my screen at least once a year. When I first entered the world of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, I had an inkling that I might be adding a game to my replayable list, and as I ventured into the trenches of World War I and Valiant Hearts, I was completely enchanted from beginning to end.

Given the backdrop of Valiant Hearts, it should come as no surprise that the plot centers around the events of World War I, touching on most major battles of the Great War. The game focuses on four different characters that have been affected by the war, exhibiting not only how the war was devastating for the soldiers involved, but how it tore their families apart and affected citizens as well. Each protagonist shows a different aspect of wartime life: Karl, the German immigrant deported from France without his wife and son; Emile, Karl’s father-in-law who’s drafted into the French military; Freddie, the American fighting for the French military; and the Belgian, Anna, a nurse who has crossed the front lines to provide medical assistance.

Each have their own reasons pushing them forward that’s depicted in the game and through their emotionally written diaries, with their paths inevitably crossing as the war progresses. The narrative is truly gripping; from watching the events of the four protagonists’ stories unfold and intertwine with heart wrenching effect to the amazing attention to detail given to all of the historical facts about the war that constantly provided me with new and interesting information, it comes together to form a fantastic story that paces the game perfectly.

Accompanying the emotionally powerful plot is a unique spin on point-and-click adventure gameplay. While clearly there’s no pointer to control as you would with a traditional game of the genre, the manner in which the side-scrolling gameplay unfolds is very similar to titles like The Walking Dead Season 1 and 2, as well as other Telltale games. Most of Valiant Hearts is puzzle-based, requiring the character to intuitively solve puzzles through finding certain items, manipulating different objects, or throwing grenades, dynamite, or random junk to reach different areas.

This is an excerpt from the full story which was originally featured on gamrReview, read the full version here – Valiant Hearts: The Great War (X360) – Review

Read more here: gamrReview