Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a beautiful puzzle adventure game developed by the well-known team from Ubisoft Montpellier, who have managed to create yet another game worthy of recognition. With a combination of fantastic animation, incredible characters and a story which might lead some to tears, this game shows us how a tale of war should be presented.
The story is beautifully crafted, showing us the horrors of war from the perspective of different characters. The first of these is Karl, a German living in France, who at the beginning of World War I, is deported to Germany, thus being forced to leave behind his wife. Marie, and his newborn baby, Victor. While Karl has to enroll in the German military, Marie's father, Emile, is also required to enroll in his country's army, thus joining the war for the French. While serving on opposing factions of the war, they meet during conflicts, and always try to take care of each other. Freddie, an American who volunteered to join the French army, develops a great friendship with Emile, and so does Anna, a Belgian student who doubles as a battlefield nurse. On the course of the amazing journey the game sets you on, you play as these four characters involved in the war, and constantly help one another get through it, albeit some of them being on different factions. Although the stories of these four characters are very well presented, I do think it got a bit convoluted, because sometimes they would present a present-day battle, and then switch to the past to show something from that character's life. But the fact that they make the "random" meetings between them so believable, I guess it's forgivable. Take note, the feeling of camaraderie in this game is one of its best aspects.
The ending was touching, and not just the final scene or mission, but the whole last chapter of the game. This fourth chapter does a great job of implementing a feeling of dread, sorrow and despair while you try and make your way to safety while watching everyone around you die.
From a visual standpoint, the game is beautiful, its art direction being something else entirely. It manages to show some wonderful scenery, yet also induces a horrid atmosphere when presenting the trenches in which the soldiers fought, using corpses as cover.
The puzzles, unfortunately aren't anything special. Some of them take a while to figure out, others are a walk in the park. But unlike other games of this type, where even though I would get stuck somewhere, I would be very interested in getting through that specific part, Valiant Hearts makes it feel like a drag some times and maybe too easily taking my mind off the story and annoying me. This being said, some of them are cool and the feeling you get when solving them will be good, and in case you have too much trouble, the game presents you with hints, if you want. Still, for a puzzle game, having just "some" of them good is not enough.
The game play is nice, and they did use the mechanics of Valiant Hearts to the highest extents possible. For example, one of my favorite parts was playing as Anna, and being a nurse, she would tend to people's needs. While she is medically assisting a wounder soldier, you have to hit certain buttons which appear on screen at that time, keeping you focused for a while. Also, I, for one, managed to get past the fact that you don't use any hand-held guns during the game. Although you do fire some cannons, drive some tanks and shoot air-planes out of the sky, you do not actually fire a side-arm or anything like that. Sometimes you do knock some enemy soldiers out, but simply using your fists or a shovel. But I did find it annoying that at one point, you complete a very difficult mission and you are awarded a medal or something like that, and you are still stuck with the same freaking shovel, wearing just an undershirt with no body armor whatsoever. You also have driving sequences which are actually pretty well crafted and tend to take you out of the more somber atmosphere of the game for a couple of minutes and give you some time to relax a bit.
The soundtrack of the game is the way it should be, heart breaking. If the sick environment won't get to you, the music will. Although there are some moments in which the music may seem misplaced, I do consider it to be quite appropriate for the respective sequence. You will know what I am talking about when you play the game.
I also suggest playing the game in a maximum of two sessions. The game is about 7 hours and 45 minutes long, and you should sacrifice a whole day to get through it. I for one, played the game over the course of 4 or 5 days, playing only when I had time and some of the touching moments didn't really get to me as they should have. But hey, maybe that's just my fault.
All in all, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is probably the best war-related game in the past couple of years. I, for one, love when "my" characters are well-developed, and this game did not fall short in that department. One last thing before I end...you didn't think I would forget the dog, did you? A fantastic side-kick, I actually was so worried in some moments when I had to put his life on the line. Great, great dog! I think his name was Walt...