Valiant Hearts: The Great War Reviews
Adventure with an artistic section at a very high level, with an interesting narrative, but with an excessively low difficulty, which can be exhausting if what you are looking for is a playable challenge.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Valiant Hearts: The Great War presents us the grim side of World War 1 which is now thankfully a thing of the past. It looks pleasant and this Nintendo Switch port seems to have fared better than Child of Light despite running on the same game engine, so if you are seeking a brief interactive story, this gets a solid recommendation.
I give Ubisoft Montpellier a lot of credit for taking a level-headed look at a period of history that usually gets overshadowed, but the gameplay didn't get nearly as much attention as the aesthetics. If the puzzles had been more unique or interesting they could've propped up the story instead of dragging it down to mediocrity. Instead Valiant Heart turns one of the greatest conflicts in human history into a dull, repetitive chore.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is an extremely linear, extremely easy, and extremely… okay adventure game that deals with the real, non-romanticised side of the first World War. Sadly while a product that's deeply engrossing, technically flawless, and simply beautiful to look at, its core, the story and characters, doesn't manage to ever become the riveting war drama that it is supposed to.
I continue to be impressed with the ongoing creative efforts of Ubisoft Montpellier, and 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' is yet another reason to be excited. They've taken what many consider to be the most tragic war in history and turned it into a game that has a story filled with heart and emotion. 'Valiant Hearts' is as close to an interactive history lesson as you can come, and were I a high school history teacher, I would find a way to work the game into my classroom lecture. Fans of history – tragic or otherwise – and wonderful storytelling will find plenty of reason to see 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' through to the end.
Valiant Hearts is a breakthrough title that attempts to show the gamer the impact the First World War had on regular people. Instead of being given a bag of guns, you're simply tasked with surviving by getting through each area so you can get the protagonists home. This is the game that proves war games don't have to be all about mowing down waves of enemies and the emphasis on the characters and atmosphere outshines the basic puzzling and item gathering.
If you're most interested in a good story, engaging characters and an altogether completely different take on the average War game, you're in luck because Valiant Hearts: The Great War is tailored by folks just like you.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a truly impressive experience that manages to focus on the realities of World War 1 without becoming a dull or upsetting experience. It adds just enough cheerful moments to stay upbeat and you're certainly going to care and fall in love with the main characters, especially the small dog.
But in a way Valiant Hearts is a challenge to everyone in the industry; it's a challenge to the publishers churning out the same old "war games," and it's a challenge to all the players that continue to buy into these games without really thinking about what they are playing. War isn't fun, and it has a real impact on the people that are involved in it. It's games like this one that, critically, remind us that there is a human side to war.
The five hours or so of gameplay that you'll get from a single playthrough are rewarding and memorable, with that fantastic storyline backing up some great puzzling action. Some may find themselves frustrated when bugs occur, but we think most will be forgiving of them once the end credits roll. As a package, we're sure that Valiant Hearts is something that you'll never forget. And you should indeed never forget.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is short, but anything longer would most definitely be padding. The entire package fits well together, and it goes down in my book as one of the best and most complete puzzle games since Portal 2. Before you dip into the doldrums of summer, I can't recommend enough picking up this game first. All I need now is for the soundtrack to be officially released, and my life will be perfect.
And so it's a good try, Ubisoft Montpellier, but ultimately in your failure to commit to your high concept, Valiant Hearts is ultimately the same as every other pretty good game: flashes of brilliance countered by nonsense tropes that are inserted just because these are the things you do in video games.
An emotional, rewarding take on the Great War in a medium that often glosses over the horrors of battle. Beautiful, sad, triumphant.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a very good game. It has a very engaging story which will bring tears to your eyes while you play. This game has heart, so I can recommend it to anyone who wants to have a journey that won't be forgotten for a long time.
Valiant Hearts is a gut-wrenching journey about the brutality of war that reminds us all just how important friendship is in this world.
Valiant Hearts is a nice game. Nice being a word equally complimentary but damning in its pedestrianism. It's a game worth experiencing; a visual and audial treat; a heart-warming and heart-breaking yarn. But as a game… it falls ever so slightly short of its target.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War will certainly not be the most challenging game you play this year, but it is utterly absorbing, charming and a real experience for fans of puzzle and adventure games. Worth investing in for the soundtrack alone, it's an experimental title that - whilst it feels as if it could be a valuable educational tool for a younger audience - is still a mesmerising game for adventure fans of any age.
Valiant Hearts gets most of it right. In the end, it's just an incredible relief—if a decidedly un-American sentiment—to play a memorable war game that isn't some Rambo-inspired revenge fantasy. Well, that's not exactly right. It's a memorable game that just happens to be set during a war. And that makes all the difference.
Valiant Hearts is a rarity: a game from a massive AAA publisher that plays out a personal and intimate story in a largely untapped historical setting. More of that, Ubisoft.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War on Switch adds nothing new, but it is - like four years ago - the same wonderful game.
Review in Italian | Read full review