Valiant Hearts: The Great War Reviews
While the UbiArt Framework logo at the beginning of the game should be a clear sign that Valiant Hearts is visually beautiful, its breathtaking, unforgettable narrative comes somewhat as a surprise. While its occasionally dull gameplay and noticeably low level of challenge prevent it from being a masterpiece, Valiant Hearts is one of best games a Ubisoft studio has created in recent history.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a graphically superb puzzler, tackling historical events that are not perhaps known to everyone and doing it in a lighthearted, yet respectful manner. Gameplay wise it's not going to challenge but the story, the characters and the emotional response that the combined product will evoke in players is easily enough to justify the asking price.
Ubisoft Montpellier made a decision to not make the player feel powerful, to instead make them afraid of the war.
So in the end, Valiant Hearts is something of a flawed masterpiece. But it's a masterpiece nonetheless. This is a game that definitely won't be for everyone, but it's something that the videogame industry has been in dire of need of. Being a steel-balled, Nazi-killing war hero is all well and good, but Valiant Hearts reminds us that there's more than one way to tell a war story.
There's not many video games that treat war with the respect its participants deserve. Metal Gear is too preachy and ham-fisted while Call of Duty & Medal of Honour are bombastic dude-fests disinterested in reality. Valiant Hearts, by using the war as a backdrop and avoiding too much direct conflict, pays tribute to the 16 million that perished in The Great War 100 years ago and does it with humour, pathos and melancholy.
There has been a large contingency of people asking for a war game in which you don't pick up and fire a gun, so it's great that, when it actually happened, we were given a game with this much charm and emotion packed into it.
Compelling and evocative, it's a story that simply has to be experienced
Valiant Hearts: The Great War isn't about being the hero, though there is some of that. It's not about beating the "bad guys," as you'll experience the war from both sides. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a beautiful depiction of the horrific effects of war.
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
Brilliant. Ubisoft Montpellier has created one of this year's most memorable games. A story of adventure and tragedy played out against the backdrop of World War I, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a game everyone should play.
A few games have had the ability to offer a bittersweet tone and to provide a theme that shows the stark reality of war offset by moments of humanity. The visual display of the game is creatively done and the soundtrack is splendidly made, transporting you into the environment on the first note. The game is a gem, probably one of the best games of the year.
Valiant Hearts isn't necessarily lacking in quality or polish, just that perhaps we're looking at one game that feels like it wants to be three.
Valiant Hearts is a good game offering an emotionally satisfying experience. With about six hours of gameplay (depending on puzzling speed) it has solid value. As humans, we should all play this, even though it's not the best gaming has to offer.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a fantastic tale grounded deep in actual and awful history, history the game has no problem sharing with you as you play.
"Valiant Hearts" is able to convey this very real story of war through its cartoon-designed characters. It's gut-wrenching as realistic stories of wartime loss often are. That story occasionally gets lost while shuffling between the four main characters, but the message remains. The perils of war are far more real than the glory of the battlefield that is often depicted in today's games.
The title is certainly not without its faults with fairly simple gameplay and puzzle-solving, and a sometimes over-reliance on historical facts and pop-up text to describe its WWI-inspired world. Yet, like the greatest feats and tales of the first World War, this tale, though difficult to witness at times, is nonetheless an important and great one for the ages.
With Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft Montpellier has created something magical. That is, a game which manages to convey the seriousness of war, while also being creative and imaginative. All of this is done in an incredibly respectful manner; so much so that the game acts as both a teacher and an entertainer throughout its colourful narrative.
This game made me shed more tears than any game I have ever played before, and I find that I am not alone in that sentiment. I even think this game communicated parts of WWI so well that it could be used as an educational tool, though the characters' story is fiction. I want my friends and family who don't seek out history for fun or play video games to play Valiant Hearts. I want to show this game to my favorite history teacher in high school– who was also a soldier and a lover of fine art, to see what he thinks, though I feel that I already know the answer. I want to tell everyone how wonderful and important the complete experience of Valiant Hearts: The Great War is so that many more people can enjoy it. Oh wait, I think I just covered that last thing.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War doesn't do enough with its puzzle-solving gameplay or its story to make the trip worthwhile.
In the end, Valiant Hearts: The Great War was an enjoyable experience with a satisfying story. The game doesn't include the years when the United States joined World War I, but at the end of the game there's an opening to include that story for a possible sequel.