Friday, April 24, 2015

Valiant story telling in Valiant Hearts: The Great War

I just finished Valiant Hearts: The Great War and I am so happy I played this game.  I wanted to say that I was an emotional wreck, but that isn't true. The story is intensely satisfying, and very emotional without leaving me drained.


Massive spoilers ahead


As you can guess, I really enjoyed Valiant Hearts, and what you may suspect is that there are spoilers coming.  If you don't want to spoil the story (even though it has been out for almost a year) just know that I think it is well worth playing.  The game play is solid, the characters are relatable, and the story is great.

Valiant Hearts takes place during the first half of WWI.  You follow the struggles of a few different people on either side of the conflict, Emile, Karl, Freddie, and Anna.  Right off the bat the game tugs at your heart strings as Karl is deported out of France away from his young wife, and newborn baby.  Right as he arrives in Germany, he is pressed into service in the German army.  His father-in-law, Emile, is also conscripted, but into the French army.  You quickly see the dangers of war as each character is injured, captured, or presumed dead throughout the story.  Ubisoft Montpilier does a great job of telling the story of WWI from the common man's perspective.  The gameplay itself isn't very violent, but the scenery can get a little graphic.  Soldiers are shot down in the back, and foreground and at times you have to take cover behind piles of allied bodies.


Whatever works I guess

The game play itself is fairly simple.  This is a side scroller based around puzzles, and not platforming.  The puzzles are not too hard, but they do a good job of getting you to explore the levels, and find the historical artifacts scattered around to teach you about what life was like during WWI.  The collectibles were well done because I wanted to find them to see what bit of information I would get next.  Valiant Hearts is a great example of how to interestingly present history.

As you play through the game you become invested in the characters and their struggles.  My heart raced as I saved Karl's family from poison gas, I wanted to rescue as many people as possible along side Anna, I rejoiced at every little victory, and I found myself raging at the generals who pushed us to continuously charge at the enemy, needless sacrificing lives.  I even got angry when my actions caused an enemy soldier to die who had previously saved my life.  When given the opportunity I struck down the selfish "leader" who would shoot you if you retreated.


And Emile paid the price...

Because of my actions Emile was branded a traitor and lead to the firing squad and shot.  Having him walk to the post during the last level was hard.  He was reading his last letter to his daughter, talking about honor, and having done the right thing.  The only thing comparable to this I have found in other games is the walk of doom in Bastion.  If you've played it you know what I mean, if not, I will not spoil that for you.  It was a great ending to the game.  The art style was well done, the voice acting was top notch, and every character you got to know, even if it was just for a minute, you connected with.

One reason why I enjoyed playing Valiant Hearts so much is because of the youtube channel The Great War.  This channel is going through WWI week by week, in great detail explaining hows, whys, whats, and whos of the first world war.  It helped me gain a greater perspective on this war, and complimented Valiant Hearts really well.  If you haven't watched their videos, I highly recommend that you do.

No comments:

Post a Comment