Valiant Hearts: The Great War

 PC
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 730 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 619 out of 730
  2. Mixed: 76 out of 730
  3. Negative: 35 out of 730

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  1. TitaniumDragon
    Oct 23, 2015
    5
    Valiant Hearts is an adventure game which takes place during World War I. Intended to illustrate the horror and heroism of the war, the player never gets to shoot a single enemy soldier with a gun throughout the course of the game. Instead, the player takes the role of four characters – an American intent on avenging the death of his fiancé, a German soldier intent on getting home toValiant Hearts is an adventure game which takes place during World War I. Intended to illustrate the horror and heroism of the war, the player never gets to shoot a single enemy soldier with a gun throughout the course of the game. Instead, the player takes the role of four characters – an American intent on avenging the death of his fiancé, a German soldier intent on getting home to France, the German’s French father-in-law, and a Belgian combat medic. While the American’s story is a component of the campaign, in reality it primarily focuses on the French family and the Belgian combat medic’s work to keep them safe.

    As an adventure game, the game relies heavily on “puzzles”, but in reality, the puzzles are almost all of the variety of “find item A and bring it to spot B”. There are very few real puzzles, and the few “true” puzzles you find over the course of the game feel out of place in the world of World War I – who would write hints to a safe code on a window that points to letters on a German battle flag? It just doesn’t make sense.

    As a result, the game isn’t really much of a “game” at all – rather, it is more of an interactive work of historical fiction with various puzzles thrown in to… make it feel more gamey, I guess? There are a few more traditionally video-game-like sequences, such as navigating through artillery barrages and dodging tanks and barriers in a racing car, as well as the healing minigame which is just “press the right buttons in sequence” (AKA a quick-time event of sorts), but while these sequences are at times fun, at other times they feel somewhat tedious – while the taxi sequences were reasonably challenging, the “dodge the artillery barrage and machine gun fire” sequences, when done too much in one level, began to feel fairly samey. While they did create some tension, it wasn’t really fun gameplay, as it was mostly just waiting for stuff to open up so you could progress, and “stay out of the bad”. Likewise, the collection minigame – which opened up bits of lore for you to read about – was mostly just tedious and “spot the object lying on the ground” (or, more often, just press A everywhere as you move around to make sure you don’t accidentally run past something).

    The game does do its job reasonably well – you do want everyone to live and get back to their families (other than the American, who I never really connected with emotionally, and whose story felt kind of disconnected from the rest of the game), but it is fairly transparent in its tugging of the heartstrings. The flavor of the world is pretty good, though, and the animation throughout the game is decent enough in its simplistic nature, making you feel sorry for a few characters who have unique models only to kill several of them off.

    Unfortunately, when the game isn’t at its best, it can be kind of confusing. An aviator named George is introduced for a single part of a single mission, calling in artillery shots, and he seemed to have no real relevance to the rest of the game – why is he named George? What is his significance? It stuck out to me as being very random. Likewise, Baron Von Dorf, the villain that the American spends most of the game pursuing, feels cartoonishly out of place – while his boss battles are okay gameplay wise, they feel very strange in the context of an otherwise realistic game about the horrors of World War I.

    Consequently, the game is far from perfect. As a game, it isn’t that great, and as a story, while it can be strong, it can also have sections that just feel kind of there. Overall, the experience was decent enough, and the game isn’t overly long, but there’s not a whole lot of substance – World War I sucked, everyone knows it sucked, and I’m not sure that this game really had a whole lot to add to that message. There is emotional resonance, though, and you do feel sorry for the family torn apart by the war, so it isn’t a total failure in terms of impact – but in the end, I feel like I would have rather watched a movie about the same subject matter.    … Expand
  2. JimCorbett
    Mar 15, 2015
    5
    A below average side scroller that gets propped up by wonderful setting and a decent story. It isn't the masterpiece people want you to think but it isn't bad either. You'll be told a story set during the First World War which is woefully unexplored in video games. Unfortunately the story lacks any sort of real emotion until the very end and the whole while you will be doing completelyA below average side scroller that gets propped up by wonderful setting and a decent story. It isn't the masterpiece people want you to think but it isn't bad either. You'll be told a story set during the First World War which is woefully unexplored in video games. Unfortunately the story lacks any sort of real emotion until the very end and the whole while you will be doing completely mundane tasks that they call gameplay. However the setting and art style was enough to keep me relatively interested for the 4 hours it took me to get to the end. The gameplay just consists of turning switches, climbing ladders, pressing buttons, telling your pet do where to go, etc. It's all been done before and it's all been done better. On the other hand the story tells an unengaging tale set in a new period of history but it just totally fails to captivate you until the end. I wish they would have picked one or the other to focus on and we might have gotten a game that was more worth your time.… Expand
  3. Klewer
    Feb 4, 2015
    5
    Sadly this was one of the years disappointments. Being a huge history buff and loving everything to do with The Great War games are few and far between. While it captures the settings well, lovely graphics and top notch music the game play is stale and boring, not to mention uPlay and bugs on boss fights making it impossible to advance. Hopefully something worth while comes along soon, butSadly this was one of the years disappointments. Being a huge history buff and loving everything to do with The Great War games are few and far between. While it captures the settings well, lovely graphics and top notch music the game play is stale and boring, not to mention uPlay and bugs on boss fights making it impossible to advance. Hopefully something worth while comes along soon, but this can be missed.… Expand
  4. CommandoDude
    Sep 2, 2014
    6
    It should be said first, this is a story with interactive game elements, not a game with an interactive story. What little gameplay there is focuses almost entirely on puzzle solving aspects, and even then, the puzzles are not particularly difficult or imaginative. That said, Valiant Hearts has one of the most compelling stories to tell that I've seen from a game in a long time, and thatIt should be said first, this is a story with interactive game elements, not a game with an interactive story. What little gameplay there is focuses almost entirely on puzzle solving aspects, and even then, the puzzles are not particularly difficult or imaginative. That said, Valiant Hearts has one of the most compelling stories to tell that I've seen from a game in a long time, and that alone is worth the price of admission to see this tale of heroism and tragedy.… Expand
  5. Tutulux
    Jul 18, 2014
    6
    This game was a disappointment for me. The war is a delicate concept, full of violence, sadness and human hypocrisy. Before the game was released, the music and the art-work in the trailers brought me hope. I was expecting something new and refreshing, something I could feel more than play. But all I can see now is just another boring game, with the same boring puzzles, objects to deliverThis game was a disappointment for me. The war is a delicate concept, full of violence, sadness and human hypocrisy. Before the game was released, the music and the art-work in the trailers brought me hope. I was expecting something new and refreshing, something I could feel more than play. But all I can see now is just another boring game, with the same boring puzzles, objects to deliver to characters and poorly inspired "final boss" battles. Is this the way to transmit the feeling about war? When, Lord, when will you put yourselves at risk? Was this what you wanted when you entered the video game world?

    I don't want to be disrespectful, I know it takes a huge effort to make games and the work you have done with the music, war facts and drawings it's great. But there's nothing more here for me. Also, if you take into account that point and click adventures are not the most profitable game genre, why not take some risks and try to make something different?

    The more you base in a pre-established formula, the weaker is the original idea. Inspiration comes from the heart and is important to maintain it. Does brainstorming ring a bell? Feelings are the new frontier of the video games. The one that reaches this goal will be the new Hitchcock of the video games.    … Expand
  6. MisterMittens
    Jul 1, 2014
    5
    Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a very interesting concept for a game. A puzzle Adventure set in the midst of World War One. While there are parts of this game that do a good job and reminding us of the price the conflict had on everyone, it's too often sandwiched between an overly cartoonish representation of war, obtuse puzzle design, and action segments that would make even Call ofValiant Hearts: The Great War is a very interesting concept for a game. A puzzle Adventure set in the midst of World War One. While there are parts of this game that do a good job and reminding us of the price the conflict had on everyone, it's too often sandwiched between an overly cartoonish representation of war, obtuse puzzle design, and action segments that would make even Call of Duty players scratch their heads at the lack of realism. I can only recommend this if you're a history buff or a fan of old adventure games.… Expand
  7. psylife
    Oct 14, 2018
    6
    An educational puzzle-action game about WW1. The sketchy artwork, flash animations, and colors articulate together to generate a credible and atmospheric world, that is worth immersing yourself in for a while. The various scenarios are well-scripted and the characters are like-able. This is a heart-warming story that will inevitably move you by the time the end credits roll. The game-playAn educational puzzle-action game about WW1. The sketchy artwork, flash animations, and colors articulate together to generate a credible and atmospheric world, that is worth immersing yourself in for a while. The various scenarios are well-scripted and the characters are like-able. This is a heart-warming story that will inevitably move you by the time the end credits roll. The game-play is enjoyable yet the puzzles and overall challenge suffer from the fact that the game is clearly geared towards children. Adults will still get something out of it but its over-simplistic nature severely limits its reach.… Expand
  8. Hack
    Jun 22, 2017
    7
    A beautifully made game, from the hand drawn art style, to the music and script. It's a very simple game filled with puzzles that you have to complete to tell the story. There's a ton of history facts to read and collect and I found them very interesting, it really helped me understand just how awful those times were.

    I did have some instances where the puzzles bugged out so I had to    A beautifully made game, from the hand drawn art style, to the music and script. It's a very simple game filled with puzzles that you have to complete to tell the story. There's a ton of history facts to read and collect and I found them very interesting, it really helped me understand just how awful those times were.

    I did have some instances where the puzzles bugged out so I had to close the game as there wasn't a reset option, losing progress is never fun but at least there are regular checkpoints so you never have to backtrack too much. Overall the puzzles weren't too difficult but made you think, they were just hard enough IMO.    … Expand
  9. Qubeeck
    Nov 1, 2014
    7
    Great story, based on true letters sent home from the front lines. Story that shows war has no sense and brings suffer to common people only. Great comic style graphics makes this game fun to play. The only critics i have is the puzzles are to easy to solve. From the other side i wanted to solve them asap to push the game story forward and see what happens next.
  10. LetMeInPlease
    Dec 8, 2018
    5
    Didn't like it that much. It's a puzzle game and there was this one puzzle where some scientist asked me to forge a detail that looked like a square turned to 45 degrees. I had already forged a detail that looked just like a normal square and I thought, well it's the same **** figure anyway, you just have to turn it slightly, so I gave it to him. But the scientists annoyingly said that no,Didn't like it that much. It's a puzzle game and there was this one puzzle where some scientist asked me to forge a detail that looked like a square turned to 45 degrees. I had already forged a detail that looked just like a normal square and I thought, well it's the same **** figure anyway, you just have to turn it slightly, so I gave it to him. But the scientists annoyingly said that no, this wouldn't suffice. That's all you need to know about the puzzles in this game. To put it short, they are pretty uninteresting.
    I have an issue with how the game looks as well. I wouldn't say that the artstyle is not aesthetically pleasing but it looks cheap as hell, as if two people made it and not some big studio. Not to mention that this artstyle doesn't really seem appropriate for the subject matter. Throughout the game it grew on me a little but I'd still prefer if the game looked differently.    … Expand
  11. Voyou
    May 21, 2016
    7
    This bad habit Ubisoft have of putting arcade scenes in their adventure games cost them once more. We wouldn't buy a game if we knew that 1 passage makes it impossible to finish for the slow sighted.

    Nonetheless, it is a wonderful game, charming and engaging. Very French in spirit, so maybe it will speak more to a player from the old world than from the new one. Even the music is great    This bad habit Ubisoft have of putting arcade scenes in their adventure games cost them once more. We wouldn't buy a game if we knew that 1 passage makes it impossible to finish for the slow sighted.

    Nonetheless, it is a wonderful game, charming and engaging. Very French in spirit, so maybe it will speak more to a player from the old world than from the new one. Even the music is great and worth keeping turned on, for once.

    Careful though: the puzzles are simple enough, but the occasional design oversight may keep you stuck in an impossible position here and there, forcing you to reload at the latest save point. That and a couple of purely technical bugs.    … Expand
  12. mbrigham1223
    Nov 23, 2016
    7
    A beautiful and emotional indy effort from Ubisoft, a true step in the right direction for the company.

    Pros: - Handrawn, beautiful and meaningful visuals - Delves into the horrors of war effectively across the seldom used WWI backdrop - Flowing with information and backstory to each set piece and item, making collectables worth searching for - Emotional story, though not as potent    A beautiful and emotional indy effort from Ubisoft, a true step in the right direction for the company.

    Pros:
    - Handrawn, beautiful and meaningful visuals
    - Delves into the horrors of war effectively across the seldom used WWI backdrop
    - Flowing with information and backstory to each set piece and item, making collectables worth searching for
    - Emotional story, though not as potent as one would hope given the potential of the setting
    - A step away from the yearly installments and mircotransactions for the gaming giant

    Cons:
    - Gameplay is entirely reliant on fetch-the-item puzzles and QTEs. Becomes repetitive quickly
    - Unwilling to plunge too deeply into the darkness of WWI
    - Must connect through UPlay

    Worth a pickup on sale. A nice light experience to slot between larger, more gameplay heavy titles    … Expand
  13. Bushido95
    Nov 24, 2021
    6
    Я понимаю условности жанра и всё такое, но геймплейно всё же это скучно хоть история не плохая.

Awards & Rankings

77
#77 Best PC Game of 2014
53
#53 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
61
#61 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. CD-Action
    Oct 22, 2014
    70
    It would have been nice if the developers could decide what game they want to make. On one hand, we have a failed attempt to tell an engaging story. On the other hand, series of puzzles would benefit from a higher difficulty level. Valiant Hearts is disappointing, but still not bad. [Sept 2014, p.56]
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Sep 3, 2014
    85
    The game is a moving, stylish experience. [Aug 2014]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Aug 27, 2014
    81
    Touching, exciting and all-round beautiful adventure somewhat tarred by its monotonous gameplay and the ludicrous image of the Big Bad Enemy. And it is almost a perfect way to explain the concept of war to your kids.
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