Valiant Hearts, Ubisoft
It was during the media coverage of the commemoration of the Great War (or World War I as most of us know it) that I realised how poor my knowledge was of this terrible conflict. Everyone knows that the assassination of Scottish indie band Franz Ferdinand was the trigger point, but beyond that episode of Blackadder Goes Forth and the underappreciated Stanley Kubrick classic Paths of Glory, the First World War loses out massively in our cultural storytelling to its more stylish and easily packaged sequel.
This discrepancy of coverage is even more pronounced in the world of video games. Call of Duty, the biggest entertainment franchise in the world, started out as a WW2 shooter; and before that we had the brilliant Medal of Honour series. Other franchises that use this historical setting include the Wolfenstein, Battlefield, and Sniper Elite games. World War I on the other hand boasts only a slender selection of games, mainly smaller indie or PC-only titles.
That is where Ubisoft Montpellier’s latest offering comes in. Available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a puzzle adventure game which aims to educate as well as entertain. Having played it for the last week or so, I cannot think of a better way to engage some younger minds into discovering more about the history of this conflict.
It’s a beautiful and very artistically stylish game, both visually and in its soundtrack. The action is two-dimensional, but with a beautiful depth of level design and incredibly richly detailed backgrounds. The story was inspired by the real-life correspondence of people caught up in the conflict, stitched together into a narrative that sees you control four (five if you count a cute medic’s dog) characters, each with their own heart-breaking stories. There’s Karl, a German expelled from France at the start of the hostilities who has to leave his French wife and child behind. Alongside him Karl’s father-in-law Emille, who is drafted onto the enemy side in the war. We also spend time with American ex-pat Freddie, and Belgian nurse Anna, who is searching for her kidnapped father.
The gameplay mechanic is fun and challenging, without ever being frustrating. The difficulty curve is just right, and it took me back to my youth, and a great series of puzzle games featuring an egg named Dizzy. Puzzles generally revolve around finding the correct items to open up the next stage of a level, although there are a few action sequences, including a driving mission choreographed to the Can-Can which brought a huge smile to my face.
Woven into the game are 100 secret items hidden across the levels, all of which are based on artefacts donated by the families of soldiers who fought in the war. Each level has a number of wonderfully illustrated facts about different aspects of the war – for example, soldiers used urine soaked rags in lieu of gas masks during German chlorine gas attacks. It never feels forced though, and I’m a huge fan of this education by stealth technique. I’ve learned so much playing this game
The game is a PEGI 12 rating, and although you are only ever saving lives as the protagonists (apart from the odd clonk over the head with a ladle to knock a guard unconscious) the game isn’t afraid to shy away from some of the horrors of this particular war in its style and atmosphere. That said, the game treats the war with a huge amount of respect, and has clearly been very well researched. It would be the perfect game for teenagers to play to enhance their understanding of the First World War, and for parents to play with younger children, helping them with some of the more difficult puzzles, as well as putting some of the scenes into context. A truly marvellous game.
James Diamond Training 