Valiant Hearts - War Makes Men Mad
These days when looking at news or scrolling through social media apps our world seems more torn than ever before, with conflicts, the rising price of living, and the approaching recession, all of these things are making our day-to-day lives harder. There's no denying that these are tough times we're living in currently but there was once a time in history not long ago when life was much harder than how it is today, a time when peace itself seemed like a distant memory, a time when our world faced a change like no other, a time when the worst of mankind flourished, and a time when many lost their lives. You may have a guess for what I'm talking about, however you're likely wrong as I'm not talking about World War 2, what I'm talking about is the the war right before that. Yes World War 1, The Great War. To us in 2022 its just another chapter of history from a time long gone and overshadowed by WW2, however WW1 played a large part in the reason we live the way we do today and it also set the stage for WW2, it was the war which shook the world to its core and that's why it has the very appropriate title "The Great War"
Though these days its difficult to get young folks to read history books and even harder to teach them about history in a traditional manner but there's one thing every kid likes, Video games. Using the wonders of gaming it has become possible to tell the stories from history and show the horrors of war in an captivating manner. History has become a mainstream trend in gaming due to its richness in tales one could tell as evident by the countless war games available on all platforms. Though despite its popularity there remains 1 war which doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, The Great War and that's why this game I'm talking about today holds a special place in the war games genre. The game I'll be reviewing today is Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
Valiant Hearts was released on the 100th anniversary of WW1 on 2014, initially only available on PC & Console for $15 but later making it to mobile for $5. Valiant Heart puts you in the shoes of 4 different characters as they make their way through the trenches and ruined cities of Belgium & France. In many ways Valiant Hearts is a love letter to WW1, the devs of Valiant Hearts clearly put in a large amount of effort to make the game be historically accurate, to the point they even got first-hand accounts of WW1, read letters from the soldiers, and went to the remains of wartime trenches in France, and all their countless hours of efforts went into making this beautifully crafted game about a war not many know much about. Everyone knows it happened but you'll have a hard time finding anyone who can even tell who the leaders were at that time, however Valiant Hearts does a fantastic job at showcasing the history and the horrors of The Great War through collectible historical items with their historical importance and through the storytelling of the game. Valiant Hearts at its core may be a puzzle game, but the way it conveys its story and portrays The Great War make it a work of art, a beautifully crafted art which does a fabulous job at showing the horror which was The Great War. It is, without a doubt, the best WW1 game.
Now then I think I've spent more than enough time on introducing you to this wonderful game and so it is time to start the actual review. The review will be divided into 5 sections; Gameplay, Story, Sound Design, Music, and Closing Remarks. There will be some light spoilers but fear not as I'll only be mentioning plot points from the first 20 minutes of the game. With that being said, let's begin the review!
As I mentioned earlier at its core Valiant Hearts is a side-scrolling, puzzle-based, adventure game, with a hseavy emphasis on story. The gameplay is comprised of 4 chapters split into several sections. The player is required to solve objectives in each sections to progress through the story. Most of the sections consist of simple putzzles, while other sections include wartime sections where the player must avoid getting hit by heavy gunfire, stealth segments where the player must move around without being detected, and rhythmic car chases set to classical songs. Though unlike most war games Valiant Hearts doesn't feature any fps styled combat as the devs wished to show the human side of the war and feared that allowing players to kill would muddle the message they wanted to convey. For all its greatness, however, the puzzles are definitely the weakest point of Valiant Hearts with majority of the puzzles lacking depth and being the same loop of simple fetch quests made annoying by the character's snails pace. It definitely does feel like many of the puzzles are redundant sometimes. Though once the plot begins to pick up in pace, the fantastic storytelling makes up for the flawed gameplay loop. On that note I believe its time we move on to the next section; The Story
Though the gameplay may be simple, the story is where the main focus of Valiant Hearts lies. As mentioned earlier Valiant Hearts puts you in the shoes of 4 characters as they make their way through the horrors of war. You follow the tales of a French solider, a German soldier, an American engineer, and a Belgian nurse. The story takes place from 1914-17, though mostly in 1915-17. Valiant Hearts differs from normal war games when it comes to story as it doesn't paint any sides as "evil", it doesn't try to push an agenda of Good vs Evil like a usual call of duty title would. The story takes you through the trials and tribulations which were faced by average soldiers during The Great War on both fronts. Not many knew what they were even fighting for, all they had wished for was to make it back home to their families, which not many did unfortunately. Valiant Hearts shows the side of war which not many war games touch upon, you aren't a super soldier tasked with exterminating the other side, you're just an average person trying to survive the horrors of war.
The main characters of Valiant Hearts are also just normal average people trying to fulfill their desires and survive the horrors. I'll list out the roaster of MCs with small descriptions of who they are and what's their goals (light spoilers):
Emille lived a humble life with his daughter, Marie, her husband and his grandson on a farm in St. Mihiel. Though that all changed when the fears of war with Germany began and France began kicking out all German residents. Marie's husband, Karl was of German origins and so he had to leave France, leaving his family behind. And just 10 days before the war begun, the mobilisation of troops started, which included Emille. Emille went into the war with the goal to find Karl and bring him back home safely.
Freddie is an African American who lived in France. He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion as an engineer after tragedy struck (you'll discover what happened yourself). He fights to get revenge on the German legion's commander who was the cause to his tragedy.
Anna is a Belgian student living in Paris. She finds herself involved in the war when she discovers that her father had been kidnapped by Germans for his scientific research. She decides that she must act on her own and sets out to rescue her father from the Germans, during her journey she also meets and gives medical aid to many soldiers.
Karl was seperated from his family back in St. Mahiel to fight the war for Germany. His greatest wish is for the war to end so he could go back to his wife and son. His story mainly starts from chapter 2 hence I'll leave his description short as to not spoil the plot.
He may not be a playable character but Walts is an integral part of the story, weaving all the stories together in one or another. Walts is a German military dog who saves and befriends Emille, travelling along with him and meeting the other characters (and befriending them too) along the way.
The narrative of Valiant Hearts is told in many ways, through letters, character diaries, narrator cutscenes, and the environment. The graphics style of the game helps in setting up the theme a great lot as well. The colour pallet of the graphics is always changing depending on the level, from hopeful to hopeless, from happiness to sadness. The graphics set the mood of a level just as much as the story does. The story takes place in some of the worst battles of The Great War and shows the use of the worst weapons made by mankind. Valiant Hearts shows the struggles of trying to survive in a hellhole of war. It shows the fragility of life and the will to survive through the worst. It shows the trials and tribulation of the ones who bravely fought, of the unsung heroes. The ones who gave their life away for their country, without knowing what they were even fighting for. The ones who never returned to their families. The ones who prayed for the war to end. The ones who survived the horrors, only to live in them for rest of their lives. Valiant Hearts takes its subject matter very seriously, and while it may show moments of hope, it doesn't hold back from showing the horrors of war. The story of Valiant Hearts is a work of art as it showcases the worst war in human history in a way it had never been shown before. The care that the devs of Valiant Hearts put into it paid off as they created a story like no other. Though their care for the authenticity doesn't end at the story as they also put a lot of care into the topic up next: Sound Design
Sounds are the backbone of games, if a game doesn't have good sound design then it's hard to get immersed into it or even like having the sounds on. It's an integral part of all games, and so Valiant Hearts makes sure to not dissapoint with it. The sound design in Valiant Hearts is at authentic as it gets. In an interview with VICE Yoan Fanise, the audio director of Valiant Hearts says this about the sound design "We wanted to present an immersive soundscape that would essentially bring the player right into the trenches.". And they did just that, the sound design of Valiant Hearts immerses you with the horrors of war like no other war game, it makes you feel the awfulness of war. As mentioned in the VICE interview, the screams and cries of soldiers heard in the game are all recorded by the developers rather than professional Voice Actors, a seemingly small decision adds so much more depth to it. The soldiers on all fronts were just average regular people who got unlucky enough to be drafted, there was nothing particularly special about them, so them being voiced by average devs rather than professionals adds to the effect of average people voicing average people. The devs also did a fantastic job at giving believable performances as well, as mentioned by Mr. Fanise "We really pushed them to the limit, to the point where they had to imagine how they would be screaming in agony as if they had taken a bullet." the devs suffered through that to give the players an immersive experience.
Though that's not all for Valiant Hearts' sound design. Adrian Lacey, Ubisoft IP development director, also talks about how the team went down to the trenches to record sound there, even going as far as to working with the French Foreign Legion and going through their archive material. The sounds of Valiant Hearts have an unimaginable amount of Authenticity, the level of care put into it by the dev team speaks volumes about them. It's a show of how a game can be turned into a work of art with the right amount of care. The sound design in Valiant Hearts is just that, a work of art. And with that I think it's time for us to move onto the next topic which is: Music
For the longest time in history, one thing hasn't changed, the importance of music to mankind. Music is the most powerful medium to convey emotions through. The rhythmic nature of music controls the emotions in our brains like none other. Music has only evolved over the last 35 thousand years and it has become more and more diverse. In this age there's many instruments out there but there's one instrument which has remained the most expressive for the longest time, Piano. Piano is able to express the largest variety of themes with the most expressive sounds, which is why it has stayed the top instrument for the longest time. And that's why it's perfect fit for a game about the worst war in history.
Valiant Hearts features music of all kinds by the genius composers Peter McConnell and Daniel Teper. The music of Valiant Heart does a fabulous job at setting the theme, it serves a big purpose to the narrative. As the audio director, Yoan Fanise put it "If you put music in a game it really has to say something; I hate music that’s just used as background ambience in order to avoid silence. Silence, at just the right moment, can sometimes say more than anything else." His sentiment holds true as the music in Valiant Hearts carries great depth and emotions, the feeling of listening to the slow low-key music when walking through the ruins of a once flourishing city or the epic orchestral notes when running through the firey nightmare of the Battlefield, or the happy high-key music in those moments of hopefulness is like no other. It plays with your heart strings with every key of the music, there is no soundtrack in Valiant Hearts without a purpose and meaning behind it. Taking the main theme for example, the beautiful piano performance at first glance may not feel special but as you play it's meaning becomes more and more clear. The heavy keys mixed with the more hopeful sounds, the emotions of making your way through the darkest times but with fragments of hope left in your heart to keep you moving forward. The emotions of not losing yourself to the heavy pressure of the atmosphere around you, the emotions of holding on to the little hope left in your heart to get back home, that it'll all be okay, it'll all be over soon. The emotions which all the soldiers carried in the war, the hope of returning back home to their families letting them move forward, in the hopes that one day they'll return home. Despite the dark times, they latched on to the little hope they had left to not lose themselves. To not let the war make them mad.
The music of Valiant Hearts tells a greater story like no other war game, all of the soundtrack carries some meaning within it. It isn't music just for the sake of music, it is there for a purpose. The music is masterfully composed in a way to convey a story by itself, it puts into perspective what's happening on the screen by playing with your heart strings in just the right way. It makes you feel happy and hopeful, and it also makes you feed sad and depressed. The music helps you understand the gravity of a situation, and when there's absolute soul crushing silence then you realise how much the music mattered, when it isn't there anymore then you understand that what's on the screen is not something the music can describe. You realise that what you feel is the soul crushing emotions of a tragedy. The music of Valiant Hearts isn't just a supplement to the story, it is a key part of the story. And with that said, we've reached our final destination: Closing Remarks
We've finally arrived at the final destination, I thank you for following along with me. Even if you skimmed through, I understand it and I still appreciate it. To me I didn't wish to take this review lightly, it is about a heavy subject after all so I spent 12+ hours watching documentaries and reading into WW1 to make sure I was in the absolute correct mindset for this review. The war to end all wars, that's what WW1 was supposed to be, evidently that wasn't the case. The story of WW1 is a very tragic one, it was a series of domino falling which caused the worst war humanity has fought. While WW2 took more lives, it wasn't as bad for the common folks and in the front lines as it was in WW1, it was the time when we were just evolving out of old strategies and weapons which caused a big mess itself. It is hard to put into words just how much of a tragedy it was, and that's why I appreciate Valiant Hearts so much. It tells the story of a war which is criminally undercovered in media and it does such an amazing job at doing that. It doesn't muddle the message by allowing the players to murder anyone in their path, it tells a compelling and heart wrenching story without the need for bloodshed which isn't something that can be said about 90% of the war games out there. Valiant Hearts did something very unique in a genre ruined by the concept of causing death and destruction against the "enemy". Valiant Hearts makes sure to not potray either sides as evil, which is also historically accurate as there was no clear "evil" in World War 1, it was simply a series of unfortunate events which devolved the world into a war like none before it. The war which left 20 million dead and 21 million wounded, The Great War.
It was my pleasure writing this review and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I will also be linking the sources I used for my research in the comments as well as some other historic content I suggest checking. Though it is now time for us to part ways, I once again thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this review and with that till we meet again, farewell.
Resources used for research
"Apocalypse WW1" by National Geographic - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLswuG48OLZuxEgPa7zKDEw99eERKg3uuD
"What caused World War I and what were its effects?" by National Geographic - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/world-war-i
"Echoes of World War I" by National Geographic - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/world-war-i-anniversary-memorials
"The Hundred Days Offensive" by The National WWI Museum And Memorial - https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/hundred-days-offensive
"The War to End All Wars? Hardly. But It Did Change Them Forever." by NYTimes - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/world/europe/world-war-i-brought-fundamental-changes-to-the-world.amp.html
"WW1: Battle of Sommes 1916" by Epic History TV - https://youtu.be/XqvALkpsfRo
"The war that did not end at 11am on 11 November" by Gov.uk - https://history.blog.gov.uk/2018/11/09/the-war-that-did-not-end-at-11am-on-11-november/
"The Nivelle Offensive - Carnage at The Chemin Des Dames" by The Great War - https://youtu.be/FZV109cP6RQ
"This Is How the Best War Game of the Year Was Made" By VICE - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/qbexvp/making-of-valiant-hearts-283
*Other Historic content I suggest*
The Great War - https://youtube.com/@TheGreatWarSeries
"World War I Everyday" by Tigerstar - https://youtu.be/-wGQGEOTf4E
Alternate History Hub - https://youtube.com/@AlternateHistoryHub
"A Day in The Life of a Dictator: Joseph Stalin" by Best Documentary - https://youtu.be/S6nqKu6heAs
*Few History movies I would suggest*
Schindler's List
Hackshaw Ridge
Valkyrie
Downfal
lAll Quiet on The Western Front (2022)
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