Valiant Hearts Review

Review By Joey Carole

Valiant Hearts, by Ubisoft is a high caliber Puzzle Platformer available for Playstation, Xbox, iOS, and Android.  Set in the trenches of WWI, Valiant Hearts take's on a very classic cut cartoony comic book look, one that's pleasant to the eyes and plays well.  The soundtrack is mostly classical piano and violin partnered with the deep, smooth, and silky voice of the narrator Dave Pettitt.  Playing thru Valiant Hearts made me feel as if a grandfather of sorts was telling me his own tragic war story, one that is deep and full of sentiment.  Unfortunately it's not the Puzzle's but the design choices and story that kept me interested in Valiant Hearts.  The Puzzle's are often too easy and similar to each other, while the platforming aspects shine a little bit brighter.

You get to play as 4 different characters, A Medic named Anna, and then a French, German, and American Solider, Emile, Karl, and Freddie. The big bad in this game is the villainous Baron Von Dorf who battles with zeppelins, tanks, and chlorine gas.  Most of the game is spent chasing after Baron Von Dorf through the wake of chaos and destruction he leave's behind.  Each character experiences some minor differences in gameplay which range from rhythm based mini games which allow the bandaging of soldiers to digging holes in the ground to avoid falling bombs.  However each character is usually blocked from advancing to the next level by some pesky barbed wire or a blocked passage.  In which case you need to solve a puzzle to advance.

The puzzles start out at pretty easy and finish at an intermediate difficulty.  I never really felt challenged or stuck while working to solve the puzzles which ended up making them feel more tedious then enjoyable.  Usually you are tossing rock's or bottles at items stuck in high places to knock them loose, and then trading those items to NPC's for different items which you need to advance.  When you aren't doing those things you're usually rotating pipes to align a certain way or switching lever's in various orders of operation until you find the correct way to proceed.  Sometimes you need to order your dog to fetch an item or pull a lever for you.  If you've played a puzzle game before, there probably isn't anything new here.

The Platforming sections of the game has you running for cover from gunfire, dodging bombs or hiding from enemy field of vision.  The mini-boss fight's are usually about well timed throws of dynamite.  Some level's feature a car chase where you must dodge obstacles and take out pursuing enemies.  I found the car chase sections of the game the most enjoyable.  Some levels near the end allow you to drive a tank as well.  I did have to retry a couple of the platforming sections multiple times but the game autosaves pretty often so it never took much time to advance passed a difficult section.  I prefer a little more of a challenge then what Valiant Hearts has to serve up.

There is a pretty good amount of collectibles throughout the game, 119 in total.  I was able to find 82 in one play through.  As you progress through each level you unlock Diary Entries for each character as well as Facts which present you with real photographs and facts about WW1.  So if you take the time to read through just a few of these Valiant Hearts can become a learning experience.  Some of these fact's are boring but I also found some to be pretty interesting.  I only read a small portion of them myself.

Underneath all of the design, puzzles, and platforming is a tragic story of a family from different backgrounds forced apart because of war, and their valiant efforts to both serve their countries and reunite themselves with friends and family.  It is rather touching, and after all was said and done I thought about how the lives of my great grand parents may have been effected by The Great War and what it might've been like to actually serve.  Something the developers were probably striving for. 

Final Thoughts

Valiant Heart's took me roughly 8 hours to complete.  The puzzles at their best are intermediate in difficulty and tedious at their worst.  The platforming aspects were enjoyable throughout but failed to really challenge me at any point because the auto-save feature re-spawns you right where you died.  The story is touching, and the game's style and art direction helped make the gameplay more enjoyable and overall worth while.

Pro's

+Story, Narrator, and Art Direction

+Educational

+Enjoyable Platforming Sections

Cons

-Not Challenging Enough

-Some Tedious Puzzle Solving

Score

7.5/10