Now Playing: Valiant Hearts

Valiant Hearts is a narrative driven puzzle game set during the Great War. We don’t see many games tackle this conflict, which is one of the reasons I was interested in the title. The game follows several characters throughout the course of the war (including a dog!). Switching between these characters, you guide them through four chapters solving puzzles to progress.

Built with the same engine as the gorgeous Child of Light, Valiant Hearts employs a detailed, cartoon style. This style may be a matter of personal taste, but I thought it looked great, although it does lead to certain issues which I’ll discuss later. The wonderful visuals are complemented by a lovely soundtrack. In terms of its characters and story, Valiant Hearts sadly falls a little flat, not because the characters and story aren’t well told, but because of the gameplay.

 

Valiant Hearts isn’t a difficult game, but it’s a game where you’ll probably die a lot. Many ‘action’ segments have numerous instant-death moments, turning them into a rather irritating trial and error system. Checkpoints are frequent, so death isn’t really a concern, but this stop-start nature to the game (where death is a frequent minor annoyance) somewhat undermines its narrative. As I said, it’s not difficult. The action segments are mostly a matter of paying attention and learning the patterns of falling bombs and enemy fire. And the puzzle sections, which make up the bulk of the gameplay, are incredibly simplistic to the point of tedium.

In addition to the action and puzzle segments, there are also ‘chase’ sequences which play like a really awful flash or mobile game. Oh, and for one character, you also have repetitive and pointless QTE sequences. Valiant Hearts is just incredibly boring to play, there’s no other way to say it. Towards the end, during what should have been an exciting final action sequence, I very nearly dozed off. And no, I’m not exaggerating.

During this ‘action’ sequence, like the many before it, the gameplay simply involves moving your character from the left of the screen to the right whilst avoiding enemy fire. You move a few feet. You stop. You move a few feet. You stop. That’s all the ‘action’ segments essentially are. They are great to look at, but completely un-engaging to play, and this is why it’s so hard to connect to the characters and narrative.

 

There are a couple of more interesting action moments throughout the game, including a couple of ‘boss’ type fights, but these are sadly few and far between. But Valiant Hearts is a puzzle game at its core. If we ignore the poor action segments, the terrible chase scenes and the tedious QTE nonsense, how does it hold up in terms of its puzzles? Oh dear.

As I’ve said, the puzzles are incredibly simplistic. Aside from one or two moments where you actually have to stop and think, examining your environment and switching between characters to make use of their unique skills, the vast majority of ‘puzzles’ are just dull, pointless filler. A great example of this is the ‘escape’ from a POW camp as it conforms to the same repetitive template as many of the puzzles in the game.

You need to acquire a particular item to escape. You move through the camp encountering people who also all desire a particular item. Eventually, you find person ‘A’ - the start of the chain. From them you are given an item for the next person in the chain. You take this item to person ‘B’ who then gives you another item to take to person ‘C’ and so on until you gain the particular item you need. And that’s it. You just walk from one person to the next exchanging items. It’s not challenging or clever. It doesn’t tie into the narrative at all. And this feeling of unnecessary padding persists throughout Valiant Hearts.

The game also has a lot of problems with regards to tone. It has this colourful, cartoon style which initially seems as if it’s pushing towards a more comedic element – especially when you meet the ridiculous, over the top, villain of the piece. It doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to be taken very seriously. It’s like a stylised, hyper-exaggerated portrayal of the Great War. Only then, suddenly, the game will shift tone and expect us to take it seriously, only to shift sharply back again as you jump into a silly flash game chase sequence with upbeat music. This issue is further compounded by the ‘history’ pieces which pop up in relation to events in the game.

 

This creates a horrible clash of tone. You’re fighting in a battle before which the game solemnly lists how many men died in, only to shove you into this cartoon landscape where there’s no real sense of risk or threat because death is only a minor inconvenience, and where everything is exaggerated to a silly degree. I’m really not sure what tone the game is going for because it’s all over the bloody place.

Although I liked its style, music and choice of setting, there’s not much else I can say that’s good about Valiant Hearts. It does have a few decent puzzles and action segments here and there, but overall, it’s a tedious, badly paced and tonally inconsistent mess. It’s also only about 5 hours long with zero replay value unless you like searching for pointless collectibles.

The story does have a few touching moments, but it’s really hard to care when the gameplay is so bloody dull. It feels like the developers had a story they wanted to tell, but didn’t know how to translate that into gameplay, so we’re left with a hodgepodge of dull action, simplistic puzzles, a dumb driving mini-game and horrible QTE sequences.

By the time I reached the end of the game, all I felt was relief that the ordeal was over. In that respect, I suppose you could argue that the tone fits perfectly. I really wish I could recommend Valiant Hearts on its style and setting alone, but that’s sadly not enough when weighed against how tedious it all is. It’s not a terrible game. It has its good moments, as rare as they are. And it’s certainly not one of the worst games I’ve played, but it’s definitely one of the most boring.

5/10