Fun fact about me that a lot of you probably don’t know – I’m a forces brat. To those confused, a forces brat is a kid who has one or more guardians that are in the military. This includes the air force, military, navy, and marines. In my case, it’s air force. My childhood was spent on bases, waving at the guards on the gates through my window and staring in awe at the planes as they flew above my head. It also meant that by the time I turned twenty, I had moved house ten times, and my dad had traveled to dozens of different countries. To me, moving house and being away from my family felt normal. At the time of writing this, I’m sat in a university coffee shop in Cardiff, away from my family, but it feels just as much like my home as whichever base my dad’s currently stationed at. I’ve grown up independent and I very much subscribe to the idea that home is where those you love are. I have multiple homes – the one with my parents and sister, the university with my friends, Oxfordshire with my secondary school friends and online with those who I care about. These people are my home more than any military base or plane hangar could be.
Whenever I see games about the military and those who serve in it, I tend to get nervous as it’s portrayal in media can be … Less than ideal. People recently like to point to shooters and games set in warzones as the root problem of violence in current generations, yet completely ignore games that provide brilliant representation and learning opportunities because they don’t support their argument. Valiant Hearts is a game that manages to be emotional, educational and powerful, throughout the whole experience. You genuinely love each character that you play as, with their plights becoming yours and genuine emotional impact hitting you when things go wrong.
For those who have never heard of the game, I’m not that surprised. It is quite a niche little indie game that went mostly uncovered by the YouTube gaming community. At its core, it is an adventure, puzzle game that educates its players about the history of World War One (known as The Great War). It tells the story of several people, each fighting their own battles and telling their own story, as well as facing the horrors that have left their mark on the world. From Remembrance Day to the various documentaries that delve into the unknown secrets hidden in the remains of the trenches, we as a world have not forgotten The Great War. We strive not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to make our ancestors’ sacrifice worthwhile by contributing positively to the world. In order to do that, however, we must understand what they went through over a century ago. Valiant Hearts achieves this and more.
Apart from the narrator of the story, the game doesn’t have any real voice acting – apart from the occasional grunt or mumbled noises in various languages, meaning that you as the player are left to interpret the game world as you see fit. There are four main characters, five if you count Walt aka the best good dog ever. Their stories weave together in quite a clever way, with events either happening simultaneously or sequentially. Sometimes you’ll come to an area that you’ll recognize, not because you’ve already played this section but because you approached it from the opposite side of the battlefield. Let me tell you a bit about the characters you can play as:
- Emile – A Frenchman recruited for the French Army to fight with fellow Allied troops against the enemy. Emile is a father to his daughter Marie and grandfather to little baby Victor. Marie’s husband, Karl is a German citizen that is deported when Germany declares war on Russia.
- Freddie – An American soldier who has voluntarily joined the French army after his wife was killed in a bombing raid by the infamous Baron Von Dorf. He forms a strong friendship with Emile quite quickly.
- Anna – A Belgian nurse treating wounding soldiers across various battlefields. Before the war began, she was training to be a veterinarian but after her father was kidnapped, she set out to rescue him whilst helping as many people as she can along the way.
- Karl – A young German, forced to leave his wife and son, to serve in the German army, forced to fight against those he loves. Upon finding out that his son has fallen ill, he escapes the German camp and makes his way across the country to reunite with them, despite the dangers of desertion.
The gameplay mostly consists of solving puzzles using items found in the world around you, various stealth sections that involve staying out of the line of sight of gunners and enemy soldiers, plus the occasional quick-time event minigame. The collectibles that you pick up, contain various facts about The Great War and those who lived and died in it. Each character has a series of letters that tell you a bit more about their backstory, as well as their thoughts on the situation they have found themselves in. You can really feel the emotion poured into every word, with clear care and dedication having been put in by the developers to make this game as impactful as possible.
From the entire story of Valiant Hearts, there’s one scene that never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Emile, who is still an acting soldier in the French army, is ordered to participate in the Nivelle Offensive. For those who don’t know what that is, it was a Franco-British operation on the Western Front, aiming to break through the German defenses on the Aisne Front within 48 hours. When it came down to it, the strategy was to keep throwing soldiers at the German defenses until they broke down and allowed the Allies to regain the lost ground. Thousands and thousands of soldiers were butchered, forced to run at the enemy guns or face being shot in the back by their own troops for committing mutiny. It was a horrific, wasteful loss of life that sacrificed thousands of brave people who were fighting for their country’s freedom. Although they did regain some lost land, it was not worth all that death.
Emile, when he realizes what is happening and that he and his fellow soldiers are to follow in the footsteps of their deceased fellows, snaps. After watching his uncaring commander send group after group of soldiers straight to their death, with little to no remorse, he grabs his shovel and hits the commander over the back of the head to stop the madness. Although not his intention, the blow kills his commander and he is arrested on the spot. A few months afterward, he is sentenced to death by firing squad. The last we hear from him is in his letter to his daughter, talking about his hatred for war, his grief over the friends he has lost and his hope that she and little Victor can find happiness in his absence. You watch as Emile is marched out of his prison cell, past a collection of fellow soldiers – including Freddie, tied to a post and executed in a hail of gunfire. It’s a poignant and painful moment that I think is something people don’t think about as much when it comes to war stories.
Anyways, I think everyone should give this game a go. It is a well-crafted masterpiece that deserves all the love that can be bestowed upon it. Next time, we’ll go with a much more cheerful game, aka my favorite game at the moment, the Untitled Goose Game! HONK!
Till next time,
CaitlinRC 🙂