Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Valiant Hearts: The Great War (French original title: Soldats inconnus: Mémoires de la Grande Guerre ) is a video game released in 2014 bythe French development studio Ubisoft Montpellier . The game can be assigned to the genres of puzzle games and 2D adventure games and tells the story of four characters during the First World War , shown in hand-drawn animation . The title, in German "Wackere Herzen", refers to the song "O Valiant Hearts" from 1919, which was supposed to honor the fallen of the war. Despite the comic look, the developers see the game as an anti-war game, as well as an "animated graphic novel adventure", which deals with the interwoven fates of the protagonists and tells of friendship, love, sacrifice and tragedy in a world that has fallen apart. As part of Gamescom 2014, Ubisoft also announced the release of the game for iOS as a universal app, which is planned for September 4th. The game was also released four years later on November 8, 2018 for the Nintendo Switch .

action

The plot follows the lives of four playable characters whose lives intersected during the war, accompanied by Walt, a Doberman who serves as a war dog .

Karl is a young German who ended up working as a farm laborer in France, where he met Marie, the daughter of the good-natured farmer Emile. The two become a couple and their son Victor is born before the start of the war. When the war began, Karl, like all Germans in the country, was expelled by the French authorities and finally drafted into military service in the German Empire. Despite his advanced age, his father-in-law Emile also received his draft notice to fight for France.

Freddie is an American of Creole descent who secretly had a love affair with a white woman. Both travel to France for their wedding. After the ceremony at the beginning of the war, however, his newlywed couple dies in a German bomb attack. This leads to anger and bitterness at Freddie, which is why he reports to the Foreign Legion to take revenge on those who destroyed his happiness.

Anna, a young Belgian woman, was studying veterinary medicine in Paris when the war began. When she learns that her father, a renowned engineer, is being obliged to do forced labor by the Germans, she sets out to save him, contrary to her father's advice. She travels to the front in a stolen taxi (" Marnetaxis ") intended for the transport of troops and ends up in the battle of the Marne . Shocked by the sight of this hell, she decides to help the wounded, regardless of which side, as a medic.

reception

Magazine / website	Rating
4players	70%
GameStar	73%
Metacritic	82%
Computer picture	Note 2.18
GamePro	74%
Eurogamer	7 out of 10
insidegames	90%
GameBrush	95%

The reviews of the game were benevolent. Above all, the powerful visuals and the moving plot are praised. On the other hand, it is criticized that the playful aspects are neglected, appear too monotonous in the long run, and the low level of difficulty.

The author Jörg Luibl from 4Players compares the drastic depiction of the war in this way with the award-winning anti-war comic “Elender Krieg” by Jacques Tardi , but complains about a staging “between drama and comedy, anxiety and amusement, anti-war tendencies and heroic pathos”, including the Action suffer. On the other hand, he praises the fact that numerous historical facts have been embedded in the game that have educational value.

Heiko Klinge from GameStar also complains about "insensitive moments in an otherwise so sensitive game", such as the depiction of the German adversary, whose "thoroughly evil and distorted to the point of caricature" appearance seems misplaced. Nevertheless, he also praises the moving plot of the game as "emotional" and "impressive". Ultimately, however, you can see from Valiant Hearts that "video games can do a lot more than 'just' entertain".

“Seldom has a game affected me so much. With simple comic graphics, it lets me experience the horror of war more intensely than any military shooter of the past few years. Because Valiant Hearts doesn't just focus on battles, but also and above all their consequences. How do I save civilians from the poison gas? How do I escape Verdun's endless war trenches littered with corpses ? Interestingly, Valiant Hearts is best when it comes to playing when it slows down and concentrates entirely on its physics and combination puzzles. "

- Heiko Klinge : Criticism in the GameStar

For the newspaper Die Welt , the German conflict researcher Martin Bayer took a look at the game to check its authenticity. On the one hand, he praises the level of detail of the game, but also mentions freedom and inaccuracies in the historical representation.

The game was recognized by the historians' commission of the French Mission Centenaire 14-18 for its accuracy. It was given a seal for this.

Awards

The Game Awards 2014
- Best narrative
- Unusual games

Web links

Individual evidence

[1] ttp://www.ubi.com/DE/Games/Info.aspx?pId=12079

[2] ttp://www.iplayapps.de/news/preview/ubisoft-kuendigt-valiant-hearts-the-great-war-fuer-september-an/17436/

[3] ttp://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Test/35121/80574/0/Valiant_Hearts_The_Great_War.html

[4] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/valiant-hearts-the-great-war/test/valiant_hearts_the_great_war,50149,3057238.html

[5] ttp://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/valiant-hearts-the-great-war

[6] ttp://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cbs-Tests-Valiant-Hearts-The-Great-War-10227060.html

[7] ttp://www.gamepro.de/playstation/spiele/ps3/valiant-hearts-the-great-war/50151.html

[8] ttp://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-25-valiant-hearts-the-great-war-review

[9] ttp://www.insidegames.ch/review/valiant-hearts-great-war-test-review/

[10] - ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[11] ttp://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Test/35121/80574/0/Valiant_Hearts_The_Great_War.html

[12] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/valiant-hearts-the-great-war/test/valiant_hearts_the_great_war,50149,3057238,2.html

[13] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/valiant-hearts-the-great-war/test/valiant_hearts_the_great_war,50149,3057238,2.html

[14] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/valiant-hearts-the-great-war/test/valiant_hearts_the_great_war,50149,3057238,fazit.html

[welt--15] "Valiant Hearts" analyzed by historian - video. In: welt.de . June 26, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .

[16] ttp://centenaire.org/fr/la-mission/le-label-centenaire

[17] The Game Awards 2014 - Dragon Age Game of the Year, Sierra Industry Icon