Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Each area gives you a place to examine and a practical obstacle. A missing object may need to be carried to another person; a machine may need to be operated in the right order; Walt can sometimes reach a place the human character cannot. Look at the speech bubbles and the shape of an object before trying every button. The winter-station and machine screenshots below show the game's visual cues: characters and usable objects are drawn clearly against the scenery, and a thought bubble can show what somebody needs. There are also chase and timing sequences, so it is not only a collection of static puzzles.

The game includes historical information alongside its fictional plot. Those notes are a way to learn about the real war, but Émile and his friends are story characters, not a claim that their exact journey happened. Its illustrated style makes difficult subjects approachable without pretending the conflict was harmless. If you want a game about people helping one another under pressure, this is the part that makes Valiant Hearts different.

Ubisoft Montpellier developed the original game and Ubisoft published it. PlayStation's North American launch post says the PS3 and PS4 versions arrived June 24, 2014; Ubisoft's current listing and the Windows PC store use June 25. This fiche uses the earlier documented PlayStation launch. Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions were also part of the original release. Valiant Hearts: Coming Home is a later separate game, not an alternate title for this one. In the US and Canada, the original game's ESRB rating is T (Teen).