Warfare
may be one of the most common themes in video games today. Yet, it is also one
of the least well explored themes in use. War is used as a stage to highlight
the player character's skill and perseverance, whether it be as a front-line
combatant or a non-entity general.
Courage, valor and sacrifice are narrative elements used to exact an
emotional toll from the players and anti-war messages are increasingly becoming
a staple of every triple A title. Despite it all, the gameplay itself often
subverts and contradicts the message the narrative tried conveying. Courage and
valor on the NPC's part feel empty when it is solely the player character's
actions that decide the outcome of every battle. The gratuitous amount of NPC
deaths fail to impact players as much as they should since overuse of the trope
has turned it into a cliché. Even the
obligatory anti-war messages lose their meaning when the player is rewarded for
causing as much death and destruction as possible.
In
short, while war games often glorify warfare - intentionally or not - very few
of them of them portray the true cost of warfare. Very few games even attempt
to show warfare as something other than a stage for winning personal honor and
glory. And even fewer games choose to not portray the "other side" as
irredeemable zealots dedicated to wiping out all that the player might care
about. Valiant Hearts: The Great War (or Soldats Inconnus : Mémoires de la
Grande Guerre) is one of those games.
In
Valiant Hearts, the player doesn't play as a soldier or, more accurately, the
hyper-competent, bullet guzzling, nigh invulnerable superhuman that passes as a
'soldier' in most video games. Instead, the player takes on the role of several
everyday people who were obligated to join the war through forces beyond their
control. An aging French farmer drafted into serving his country, his German
son-in-law fighting on the opposite side, a Belgian veterinarian turned field
nurse searching for her father, an American Legionnaire haunted by what the war took from him, and a
loyal German rescue dog form the core cast of characters that the player
controls at various points. The diversity of player characters ensure, that not
only do you see, firsthand, a wide variety of different battles that defined
the Great War but also that you see them from several different sides. Even
though there is a comically exaggerated German general opposing most of the
player (as is appropriate considering the art style), it is the war itself and
not any particular side that is portrayed as the main antagonist. Great care is
taken to show atrocities and acts of valor committed by all factions involved
and, ultimately it is humanity and humility that is celebrated in place of
romanticized honor
.
Although
player characters do talk in their native languages, they are usually
soft-spoken enough that they may as well be speaking gibberish. Most of the
instructions in the game are conveyed, instead, through pictures and miming.
This is actually a stroke of genius on the part of the designers. The Great War
so combatants from countries as far apart as America and India fight together
on the same field and, obviously, verbal communication was bit problematic. The
slightly exaggerated body language not only helps in understanding game
objectives, but also conveys a sense of the truly global nature of the Great
War using the breach of communication as a narrative tool.
But the story-telling
isn't the true gem of this game. Surprisingly,
for a game as apparently story focused as Valiant Hearts, the true star
ends up being the gameplay itself! This is largely because of how the gameplay
reflects the game's narrative : Outside of a few ambiguous instances, the
player characters never kill. You read that right. Valiant Hearts is a war game
where the player hardly, if ever, kills.
In fact, the gameplay actually rewards saving lives regardless of the
rescued party's faction. The true brilliance of this piece of game design
doesn't become apparent until the player has had a few hours of gameplay under
his/her belt. You stop seeing the NPCs as 'us' and 'them'. Instead, you start
seeing them all for what they really are - people who are just as terrified and
disgusted at the acts war has forced them into doing.
Another
interesting way in which gameplay is used to deliver narrative is through the
collectible memorabilia scattered throughout the battlefields of Europe. You
don't need any of them progress through the game but every one of them unlocks
a little tidbit of history that sheds more light on the conflict in large. The
game isn't perfectly historically accurate, but these little tidbits are. The
designers knew that completionist gamers would be driven to gather every
collectible and decided to make the experience more rewarding by inserting
actual history into them. This results in a surprisingly educational bit of
gameplay.
No
discussion of Valiant Hearts can be complete without mentioning the canine
companion, Walt, who, instead of being just a set-piece to establish emotional
attachment, is a part of the core gameplay. From dragging soldiers out from
rubble to distracting enemies - Walt does it all. In fact, a large chunk of
puzzles require Walt's assistance to overcome. Obviously, there is an option to
pet Walt. It doesn't affect gameplay in anyway but come on! Who wouldn't want
to? (Appropriately, there is an achievement for doing so, as if the players
needed more encouragement!)
In
conclusion, Valiant Hearts is definitely the war game gamers needed: a game
that vilifies war instead of glorifying it; a game that shows how real families
were broken up to answer their call of duty; a game that demonstrates how no
amount of medals of honor can replace the loss of a loved one. Valiant Hearts
is a game that strays from mainstream depictions of war in order to deliver a
message, and succeeds brilliantly thanks to its combination of storytelling,
art style and thoughtful gameplay mechanics.
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