Gamespot - 8/10
IGN - 7.7/10The game's storytelling isn't always as cohesive as it should be. There's a jarring disconnect between the French-accented voice we hear Emile use during gameplay and the British-accented voice that speaks for him during between-level cutscenes. Freddie's storyline fits too neatly into the familiar narrative trope of a man out for revenge against the person responsible for the death of the woman he loved, making his arc feel more like something out of a generic action movie than a proper tale of war. And on multiple occasions, the game leads you to think a dire fate has befallen one or more characters, only to reveal, like the bad resolution of a TV cliff-hanger, that this wasn't the case. But these are minor blemishes on a visually beautiful game that deftly moves between moments of joy and moments of tragedy, and ultimately doesn't shy away from the fact that "great" is just about the last thing any war should be called.
Destructoid - 9/10Valiant Hearts focusses on how lives are torn apart, how strangers become saviours, and how madness thrives. It’s a small-scale human perspective of the war, which tries to salvage those little acts of love and heroism from a world overwhelmed by violence. There’s not much of a challenge or a reason to revisit once you’ve finished, but the story alone is worth experiencing. Ultimately, it’s a game about warfare that’s more interested in the people and their experiences, than bullets and their targets. I could’ve done without some of the footnotes and heavy-handed narration, but it remains a beautiful, harrowing experience nevertheless.
I don't want to give too much away, but Valiant Hearts: The Great War is significant in many ways. It not only gives us a rewarding and engaging way to see the horrors of war as it pertains to this particular likable cast of characters, but it also educates us on one of the most significant events in history. Ubisoft Montpellier could have just delivered a good game and called it a day, but they went above and beyond the call of duty to add context to the proceedings, and that is quite the commendable effort.





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