Studio Ubisoft unexpectedly decided to give us all a nice gift, which, at first glance, is a cocktail of a great cartoon, a dramatic story and an encyclopedia about the events of the First World War. And if you dig deeper, you can find a study of the human soul, an attempt to understand how war affects the fate of people, simple, good, not heroes. The name of this "explosive" mixture is appropriate - Valiant Hearts: The Great War. In general, talking about Valiant Hearts as a simple game is not entirely correct. Before us is a truly full-fledged work of art, an independent masterpiece. Something like the same Journey (at least in terms of impact), but on a different topic and in a completely different form. Nevertheless, Valiant Hearts will be remembered after its release, years later.

The first thing you pay attention to is the visual way of presenting the material. Despite its unique and colorful style, Valiant Hearts: The Great War takes on very serious topics, revealing the main points of the First World War in a rather censored way. But the fact that we do not see bloody atrocities and pictorial cruelty only benefits the work. We pay attention to the main thing, to the essence, to what happens in the souls of the characters and what, God forbid, could happen in our souls in such circumstances. It so happened that the First World War, although it claimed fewer lives than the Second, played a critical role in world history. The main empires of Europe were destroyed, the monarchies that determined the world order sunk into oblivion. The world will never be the way our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers knew it. The history that we have lost, the world that never happened ... These are the results of the main historical battle in the history of mankind. It was in the First World War that the foundations of the modern "military" structure of society were laid, it was then that the historical meat grinder crushed not only the fate of people, but also entire states, the seeds of evil were sown, which eventually led to the emergence of Nazi Germany, the creation of a nuclear bomb and others. horrors of the 20th century.

In the West, soldiers who died in both world wars are still equally honored. The merciless and senseless confrontation of the First World War was remembered by the West for many years. We for some time forgot all this, led by the ideologists of the USSR, who dubbed the Great Imperialist War. But now we, in Russia, also pay tribute to the soldiers of that massacre, remembering with sadness what we lost.

But let's move on to the game itself. Literally from the first minutes, Valiant Hearts: The Great War captures all your attention. And here, not only the merit of a great picture, also the player throughout the game will be accompanied by great music and a chic production. Yes, unusual, but no less impressive.

It should immediately be understood that Valiant Hearts: The Great War is not just a beautiful picture and a successful directorial production. Before us is a wonderful interactive book in which several sentimental stories are intertwined. We have to get acquainted with a French farmer who was taken to the front, with his son-in-law, who is forced to fight on the other side (in Germany), with a brave American volunteer soldier, a charming Belgian nurse, and even with a brave dog. With all these characters, you will have to go through many hours of adventure, during which you will attack near the Marne, survive the gas attack near Ypres, get out of German captivity, and also carry out a field operation to amputate the arm of a comrade. And all your heroes are just simple, good people who find themselves in very difficult and bad circumstances. And all for the sake of ... However, we will keep everything a secret. With Valiant Hearts, each player should have their own personal, intimate, one might say, acquaintance.

The tragedy of war in Valiant Hearts

In fact, the surprising fact is that the incredibly sweet and funny presentation of the story here goes hand in hand with the tragic events that are very skillfully woven into the plot and setting. Every scene in the game is really on point and doesn't feel far-fetched. Yes, "cartoon", yes, quite an optimistic style. But, if you are not made of stone, you will cry, you will think, you will understand that there is no heroism in killing and there is no valor in the war for territories, ideology, resources.

Another very important element of Valiant Hearts is the music. The game has one of the best soundtracks in history. These songs make you want to listen again and again. I think those who have appreciated the game have already downloaded the main musical themes and listen to them separately. You can rate it yourself, this is the main musical composition of the game:

As for the gameplay, it, in fact, fades into the background. However, it does not interfere with the story at all and fits perfectly into the overall outline. Otherwise, it seems that it was simply impossible to do. So what is Valiant Hearts like as a game? In fact, this is a platformer with a set of puzzles, quite simple, but no less interesting for that. The solution of such problems is sometimes interrupted by action scenes in which the player needs to press the keys that appear on the screen in order to perform one or another action. That is, we have what we have: a platformer with puzzles and QTE elements. Don't say you don't like it until you try it. The meaning of such “game-cloths” is different: in the combination of all elements into one whole. Such was Journey, which we already wrote about above, where you just had to go forward. But what an emotional impact the game had on the minds. Even, one might say, the soul. Here is Valiant Hearts: food for the mind after all, a masterpiece of the whole, not of individual parts.

Valiant Hearts is a very soulful adventure that lists all the values ​​that get people to wake up in the morning and move on. Yes, it's not easy for her. This is really a very difficult story, from which goosebumps begin to run through the body, a game that makes you feel, really suffer, experience all that has befallen the heroes. That is, the scriptwriters of the game are actually very talented guys. There are only a few of them in the gaming industry. And we hope that in the future we will see something similar from them again. In the meantime, I would like to say that Valiant Hearts: The Great War seems to us one of those great games that simply cannot be missed. Well, we would call it at the moment the main contender for the title of the game of 2014.

Screenshots of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Speaking about the genre of the game Valliant Hearts: The Great War, we can call it Puzzle Adventure with small elements from the visual novel. Nowadays, these elements are inherent in many games that want to capture the audience from the very beginning with their atmosphere and story.

Valiant Hearts was created using the UbiArt Framework, which also gave rise to such interesting games as Child of Light , Rayman Legends , Rayman origins . All games made on this engine are presented as a side-scroller with nice 2D graphics. Not far behind them and VH.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Studio Ubisoft Montpellier, who worked on his creation, as you might guess, is a subsidiary of Ubisoft and is located in the city of Montpellier in France. Former projects of the studio - Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil, not the most successful From Dust and others.

The game was warmly received by critics from around the world, receiving an average Metacritic(PC) score of 78 with a user rating of 8.7. The release of the game on Russian Steam was not without an incident: the first few hours after the release of the game, it cost 6.99 rubles instead of the prescribed 699. This fact pleased many players who bought several copies of the game and distributed them to friends.

The world we live in

It all starts with a scene with a happy French family: the husband works with pitchforks, and the wife cradles the child. The player is quickly made to understand that the main thing is to have time to enjoy the idyll and small joys, because the war begins, and Karl, that is the name of one of our heroes, is taken to war. But taking away the husband from the unfortunate girl was not enough - her father Emil is also taken to the war.

This is where the tragedy is just beginning, because Karl is a German living in France, so he is deported to his homeland, where he goes to the front to fight against his wife's father. The plot often revolves around people and their actions, showing that war is just circumstances and nothing should stop you from being a person. Relatives find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades - and all for what?

If anyone else does not know, the events of the game take place during the First World War, or rather in 1914. For those who are interested in learning more about the events of this confrontation during the passage, the player is invited to open a special menu and read the note related to the ongoing events. There are a lot of such notes in the game and they are completely documentary in nature. For those who like to read, the game also contains the diaries of the four main characters and Carl's wife. In them one can recognize their thoughts, hopes and aspirations.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Playing as Emil, the player optimistically stays in the camp, where the hero is given a uniform, offered to overcome a simple obstacle course, and sent straight to war. Having reached the front, we meet the first riddle and our faithful partner in the future. Freddy is a US Marine who wanted revenge on the Germans for the death of his wife and volunteered for the French troops even before the US officially joined the war.

The storytelling would not exist without such key things as visual style and musical accompaniment - they support the most important thing that is happening around you - the atmosphere. Bright colors delight with their diversity in moments of happiness and fade as quickly as they appeared to remind of war and death. The music does not lag behind and conveys the mood of your characters and the events in which they take part.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Lifelong war

The basis of the gameplay is puzzle mechanics, but at the same time, Valiant Hearts has something to offer the player between puzzles and something to entertain him. The tasks that the game sets before you are not always so easy to solve and sometimes you have to think about what needs to be done to move forward. But for those who are not ready to sit and think for hours, the game provides hints. If in the first few minutes you cannot find a solution, the game will give you the first clue, and after a minute the 2nd and then the 3rd. The last clue contains the complete solution.

But since the gameplay in this game is wrapped, that's exactly what will interest anyone. The game has many different situations in which, using the same mechanics, the game provides a completely different pace, and thus entertaining the player throughout the six hours that you are given.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

So that the dynamics do not fall, and the player does not get bored, after a measured scene where you need to find non-obvious solutions on how to move forward, you find yourself at the front in the thick of things. The atmosphere is heating up, the soldiers around are dying and all that is required of you is to run forward and dodge the projectiles. All those positive emotions that you have received up to this point fade along with the bodies of the dead comrades, and, as a result, the gaze of the wounded Emil, who is taken prisoner. Yes, this is how the game meets you from the first minutes. This is not Call of Duty, where you alone can destroy all enemy forces and save the world. You are just a soldier, a child of war.

Tense scenes are replaced by another puzzle and vice versa. To defeat every enemy, such as a Heavy that is blocking your teammates, you will have to find a way to do it gracefully. To do this, you will have to: throw grenades, dig tunnels, pull levers and much more. At the same time, the game does not let you get tired, providing a new portion of the plot, new gameplay elements, or allows you to look at the old elements from the other side.

As the game progresses, the developers present the levels on cars, which are accompanied by a strikingly different musical accompaniment. They will allow the player to escape from the puzzles and show off the reaction. We shouldn't forget about the opportunity to ride a mortar tank and shoot down several enemy planes!

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

A look into the abyss

"He who fights with monsters should be careful not to become a monster himself. And if you look into the abyss for a long time, then the abyss also looks into you"- Friedrich Nietzsche

If you pay attention, you can notice that the main characters never kill anyone, except at exceptional turning points. The developers do not want to make a killer out of you, but they are trying to show what war looks like and let you survive.

Playing as Emil, we will spend most of the game with a ladle or spade - Emil loves to dig so much! Showing off his skills, Emil helps friendly troops plant dynamite and blow up the enemy's underground camp. This moment once again shows the player that even success in war does not bring joy to the hero. After all, we just added more suffering to this world.

The only thing that will always please the player is the dog that Emil meets in the German camp, she becomes a true friend and helper throughout the game. At the same time, it feels like a real character, and not a companion for a change. The thing is how it fits into the gameplay: the further in the game, the more often there will be tasks that require third-party help. Perceiving the dog as part of your own character, you plunge into the world even deeper. Sometimes you just want to stop and scratch her behind the ear for her faithful service.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

stay human

As we approach the end of the first of four chapters, we meet another character - Anna, a Belgian nurse. Showing how Anna went to war, everything starts again with positive notes and an optimistic attitude. We say goodbye to the family, fix the car and go to the front!

But like the others, Anna quickly realizes how grim the world of war is. The only thing she can do is help everyone in need. Almost every mission on the battlefield ends negatively, because the result is always the same - dead comrades. Anna is ready to help even soldiers from the enemy camp, because they are the same people as the French soldiers. It is precisely such actions that dilute the reigning gloomy atmosphere of hopelessness. Helping the wounded is represented by a mini-game where you need to press certain buttons at the right moments.

Approaching the finale, Valiant Hearts begins to play on contrasts and, giving the player a chance to worry, shows that somewhere else there is happiness. The names of the last two achievements in the game can describe the events of the game, as well as any war in the world: "Someone will survive ...", "...but someone will not be lucky."

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Summing up, we can say that many may not like the gameplay in Valiant Hearts. He tries to cover too much at once, but does not succeed perfectly in any of the areas, although he can please at some points.

But looking at the world that surrounds the player throughout time: characters, history, the atmosphere of war and this era - that's exactly what the developers did best and that's why it's worth playing it.

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Review of Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The First World War is one of the most tragic and underestimated pages in the history of mankind. One fatal shot in June 1914 led to the disappearance of four huge empires from the political maps of the world, and with them the old order. 4 years, 38 countries and more than 20 million dead, half of which are civilians. The first use of chemical weapons and tanks on the battlefield, the first formed squadrons of military aircraft and artillery, terrible sacrifices made on the altar of a common victory. Years of upheaval, leading some to future prosperity and others to revolution and subsequent civil war. Until now, historians, politicians and ordinary people are arguing - was it possible to avoid this world collapse, and was it worth it? For what and for whom were all these people fighting? Studio Ubisoft Montpellier tried to give their answers to these difficult questions in every sense in the form of a colorful platformer Valiant Hearts: The Great War And, as it turned out in the end, hit right on target.

And all because she was able to show that terrible war through the eyes of ordinary people, putting aside big politics and unnecessary tinsel. Before the players appear four unlike friends of the hero who went through all the seven circles of hell of that terrible war in order to see their relatives and friends again. Our long touching story begins with Karl, an ethnic German living in France with his sweet wife Marie and their newborn first child. But war, like death after it, comes unnoticed, catching even the strongest people by surprise. The French government deports Charles to his historical homeland, where he is immediately taken into the army of General von Dorff. Unable to bear the suffering of his beloved blond daughter for the departed father-in-law, the elderly Frenchman Emil decides to join the ranks of the armed forces of his country in order to find Karl in the war and make sure that he will get home safe and sound.

In parallel with these events, the story of a black volunteer Freddie, who arrived from the USA straight to the front line, develops. At first, the writers try to present him to the players as a kind of Rambo, a hero without fear and reproach, eager to fight the entire German army at once, but towards the end of the first act, the players reveal the true reason why Freddie went to the Western Front. He is driven by a thirst for revenge, and he will not rest until he can satisfy it, even if he has to give his own life for it. It’s a pity, only, Freddie’s younger brother remained at home, who is eager to join the American privates and go to Europe, not knowing what kind of meat grinder awaits him there. In the second act, the beautiful Anna enters the front stage, becoming the “Sister of Mercy” not of her own free will, but in order to save her own father, a hardworking Belgian scientist, captured by the evil German general von Dorf and his retinue. Now he has to work for the benefit of the German war machine, creating ever more sophisticated weapons that will help the Germans inflict a crushing blow on the forces of the Entente. Anna, although young, is very brave and ready to do anything to free any parent and prevent enemies from taking advantage of his achievements. And the last participant and "hero" of the game will be a little dog-orderly - a reliable friend for all the heroes and a link between them. Will always come to the rescue if you need to distract the guards or pull the lever.

It seems that they are all so different, but their stories are harmoniously intertwined into one big one, where there is a place for everything: love and hate, good and evil, mutual assistance and separation, hostility and true friendship. Each of them is ready to help the other if something goes wrong, because inside their hearts there is still love and hope for a better future. Yes, and there are no obvious villains in the game, except for General von Dorf. Ordinary Germans are no less pitiful than the same allies, because they are the same - ordinary people who follow the orders of stupid generals and experience the same fear and pain. In particular, this is clearly seen in two short stories: one is connected with a German physician and part-time true owner of a cute dog, and the second with a mustachioed engineer stuck in the catacombs and ingloriously died through the fault of fellow soldiers Emil. Closer to the finale, only one anger will be stored in you, but not at enemies, no, but at generals and officers who throw civilians into battle like cannon fodder, while they themselves quietly sit out somewhere in the trenches or bunkers. You begin to understand the motivations of one of the main characters, why he did so at the end and not otherwise. That one right, but reckless act can change everything ... But there is also a huge minus in the main storyline that overlaps all its pluses - our American friend. He stands out too much from the general crowd, constantly demonstrating his remarkable strength and coolness in everything. Don't misunderstand your humble servant, Freddie is a good character, but the screenwriters showed him to be too cool a pepper, compared to the same Emil or Karl. And as you, I hope, guess such notorious clichés in a game with a powerful production and a story about “ordinary people”, there simply should not be, because then all the other parts collapse like in some kind of house of cards.

But this shortcoming is forgivable, considering what a titanic work the authors have done in connecting real and fictional history. Yes, drawn cartoon levels flash before us, but all of them are a variation on real events and places that once took part in that war. First you will see the terrible battle of Ypres, during which the Germans first used poisonous gas against their enemy (in reality, spraying about 168 tons of chlorine, which in a second burned the lungs of a person from the inside). Then the Allied offensive near Arras in 1917, choked in its own blood. If you do not believe what is happening on the screen, you can at any time get into a special magazine in the menu or read the diaries of the main characters. The developers managed not only to communicate with historians, but also to work together with the official government project Mission Centenaire 14-18, which is considered one of the largest archives in France, storing thousands of documents and photographs of that period. To the delight of Russian fans, the French did not forget about the Russian Empire, often citing it as an example in various small in-game reports and historical references. A certain number of items related to the real history of ordinary people are scattered throughout all locations: coins, helmets, soldier's tokens, various types of weapons, fragments of letters to relatives and friends, and much more. All these trophies you found are accompanied by interesting postscripts about what and for what this or that item was used during the war years. We can say with one hundred percent certainty that some of these exhibits will surprise you: from German helmets with “horns” to special shells in which soldiers stored tobacco. Of course, there are historical liberties and some tales, like a huge tank or an airship with a bunch of weapons on board. However, there are few of them, and all of them are only aimed at supporting the comic / cartoon style, where everything is a little exaggerated.

But the most interesting begins a little earlier, when you directly touch the gameplay and realize that the developers somehow magically manage to masterfully combine the impossible: war and the absolute peacefulness of your wards. Yes, yes, for the whole game you will not commit a single murder, whatever, you will even use grenades exclusively for peaceful purposes, only to get further along the level. Initially, it seems that each location is completely two-dimensional, but this is not entirely true: they are all divided into sublevels, that is, often you will have to return to those places where you have already visited, but with a different task. This does not strain or upset, because the authors skillfully alternate between different game situations, not letting you fall asleep until the very end. Here you are repairing some kind of cunning mechanism, looking for parts scattered throughout the level. And now, at breakneck speed, rush headlong in a Paris taxi, circling soldiers and obstacles, and at the same time dodging grenades, bombs and other equipment moving to the rhythm of classical music by Brahms, mazurka or quadrille. In addition, three of the main characters have their own unique abilities that help them move a little closer to their cherished goal or exit. And Anna's ability to heal people is closely related to a mini-game in which you have to quickly, and most importantly, press certain buttons correctly so that the patient survives after your small operation on the same broken leg. The controls are simple and intuitive, as our heroes can only do a few basic actions: use or pick up objects, strike or throw grenades. And more, in fact, is not necessary, because simple mechanics are a guarantee that players will not quit the game after five minutes of passing. Sometimes there are puzzles in the game, but to be honest, they are not difficult and can be solved in a jiffy and without any extra questions. As a last resort, if your brains can no longer digest what is required of you, good developers have inserted into the game a special hint system in the form of letters sent to you with the help of carrier pigeons. But they do not appear immediately, but after a minute, giving a little more time for you to think for yourself and guess how to get out of this situation. In some tasks, you will need the help of the previously mentioned four-legged friend, because without it you simply cannot turn the lever or get the items you need.

Although all the characters in the game are laconic and speak only funny exclamations, reminiscent of some phrases or words from various languages ​​of the world from afar, this does not interfere with the passage at all, but, on the contrary, gives integrity to their characters, and completeness to the overall picture. Separately, I would like to note the excellent visual style and musical accompaniment of the game. Nowadays, you rarely see such a thorough work of artists on every detail and trifle in the game: from a simple cufflink on a suit to beautiful houses in the center of Paris. Almost until the end of the game, a slight smile will not disappear from your face due to the deliberately caricature style of the game and plump funny soldiers going in desperation to attack the enemy. True, when you first see the bloodied heaps of such little men, something will pinch in your soul and become somehow uncomfortable from the picture you see. Even without showing the players real violence, blood and severed body parts, the developers achieved their goal through an exaggerated form: they showed all the banality and stupidity of the war that took millions of lives for the sake of someone's ambitions. And what beautiful and at the same time sad melodies are played somewhere in the background by a pianist inspired by the soundtrack to military dramas of the last ten years and, oddly enough, “Amelie”. As for the translation, the author of these lines has no complaints at all. In place of the English actor, who delivers off-screen remarks, they invited an equally talented Russian, who fully copes with the task assigned to him - to speak into the microphone with emotions and at the same time not overact. The subtitles were also on top, without serious errors and of high quality.
The review is based on the digital version of the game for the PlayStation 4, provided to the site team by the Russian branch of Ubisoft.

When the gaming industry was just carving out its niche in the entertainment market, media companies were probing all sorts of symbioses for the fresh, thriving entertainment field. The most tempting idea was to combine an educational program with a video game. The attempts of the developers were not perceived by the audience in the best way, so the publishers of such media textbooks failed to break into the mass market, repulsing huge profits.

The theme of world history comes into contact with the plots of video games quite often, but the reliability of this combination is still in question; which cannot be said about Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

Created by Ubisoft Montpellier's most creative department, the 2D platformer is based on real events and is built using found diaries, notes and newspaper files made during the First World War. The very concept of content delivery is stylized as a documentary film with acting performances: very beautiful, artistic, and dramatic - in the best traditions of Alexey Pivovarov's documentaries.

Returning to the topic of education in video games, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is filled to the brim with historical background: facts about the WWI, newspaper clippings, diaries of participants in these nightmarish events, and descriptions of important items from the time. It was with great pleasure that I studied the entire text part of the game, since, to my shame, my knowledge of the history of the First World War was negligible.

Obviously, Valiant Hearts: The Great War was not another foray into the territory of the education system, as proof of this, the Ubisoft Montpellier studio took care of the game mechanics, recreating the classic adventure game with puzzles, the complexity of which increases as the game progresses. The matter is not limited to constant walks along the two-dimensional front. For example, the gameplay for the nurse Anna is diluted every now and then with QTE-inserts, during which it is necessary to heal fighters whose bodies are sore from wounds. In total, the game features 5 key characters whose stories constantly intersect.

Charles

A German who lived in France before the war with his wife, young son and father-in-law. The harsh laws of war forced Karl to return to his homeland in order to go to the front in the future.

Emil

Karl's father-in-law, who also ended up at the front, only from the side of the French army, where he is forced to fight for his daughter and grandson, who remained behind the front line.

Freddie

One of the few American soldiers who ended up in the French army. He has his own reasons for participating in this war, and, first of all, Freddie pursues a personal goal, and not a complete victory over the enemy.

Anna

Nurse Anna voluntarily moved to the front, having escaped from her own home. She tirelessly helps maintain life in every wounded and emaciated body of a fighter. It has a bold character and a relentless desire to help.

Dog

Let's pretend now that jokes about dogs in games have already lost their relevance and be touched by this furry helper. Approximately 6,000 dogs “served” in the German army, which helped to search for wounded people, clear minefields, and so on. This dog pulled the half-dead Emil out of the burning wreckage, since then becoming a faithful and indispensable assistant throughout the game: he will get into narrow cracks, dig up some curiosity, or lay around a mine laid nearby

.

Visually, Valiant Hearts: The Great War looks very nice and pretty, but this is just a wrapper that wraps up a heavy dramatic story about love, friendship, and a stupid, inhuman war. The scriptwriters have chosen a neutral context in which no one is poking fingers at each other shouting “guilty”, “not guilty”; the dramaturgy of the way of life and relationships between people in difficult times are the key elements embedded in the plot of Valiant Hearts.

Bugs occur from time to time in the game (the reviewed version was launched on PS4). Several times I have witnessed how the heroes could not use items in the right place, or stopped interacting with the environment. In this situation, painstaking autosave and the immutability of puzzles at the level help out.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a game with its own character. It easily captivates the plot and arouses interest in a dark period in the history of the 20th century. Ubisoft Montpellier, as I wrote above, focused on dramaturgy, doing a lot of work on game design using the 2D, drawing engine Ubiart. Immediately after the announcement of the project, it was clear what task the developers had set for themselves, and they coped with it.

How should we talk about the war? It is possible with the usual tragic anguish: after all, each of her victims is worthy of grief. You can see a dangerous but exciting adventure in war, because it is here that a person shows what he is capable of in an extreme situation. And you can try to combine both. Risky? Not that word!

Ubisoft Montpellier stepped on a very shaky path, deciding to make a war game in the genre of an adventure quest-platformer. The theme of the First World War, which was almost not covered in the games, further exacerbated the risk: after all, close attention is provided, and the slightest falsehood is unforgivable. However, this division of Ubisoft is no stranger to bold decisions.

About valor, about exploits, about glory

An elderly farmer, Emil, and his son-in-law, an ethnic German, Karl, both ended up in the war. Both under duress and therefore ended up on opposite sides of the front. Now the main thing for Emil is to find Carl and make sure that he is alive and everything is in order with him. And Carl dreams of only one thing: to return home to his wife and little son.

A brave volunteer, American Freddie, on the contrary, feels himself in the thick of the battle like a fish in water. But he was not brought to the war in search of glory and honors. He has a personal score with the German general, Baron von Dorf. And at home, Freddie has a younger brother, and the war machine is already approaching him: when America enters the war, the younger one will also go to Europe.

Anna studied in Paris and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. But now she has to save the wounded, pulling them from the battlefield. She did not want to fight, but her father, a Belgian scientist, was captured by the Germans. Now he is at von Dorff's headquarters, developing killing machines. You can't leave him there.

Meet Baron von Dorf, and he is very angry.	He us with grenades, and we will play the organ for him!

With four heroes, we go through the entire war on the Western Front, from its first day to its last. These four destinies intertwine like raindrops on glass: the characters meet and part, save and lose each other, cope with difficulties together and apart, try to survive and care for friends. These words apply to them: valiant hearts, Valiant Hearts, a line from a poem by John Arkwright, which was dedicated to the fallen Irish, but became an anthem and a requiem for all the victims of the First World War.

Another participant in the events: a dog nurse, who also lost his “friends” and nailed to Emil. Courageous and smart, he becomes an excellent companion for everyone with whom the events of the game bring him together: he can bring the right item from an inaccessible nook and cranny, distract the guard and even pull the lever.

I dream of returning from the war

Uncomfortable duality manifests itself in the game literally from the first seconds. Funny short-legged men clumsily move around the two-dimensional background, diligently stamping their tiny shoes. The recruits are touchingly helpless, the officers are grotesquely noisy. Projectiles set off explosions on the painted ground, torn from a budget comic. And all this is accompanied by such dramatically sad music that it immediately becomes somehow not at all funny.

Cartoon locations, meanwhile, indicate very real territories of the war. For the first time, perhaps, we are aware of this near Ypres, diligently guiding Emil between clubs of deadly gas. But we can guess even earlier if we get into the magazine and ask what kind of shiny little thing we just picked up from the ground. Habitual notes, coins, souvenirs are added to the collection of military memories. And here's the most important thing: they are all real. Real. Authentic.

The plot of Valiant Hearts is based on letters from the front of Felix Chazal, a French soldier and, they say, the great-grandfather of one of the developers. But not only on them. As soon as the thought appears in our head: “Well, they invented it!” — an icon starts flashing in the corner of the screen, indicating that new entries have appeared in the corresponding menu. The next page of the encyclopedia of the First World War will demonstrate that there is not so much invented in the game. And this is proved by photographs, documents, testimonies, military reports. Here are tanks for you, here are combat airships, here are the successes of military field medicine, here are reports of losses. And next to it is a real museum. Letters and telegrams, soldier's tokens and weapons, souvenirs carved from shell fragments. Some of the "exhibits" are quite unexpected: for example, a frequent comb with which the soldiers combed out lice, socks soaked in a hellish mixture of wax and formalin (this is how they tried to protect themselves from frostbite), a hand-made semblance of a gas mask - the use of chemical weapons caught the allies by surprise.

A classic quest task: find the code for a digital lock.	To the police - in a police uniform, to the soldiers - in a military uniform, and to access the end of the location you will have to get hold of officer epaulettes.

Details accumulate and accumulate until under them, like under an avalanche, the remnants of mistrust and detachment collapse. These funny toy soldiers die a real death. The lives of these ridiculous townspeople are ruined forever. This painted earth won't heal its wounds soon.

It takes not only skill, but also great spiritual sensitivity to tell about the great tragedy with amusing bright pictures.

Do not shoot!

The easiest way is to make a kind of hurricane shooter about the war. The most difficult thing is not to give the heroes weapons in their hands at all. All our "valiant hearts" for the entire time of the game will never stain themselves with murders. Knocking out a guard with bare hands does not count, and knocking out an enemy airship with a grenade does not count either.

The heroes solve their problems as peacefully as possible, repairing mechanisms, finding a way to the goal, removing obstacles in the form of blockages and locked doors. And it may seem boring - but no, the game does not let us get bored, skillfully balancing elements of genres and changing places and tasks with virtuoso speed.

Here we are rushing under fire, dodging shells and machine-gun bursts. Here we are training to throw grenades - the heroes often have to throw sticks of dynamite, apples, pieces of wood, stones and tomatoes at the target. Tired of danger? Think about how to save that Parisian over there, stuck in a bombed-out house. And how about solving the puzzle while hiding from the guards or escaping from the jets of flame? Great, now the boss fight - can you figure out how to use a broken organ to drive him away in disgrace? Be careful, he will shoot back! Help Anna save the wounded man, watch his pulse. And now - a surprise: we will rush at full speed in a Parisian taxi, avoiding obstacles and dodging bombs falling in the rhythm of a chardash, a Viennese waltz or an incendiary cancan.

The peaceful Paris of the beginning of the war and the destroyed Ypres, the gloomy Fort Douaumont and the snowy Vaubecourt, the tunnels of Vauquois stuffed with TNT and the prisoner of war camp. From each significant military event, the brightest piece is torn out, the most memorable places are taken from the maps of military operations. We see the history of the First World War through the eyes of our heroes. And the further we go, the clearer it becomes that any outcome will not be happy here, on earth strewn with the corpses of enemies and friends. Here is a dear doctor joyfully playing with a dog: he will soon die. Here is Emil leading the volunteers: they die one by one so that we can go further.

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For the Russian Empire, the history of the First World War flowed into the history of the revolution and civil war - and was almost supplanted by them. And now the French company will tell us something that we did not know about, or maybe forgot, along with other history lessons. We will remember this one, because the storytellers are talented and caring people.