SUMMARY: For those who don't want to read more, Valiant Hearts is simply an awesome as well as moving game and I highly recommend it; you won't regret picking it up.

As someone who has been fortunate enough to live in a peaceful country, war is something that, thankfully, I've never personally experienced. As a result, it's hard for me to truly understand the terror and horror of what being in a war actually is. I've seen the awful photos and videos but that's not like actually being there, fighting for your life or just trying to survive. That's why I appreciate games like Valiant Hearts that puts a real and human perspective on war and shows just how terrible both sides can be sometimes.

Valiant Hearts is an adventure / puzzle game set in Western Europe during World War I. You play as one of four regular people (or their dog companion) who didn't want war and are simply doing their best to survive it. The gameplay involves solving 2D puzzles (e.g. collecting required parts, flipping switches, etc.) as well as timing your movement to avoid enemy obstacles and hazards; it's not too difficult in general, even though there can be some challenging parts.

There's also an educational component to it; the developers of the game partnered up with a group of WWI historians to ensure that the game is as historical accurate as possible. As a result, there is information on each the big battles and events that occured during the war; in addition, every level has historical objects that the player can collect, each of which has their own descriptions. While not required, reading this material adds more immersion and ultimately understand of what life what like during that time.

The graphics are great and the art style is truly unique; all of the graphics are hand-drawn and are unlike any other game I've seen. There is an incredible attention to detail; obviously, a lot of care and effort went into making the world feel alive. The backgrounds are frequently dynamic, highlighting that you're just in some small part of the war and that there's action going on elsewhere.

The music and sound effects in the game are amazing and add further immersion to the game. They actually use songs and anthems that are appropriate to that time period and place; it made me feel like I had been transported back to time. It really is a beautiful soundtrack and one that I actually purchased because of how nice it was/

While the rest of the game is great, the real appeal of Valiant Hearts is its atmosphere and story; it shows regular people, not super soldiers, who have to deal with the brutality of war. It makes you invested in these characters and you end up finding that you really do care about them and want them to live through it. It shows the human side of war and how not everything is black and white. I'm not going to spoil anything here but I actually did tear up a bit at the end; I'm sure I'm not the only one who did.

So to make a long story short, Valiant Hearts is an amazing game that I highly recommend that you experience for yourself.