Ubisoft's Valiant Hearts: The Great War is not the long anticipated answer to the question of how we should portray war in games but it is fantastic evidence that a discussion needs to be had. It's a remarkable, beautiful and emotional journey through one of the world's most important events but sadly it's held down by a core solving puzzle mechanic that's fun at first, but it repeats itself far too often and far too early to sustain the entire experience. Valiant Hearts: The Great War delivers fantastic visuals and context to the action of the conflict, but it fails to offer enough diverse gameplay to make it interesting enough the whole way through, but it is one hell of an interesting experiment.

"..a war game like no other you've played before."

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a war game like no other you've played before. Here, you don't assume the role of a gun toting, aggressive soldier who's only mission seems to be to shoot anything that looks different than him; you play as a cast of four everyday people with one common goal; survive the war. The tales of these four characters all interact beautifully and deal with the stress, fear and desperation of war like few war games even attempt to. There's a moment early in the game where even though I didn't think I cared about the characters as much as I did, I found myself gasping as they came close to being just another casualty in the war. Interestingly enough, with credit to the game's fantastic presentation value, I didn't even realize I could control the action and just sat back thinking I was just a witness to what was coming next.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Valiant Heart's remarkable story is how Ubisoft supplemented it with content and actual facts related to the first world war. During big segments and important events an icon will appear on screen and a simple button press brings up a menu full of facts and historical figures about the section you're on. I'm sure that many who play the game will skip over a lot of this, but it's a great inclusion for history buffs like me, and maybe - just maybe it'll prompt some kid to get more into history that wasn't before. The whole experience of Valiant Hearts is done with incredible comic book style visuals that go a great distance in putting you in the middle of the time period, the voice overs are also well done and remind you of a really good History Channel documentary (you know, the kind they show in between episodes of Pawn Stars).

Though it may look like a platformer, at it's heart, Valiant Hearts is an old school puzzle game. Most sections you'll be attempting to solve problems to get past barricades, get rations to troops or dismantle enemy equipment. The brain over brawn approach is a refreshing one, especially in an industry so consumed with glorifying the violence of war, and some of the puzzles will task your brain, especially in the beginning (luckily there's a pretty easy to use hint system built in). A lot of the solutions are surprisingly simple and become apparent once you take a step back and take another look at the task at hand and it's often incredibly rewarding to get to other side and foil the oppositions plans. You have to wonder though, why do your enemies have so many secret weapons that are so easy to dismantle?

"...guilty of showing all of it's cards way too early..."

That's really the question that's at the core of Valiant Heart's most daunting issue, how repetitive it's puzzles really are. At first, it's fun to go through and see how the mechanics play out in different scenarios but before long, you'll notice that a lot of the solutions are the same throughout the game. Move this lever, lower that cart, turn this wheel and repeat; Valiant Hearts is guilty of showing all of it's cards way too early and then even worse, failing to fold when they're not working anymore. I found myself not looking for a solution, but looking for the hand of the developer, and where they put the same items that they did in so many puzzles before. What could have been a fun and inventive puzzler deteriorated to a mind numbing slog through predictable mechanics, no matter how much I wanted it to be more.

There are objects to collect and of course, back reading to do with Valiant Hearts, but there's really not much reason to go back through and play, even though the story is so uniquely told. Though I identified with the characters more than I did in other war games, this wasn't a story that I wanted to play through and experience again, and I definitely didn't want to solve the same puzzles again and again. This one will be a one time experience for most, even with how short of an experience it really is.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a unique war experience; and less of a game. The puzzle solving mechanics repeat themselves way too often and too early, making this a predictable and almost boring experience, but luckily the amazing art style and deep and emotional story step in to save the title. Ubisoft has done war games in the past and here they present a unique way to look at conflict. It may not be the game that redefines the genre, but it's a refreshing experience nonetheless.