Gaming Valiant Hearts: The Great War Review

Ah, Waltz with Bashir. Should really watch that again!

 

While I'm not sure I agree with the review, 60% is about right for this.

 

Agreed on score, though I'd personally like to push it up to something like 65%.

Whilst I agree with the reviewers comparison between Blackadder's morbid gallows humour and the games almost "endearingly cute" form of it, I don't see it as a way of covering-up or lightening the mood at all. For example, the player may well be marching through no-mans land with soup ladle in hand, but in the background you cannot fail to watch dozens of your countrymen get machine-gunned / choke to death on mustard gas/ obliterated by artillery etc. Yes, you could avert your eyes and choose to ignore these things happening all around you (as you can in any game), but I feel that the humour is indeed an effective method to highlight the sheer ridiculousness of the Great War, even if you feel it is slightly clumsy and cartoonish at times it does work.

 

Great review choice!

I get that you, the reviewer, have noticed the uncomfortable juxtaposition of humor and horror in this game. This is good, as it means you are a thinking human being who is not completely desensitized to the violence in the game.

However (and this is an honest question), how do you know that the slapstick is meant to juxtapose the horrors of war and demonstrate the lunacy of it; how do you know it is just not desensitized disregard for violence as entertainment, as per the industry modus operandi?