Players solve traversal puzzles, avoid hazards, and move between several intertwined character perspectives across frontline and civilian spaces.
Why it may be useful
You play both sides of the same war through four linked characters, which forces you to keep people on opposing sides alive at once, a real mechanical commitment to holding more than one perspective. The puzzles themselves, levers and keys and fetch tasks, could sit in any adventure game.
Keep in mind
Its WWI setting should not stand in for broad factual history learning.
Written 2026-09-15 · editorial assessment, not a measured effect · how we rate →
What the game is
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle adventure set in the First World War, made by Ubisoft Montpellier in the UbiArt Framework and released in June 2014. It looks like an animated comic book: hand-drawn characters on painted backdrops, thick outlines, muted color. Steam prices it at about fifteen euros and PEGI rates it 12. The Steam route also requires linking a Ubisoft account.
You play four ordinary people caught on different sides of the same war, among them a French farmer, his German son-in-law, an American volunteer and a Belgian medic, plus a dog who runs errands the humans cannot. The game moves through real Western Front locations such as Reims and Montfaucon and revisits real battles including the Marne and the Somme, and it stops between scenes to hand you short historical notes about what was actually happening.
What you actually do
A scene gives you a small area and something in the way: a locked gate, a gas cloud, a sniper, a wounded soldier. You walk, pull levers, dig with a shovel, throw objects, and send the dog into gaps too small for a person to fetch a key or turn a valve. Some sequences change the pattern, such as driving in time with the music while shells fall or a rhythm-timed healing minigame, but the core is always the same: look at the scene, notice what interacts, and use the character or the dog that fits. Difficulty rises through more moving parts per screen rather than faster reflexes. Collectible period objects lie half-buried in the scenery, each with a note about what it was.
What it exercises
Reads a scene for the one object that changes it, rather than trying everything.
Holds two viewpoints at once: the same battle from a French and a German side.
Connects one person's small decision to the larger pressure of the war around them.
Sequences several steps, such as dig, distract and unlock, into one working plan.
Slows down to read short historical notes attached to objects found in the scenery.
Why we rate it Low Worksheet score 41 / 100
FitHow much real knowledge or skill does the play itself make you use?45weight 45%
At 45 the historical perspective is built into the structure: you are handed four characters on opposing sides and the puzzles make you keep all of them alive, which is a real commitment rather than a framing device. It settles here because the puzzles themselves, levers, keys and fetch tasks, are generic adventure-game work that could sit in any setting at all.
TransferWill what you practise here work outside the game?45weight 30%
At 45 what travels is the habit of asking who else was caught up in this and what it cost them, which is a real move in reading history. What does not travel is dated, sourced knowledge: a player finishes knowing how the war felt, not when a battle began or why. The credit here is for a disposition, not for content.
PracticeDoes the game make you use that skill again and again, as it gets harder?30weight 25%
At 30 every scene runs the same loop, survey, identify, sequence and act, so the situation-reading skill gets a fair number of repetitions across a game of several hours. The historical thinking gets far fewer: the notes are optional and a player can walk past most of them, which is why the number stays low rather than climbing with the puzzle repetition alone.
What the evidence says
Editorial onlyNobody outside our desk has checked this. It is our reading of how the game plays.
The level is Editorial only. What we checked is the Steam listing: developer, the June 2014 release, four playable characters and a dog, the comic-book UbiArt presentation, the named locations and battles, the fifteen-euro price and the PEGI 12 rating. No study exists on this game and none has been added. The claim that it may help a player hold several perspectives at once is our reading of a structure that forces you to play both sides, not a measured result. Treat the in-game historical notes as a starting point rather than a citation.
Editorial assessment - not a measured scientific effect.
Fit
45/100
Transfer
45/100
Practice
30/100
Why it makes the cut
PASS - Its puzzle-adventure design has clear game-first value beyond its war framing.
Editorial only
This is our own reading of the mechanics, based on the current Steam listing; it confirms the setting, the characters and the release, but no study measures what a player actually retains.
Prices are US store listings in USD, last refreshed 2026-09-25; regional prices and sales differ.
The current Steam route requires a linked Ubisoft account.
Current PC availability is directly verified on Steam. The verified route also requires a linked Ubisoft account.
Steam currently verifies interface support for the listed locales. Full audio and subtitle support are only marked where a current Steam source states them explicitly.
Age guidance
Ages 13+ · ESRB T
Topics
History & society
Play styles
Single-player, Puzzle, Narrative
Tags
WWI perspectives · Puzzle adventure · Conflict and consequence
Holding four characters on opposing sides alive is a real structural commitment, but the underlying puzzles are generic adventure-game tasks, and the historical notes are easy to walk past entirely.
