When comparing Valiant Hearts: The Great War vs Spec Ops: The Line, the Slant community recommends Spec Ops: The Line for most people. In the question“What are the best games that focus on the tragedies of war, over the more common hollywood style power-fantasy?” Spec Ops: The Line is ranked 1st while Valiant Hearts: The Great War is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Spec Ops: The Line is:
The gameplay is constantly changing with environmental effects to new enemies and weapons that they use. This keeps the player constantly learning and adjusting their playstyle in order to be successful.
Specs
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Pros
Pro A game about war where you don't kill anyone
Valiant Hearts tells a story about war, but you're not the one spreading death and misery. Your character simply journeys through battlefields, trenches, and various other locations. You meet other characters and solve puzzles along the way. This is quite refreshing because most modern titles about war always have a gun toting player character.
Pro Simple but satisfying puzzles
The puzzles in Valiant Hearts aren't exactly the most difficult, but they'll often require a little more thought than you initially believe.
One type of the puzzles you'll have to solve is fixing a pipe system. You just have to turn sections of the pipe system until it all fits together.
Even solving something so simple is very satisfying and leaves you with a feeling of achievement.
Pro Striking artistic style
The style of Valiant Hearts appeals to most aesthetics. It's simple and clean, allowing you to spot even the tiniest details in character designs and backgrounds. You'd occasionally spot interesting things like a flute attached to a soldiers backpack. Or even spot a very detailed Cathedral in the spaces between the rubble.
The colors are very dim and blend quite well, giving you the sombre feeling of war. There are no random mashups of colors or effects like in many recent games.
Pro Gameplay keeps one on their toes
The gameplay is constantly changing with environmental effects to new enemies and weapons that they use. This keeps the player constantly learning and adjusting their playstyle in order to be successful.
Pro A dark exploration of whether the player has a choice
It is up to the user on how the take in the meaning of the content of the game. There are no cutscenes, everything is portrayed by gameplay, which makes the interpretation somewhat personal. This type of presentation also explores whether the player has any choice in what they are doing in the game, which can be liberating while also weirdly strict.
Cons
Con Short
Valiant Hearts takes about 6 hours to complete and there's not much to do afterwards. While the collectibles give this game some replay value, not many players will be interested in finding them.
Con Historical facts may become annoying
There are historical fact boxes that will pop up during gameplay. They are optional, but can be annoying because they disrupt the flow of the gameplay.
Con Multiplayer progression is lacking
While playing multiplayer modes there is a progression system where you can unlock new gear and weapons, though it feels a bit contrived and not that rewarding.
Con Little player agency
Almost an on-the-rails shooter means it reduces some of the impact of the points it makes.