When comparing Valiant Hearts: The Great War vs Wasteland 2, the Slant community recommends Wasteland 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best PS4 (PlayStation 4) games?” Wasteland 2 is ranked 23rd while Valiant Hearts: The Great War is ranked 91st. The most important reason people chose Wasteland 2 is:
Though not the prettiest game to look at, the art style and direction make for a game that resembles the original quite successfully. More modern looks could have easily detracted from the game and its terroir.
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 Successful heir to the original game
Though not the prettiest game to look at, the art style and direction make for a game that resembles the original quite successfully. More modern looks could have easily detracted from the game and its terroir.
Pro Combat is fun
This is a very subjective thing but the combat is well done and it doesn't get old or tedious after so many hours of play. It's reminiscent of XCOM gameplay.
Pro Worldbuilding
Even if the post-apocalyptic world is nothing new, there are ways to go about it and Wastelands present a consistent and believable version of it (for the most part).
Pro Large party size
The game starts out with four user created or pre-made characters that then allows 3 more to be added later in the game for a total of seven. The large party size allows for plenty of player choice and customization of their team, in order to fit anyones play style or particular play scenarios.
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 Giant ridiculous difficulty spike half way through
Con Gameplay feels a bit rigid
While there are a few points where a player can choose to use unintended actions, more often than not a set skill has to be used on set items in order to interact with them. Sadly this leaves little room for experimental gameplay or use of imagination to try for unintended circumstances.