that's a lot of war! I really like Valiant Hearts too. I am almost done with it, and hope to do a review for the end of the week. I like the aesthetic a lot, maybe not the characters so much, but the environments and layering of 2D art. It's really pretty. I like that games like this are being made.
Valiant Transformer Dragons 2
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 On 07/02/2014 at 04:06 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
I almost completed Valiant Hearts: The Great War this weekend. I came up two achievements short of it. I’m down to two collectibles left for the all collectibles achievement, and I need the one for the rhythm game. The rhythm one will be the toughest, but not that tough compared to others I’ve done. It’s pretty short and I should get it after a few tries, but that’ll have to wait ‘til next weekend.
Valiant Hearts was a fun game. Its puzzles remind me of the Oddworld games: pulling switches, finding objects to activate machines, interacting with the environment by throwing things, pipe puzzles, turning wheels, all that kind of stuff. It also reminds me of The Cave where you do some limited platforming; although, you can’t jump in Valiant Hearts. Some other game mechanics used are a rhythm game, a driving sequence where you avoid obstacles, and one short quick-time-event.
There are collectibles on all the levels, except for the ones where you’re driving a taxi, some of which are devilishly difficult to see or even completely invisible. A few appear only after you interact with something in the environment. It pays to scrutinize each area closely, click “A” in some places you might suspect have an item, and look for anything that might be interactive.
There is also some reading, if you’re interested. There are diaries for each character that pop up as you move through the story, the individual descriptions of each collectible, and there are pure history shorts that you can read every time you enter a new location. I actually got an achievement just for reading the history pages, which made me laugh. I think that’s a first.
The visual design of the game didn’t wow me as much as I thought it would. The animations are stiffer than I expected, but the general look of the game is gorgeous. There’s something about the character design by Paul Tumelaire that’s really familiar to me; those stocky bodies and tiny feet. It’s probably from certain characters in the recent Rayman Origins/Legends games that he worked on.
The music is orchestral throughout the levels and solo piano in the menu screens. After a while that sad solo piano music made me want to stop it from yanking on my heartstrings. It kinda reminded me of the solo piano theme in Halo 3: ODST. It liked it initially, but then really thought it was a touch corny after a while. That’s the thing with sensitive stuff. It works only for so long. There is a rousing orchestral tune during the battle of the Somme section that made me think of John William’s Duel of the Fates theme from Phantom Menace (or Dvorak’s New World Symphony from which it’s inspired). I liked that one a lot.
All in all, Valiant Hearts was very enjoyable. I loved playing it once, and then again to find all the collectibles and mission achievements I missed the first time (almost finished with that). After this coming weekend, I estimate I will have spent about 15 hours on the game, and for $15, that’s quite nice. I like a game you can finish in one weekend (or even 1.15 weekends).
I also saw Transformers: Age of Extinction on IMAX 3D. Wow was that a nonstop action extravaganza for almost three hours! I’m not a huge Transformers fan, but I enjoyed this. It just got better as the movie went on and Mark Wahlberg didn’t annoy me as much I he usually does with his constant pleas for understanding. His daughter, whoever the actress was, looks exactly like a Barbie Doll. That kinda unnerved me – uncanny valley in real life. Still, giant robots and dinosaur robots are ok with me, especially when they run rampant all over Chicago and Hong Kong.
I also saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 in Real 3D. The first one was amazing in 3D and I hoped for something just as good. It looked great, but it didn’t make me notice 3D effects like the first one did. This was a really good story about family, resistance to oppression, and the abuse of nature. The variety of dragon types is always really interesting to me. So many interesting dragon shapes and vomit attacks. I think I’ll pick up the game this weekend, despite lousy reviews, to relive some of the magic of the movie. I’m beginning to see the appeal of movie licensed games.
And that was my weekend full of war between people, war between robots, and war between dragons. Maybe next weekend will be a little bit more peaceful, but I doubt it.
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