"What war was that?" "Oh, the great war." "They're all great."

Valiant Hearts strikes a weird, pleasing, but weird balance between point-and-click adventures and a more casual visual novel.

With the French and German conflict as its backdrop, Valiant Hearts plots a course through famous battle sites, and immerses itself in real war history. The game doesn't shy away from the horrible realities of war - trench rot, mortar barrages, chemical attacks - and despite its cartoony appearance, paints a very powerful portrait. Each of the game's characters is forced to deal with the desperation and suffering of allies, civilians, and even enemies around them.

What's unfortunate is that these characters feel like stand-ins, placeholders. Although their backstories set the stage for some plot events, none of them show any particular personality, merely reacting to their adverse circumstances. The argument could probably be made that this shadows the shared bravado of war comrades, or the inhumanity of combat; but compared to well-known wartime characters in non-game mediums, the Valiant Hearts team just falls flat.

As for the mechanical, interactive parts of the game: Mostly, I'd have to settle on "okay." Frustratingly obtuse puzzles are rare, but so are satisfyingly deep ones. The majority of gameplay is simply hitting a button while standing in an appointed spot, or running through an obstacle course. It's not a bad game, not at all, but its scenarios lack cleverness and variety.

Valiant Hearts is moving and engaging enough to keep me going, but sometimes feels more like a museum exhibit on World War I than a discrete unit of entertainment.

Progress: Chapter 2, Douaumont Fort