Blah blah Valiant Hearts
Oct. 19th, 2014 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoI've put a little more time into Valiant Hearts. Holy shit, I love this game so much.
I've been playing chapter 2, where we learn Anna's story. Which is good, because chapter 1 was enough for me to realize that she's totally the kind of character that I like (saves a couple soldiers and a dog like it ain't nothing, stays cool under fire, takes care of injured civilians while her soldier buddies go on a wild goose chase, I could go on) it wasn't really enough for me to know anything about her, really.
... Except that she drives like a maniac. WELL OKAY, that's mostly a gameplay thing, I'll be honest. BUT it's headcanon now.
Crap, you know I'm in deep when I've got headcanon developing. Whoops. Anyway.
While I love that Anna is medically-oriented - I guess I just have a thing for compassionate people, and doubly so if they tend to the sick and injured - I must admit that the gameplay aspect of that leaves me a little unsettled. Not in a bad way, really! It's just that when I've got all of these people crying out for me to help them, it's definitely motivation to not screw around and take my time enjoying the scenery, if you know what I mean; making them wait is distressing. And when you're doing the key patterns to tend to them, the way they react when you fuck up is - upsetting. And some of the things you have to do -- well, in one part I had to do an amputation and I just. Wow.
There are some parts of this game that really make me wonder what the target audience is. The graphics are cartoony, the gameplay is easy (so far), and the educational pop-ups make it seem like it's aimed at kids. But then there's lots of blood, and dead people, and some stuff is like - in one scene I had to walk through a ditch piled high with corpses. That kind of thing. It's rated T but as I said, the educational stuff makes it seem like something that would fit into a lower age demographic if it weren't for all the violence.
Anyway. Probably the most delightful part of the chapter that I got through today - EPIC TAXI DRIVE TO THE FRONT. It's kind of funny, I only learned about that a few weeks ago, the whole "driving soldiers from Paris to the front in taxis" thing - it was in a lecture series on French history that I've been listening to. (Specifically, "France since 1871"; it's on itunesU) Anyway, that part was super fun to play and I'm delighted that they included it.
So anyway, I'm sitting here, completely overcome with emotion about this game. I'm forcing myself not to go in the tumblr tags or even search for stuff about it in general, because I don't want to be spoiled for any of it. But I have heard one thing, that the ending is really sad. Which... is to be expected, but. I'm biting my nails, here. Good thing that I have a lot of stuff let to get through before I get to that point!
If I'm not careful, I might eventually get fic ideas for this game, and then it's all downhill from there. (WHY do I keep getting interested in stuff that doesn't have fandoms?!)
I've been playing chapter 2, where we learn Anna's story. Which is good, because chapter 1 was enough for me to realize that she's totally the kind of character that I like (saves a couple soldiers and a dog like it ain't nothing, stays cool under fire, takes care of injured civilians while her soldier buddies go on a wild goose chase, I could go on) it wasn't really enough for me to know anything about her, really.
... Except that she drives like a maniac. WELL OKAY, that's mostly a gameplay thing, I'll be honest. BUT it's headcanon now.
Crap, you know I'm in deep when I've got headcanon developing. Whoops. Anyway.
While I love that Anna is medically-oriented - I guess I just have a thing for compassionate people, and doubly so if they tend to the sick and injured - I must admit that the gameplay aspect of that leaves me a little unsettled. Not in a bad way, really! It's just that when I've got all of these people crying out for me to help them, it's definitely motivation to not screw around and take my time enjoying the scenery, if you know what I mean; making them wait is distressing. And when you're doing the key patterns to tend to them, the way they react when you fuck up is - upsetting. And some of the things you have to do -- well, in one part I had to do an amputation and I just. Wow.
There are some parts of this game that really make me wonder what the target audience is. The graphics are cartoony, the gameplay is easy (so far), and the educational pop-ups make it seem like it's aimed at kids. But then there's lots of blood, and dead people, and some stuff is like - in one scene I had to walk through a ditch piled high with corpses. That kind of thing. It's rated T but as I said, the educational stuff makes it seem like something that would fit into a lower age demographic if it weren't for all the violence.
Anyway. Probably the most delightful part of the chapter that I got through today - EPIC TAXI DRIVE TO THE FRONT. It's kind of funny, I only learned about that a few weeks ago, the whole "driving soldiers from Paris to the front in taxis" thing - it was in a lecture series on French history that I've been listening to. (Specifically, "France since 1871"; it's on itunesU) Anyway, that part was super fun to play and I'm delighted that they included it.
So anyway, I'm sitting here, completely overcome with emotion about this game. I'm forcing myself not to go in the tumblr tags or even search for stuff about it in general, because I don't want to be spoiled for any of it. But I have heard one thing, that the ending is really sad. Which... is to be expected, but. I'm biting my nails, here. Good thing that I have a lot of stuff let to get through before I get to that point!
If I'm not careful, I might eventually get fic ideas for this game, and then it's all downhill from there. (WHY do I keep getting interested in stuff that doesn't have fandoms?!)
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.