Valiant, review of an interesting cross-platform strategy

We don’t see a huge stream of good Western strategists on the market: It’s not an easy genre to develop, it requires a lot of experience, a big slice of risk, and also the necessary awareness of a demanding public speaking. Developed by Valiant kite gamesA team from Budapest brings a medieval breath of low fantasy to PC and consoles, without overdoing it, with moderate modesty, but with a certain attention to detail.

If it’s true that similar situations are fairly common on PC, it’s surprising that publisher THQ Nordic is willing to take a cross-platform approach (with the exception of Switch) for a title that yes, works with pad, but has a genetic make-up. from mouse and keyboard.

Let’s see why in Valiant review.

the valiant Theoderich

There complo In The Valiant’s own utter honesty storytelling, this type of story needs no distractions to keep big situations busy and exciting. It all revolves around Aaron’s staff, which is a biblical work, divided into three parts in ancient times, and found by Ulderich, who in the prologue is the close friend and brother in arms of the brave hero Theoderich. The reason for the events leading up to the fratricidal wars can be found precisely in that piece of stick in the desert: 15 years after the artifact’s discovery and Theoderich’s abandonment of the Templar career, our hero is determined to rebuild an army despite himself, helping his former war partner find the remaining pieces and bring a nefarious power to the world. must be forced to block. The rhythm works, the drawn breaks certainly hold the blow among the most successful, and those with the game engine are less brilliant, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Thanks to a reliable dubbing and quite a variety of heroes and situations, the progress of the 16 missions of the main mission is experienced at a climax of strategic design ideas. We are not talking about bright ideas, but situations that live well in the context of story and player growth: there are some more secret missions, others salvation, others exploration, others pure survival on the face of it from hordes of enemies. There reliability The plot that Hungarians imagined was a mix of history and fiction, and it easily entertained us without ever getting bored and without even touching the places of Italy that made us smile, such as Ancona, whose medieval port was featured in a video for the first time. game like a war map.

Many teams on the field

this Gameplay The Valiant offers fun, real-time strategic management perfectly through the pad to command the maximum number of teams of fighters. Someone suits They will have a hero as their leader (so they can awaken), as long as they conquer a base camp on the map and have resources, the others will not be replenished with new units and therefore not refreshed. Some examples of teams: fighters, spearmen, archers, knights and so on: each type of team benefits from bonuses and abilities earned by the reference hero, with points that can be spent by leveling up.

It doesn’t stop there: each map offers an experience based on goals achieved, with unique pieces of equipment that can be applied to heroes. The skill trees are pretty straight forward, but are a simple and functional reading and progression system. Mastering this flow is much less simple: the progression of battles is brutal, and already at a normal level it will be necessary to be completely familiar with the characteristics of the heroes, the qualities and weaknesses of each team, and the opportunities of the team. game environment (like forests that hide but slow down). It all stems from a seemingly simple system: stamina, health, vitality, and revenge. parameters in danger. Stamina and vengeance are used to activate skills and special moves, respectively, while health begins to decrease only when resistance ends, but can be regenerated as a kind of barrier.

A lot of melee you’ll find yourself in hides a lot of approach and management because of this: cavalry is strong in breakthrough, but archers don’t do much damage when strong from afar, but badly in melee etc if aimed from behind. It’s not easy to confuse elections and results, and the campaign’s proposed enemies are constantly growing in both numbers and tactical intelligence. If at some point you get bored with few resources and many battles, unfortunately you feel the need to change the level to Easy, don’t be offended. But other than that, the missions are well designed: in addition to various approaches and objectives, each map has a correct time with checkpoints related to the conquest of areas or targets. The average we experienced is about an hour per map, but with an alternate desire for completeness: sometimes we worked hard to find all the objects, aiming to run to finish some of them because we shrunk so little.

Of course, Valiant isn’t a title for everyone, as it also requires you to strategically understand when to step back and replenish your troops. L’interface The game is also true, even with the pads, it is the confusion of the scrum that determines the need to learn to read them well, who is fighting whom, and whether to send the cavalry to fight archers from afar. War is choices that cause gas but can also lead to defeat.

the art of growing up

The quest of Theoderich and the companions he finds on the journey is full of small battles: this is most fascinating as it is deliberately away from the big conflicts of louder games. gives logic guerrilla It is certainly a factor that is not very deep, but keeps us entertained thanks to an appreciated role-playing component. Along with leveraging levels to learn new abilities and grow a skill tree, the ability to unlock achievements and thus gain experience is a welcome addition that provides a host of interpretations to every fight: knowing you can count on new moves. A blocking arrow type or a morale field that encourages troops gradually activates and differentiates tactics, transforming what is free for all into something more cohesive, logical and manageable by the player.

The choice of heroes to be placed is also an important issue: you won’t be able to bring them all, so they leave. carefully chosen according to your playstyle. On the audio front, as noted, the team did a great job bringing in professional voice-over artists of various nationalities and conveyed the differences between French, German, Italian and Arabic pronunciations well. The technical part is definitely the cheapest in terms of resources, but it does the job: definitely more interesting are the interlude sequences, done in an artistic style that winks at black comedy. For review purposes, but not testable for obvious reasons, the picture is complete with two multiplayer modes in the formula of team and crowd battles; which, in any case, adds delicious meat to an already excellent broth.