No matter what I seem to play from Ubisoft, whether I like it or hate it, there is always somethingworth talking about. With Valiant Hearts, the problem is not so much about quality. Though a good game, there exists an internal conflict regarding what messages players are supposed to take away from it. Some sections are clearly aiming for the tone of a pulpy adventure in the vein of a Micheal Bay movie or old propaganda films. A distinctly introspective, more melancholy tone is expressed in other areas of the game. This week, I want to detail how the game elicits these two opposing tones, and how they come into conflict with each other.
Released in June of 2014, Valiant Hearts: The Great Warset out with the goal of delivering a tale about the First World War in a relatively unused way. Instead of relying on first/third-person shooting mechanics, the developers opted to utilize the in-house UbiArt engine, used to build 2D games like Rayman Origins and Child of Light, to make the 2D puzzle game out of it. Following the exploits of fictional people whose lives were directly impacted by the conflict, Valiant Hearts aimed to be more mature about its tale.
In many areas, they succeeded in this mission. Segments in the plot, particularly those surrounding Emile, an old man drafted into the French army, and Karl, his German son-in-law conscripted to fight into his national army, do their absolute best to explore how taxing World War I was on the families involved. While the two of them are off fighting in a war neither one has any true interest in, Emile’s daughter and her child routinely send messages to the two of them telling them of her struggles on the homefront. There is even a more subtle emotional thread born from the knowledge that the two of them are being forced to fight against one another even though they have no real incentive to do so. This forms the central conflict of their arcs, as both men seek nothing more but to quit the war and return to their family.
Valiant Hearts also reinforces this more sorrowful line of reasoning through other means. As the player explores different locations over the course of the game, the pause menu builds up a collection of facts and pictures from the actual, real life war. The images depict great hardship, with the noticeably miserable faces of soldiers in very uncomfortable positions and conditions. From the muddy trenches, to the amputees, these help teach people about the circumstances that contextualize the game. Though it of course serves as a strong jumping off point for people without a strong grasp of history to learn more, this information also helps convey just how much the people who fought in World War I must have despised the conflict. Combined with the somber music that plays in the pause menu, Valiant Hearts does much to sell the message of “War is Hell.”
Yet, the writers of the game also follow a second, completely separate thread as the story progresses. Where Emile and Karl’s tales depict the awfulness of World War I, the other subplots give off a more adventurous feeling. The first follows the American-born Freddie, whose moved to France in order to marry his lover, who was murdered by German soldiers on the say of their wedding. His is a standard-revenge story, with all of the usual trappings. Finally, we get to the story of Anna. A Belgian nurse attending school in France, she joins the war effort as a medic when she learns that her dad has been kidnapped by German soldiers, forced to create diabolical weapons for them. Her efforts to both provide medical care for injured soldiers and to find her lost father take center stage during her segments.
What unites these two threads is that both Freddie and Anna’s problems can be traced to the same person. The one who both killed Freddie’s lover and abducted Anna’s parent is, and I swear this is true, the evil Baron Von Dorf. From the Saturday-morning cartoons most of us grew up on, the Baron represents a bad guy so absurd that no person could reasonably support him. This gives Freddie and Anna, and later Emile and Karl when the characters begin to interact with each other, a clear opponent to fight against in the context of a world-wide war. Whenever he appears, the game makes an abrupt and clear shift to the likeness of a Looney Toons short.
Furthermore, Anna in particular gets another dose of pulp in some areas. As the only playable character who uses a vehicle, Anna’s driving segments often consist of her dodging obstacles on the road in perfect synchronization with classic songs like Night on Bald Mountain, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies, among others. These segments are bizarre in how overwhelmingly energetic and cheery they are compared to most of the game. Even once Anna becomes aware of how bad things are, these segments make her seem absolutely eager to jump straight into the fray. Given what happens to both her and the other characters in the game, this is disturbing at worst and confusing at best.
These two separate tones, one of melancholy and one of adventure, are extremely difficult to reconcile with on another. Valiant Hearts makes the attempt, but never truly follows through. As a result, the game’s underlying message is hard to piece together. Am I, as the player, supposed to be saddened by this chapter in human history? Am I supposed to think that war is a great thing that helps the good guys deal with the bad guys in an acceptable manner? Neither one of these questions is really answered by the game, and the writers do not appear to know which side they stand on either way for most of the duration.
Even a lot of the puzzles seem unsure of where they stand on this dichotomy. For example, at one point in the game, the player is tasked with clearing the chlorine gas out of an area so that allied soldiers can advance. To do this, they sneak into the bottom level of a German base. Seeing the large machine pumping out the gas, it is necessary to use the levers to move the pipes dispersing the gas into a position where they can build up pressure, overloading and exploding the system. Chlorine gas is was a serious issue in The Great War, to the point where chemical weapons were banned in future conflicts. Despite that gravity, the game presents uses a Pipe Dream-esque puzzle to present it. The topic lends itself to a serious exploration, yet the segment is one of the lighter ones in terms of tone. This disconnect left me feeling slightly uncomfortable, in a way that I am not sure the designer intended.
That said, no guilt was wrought. After all, nobody died as a result of me solving that pipe dream puzzle. In fact, until the very last part of the game, the playable cast does not have a single kill that can be directly traced to any one of them. Combined with the hand-drawn, exaggerated art style and a fairly vibrant color palette, Valiant Hearts invokes the impression of a children’s show. This clashes with the bleakness of the source material. Even in this sense, the game seems unsure about where it wants to go.

Most of Valiant Hearts is spent in this pit of confusion over what message it is trying to convey. Not to say that the game is bad, as it does have many genuinely good moments scattered throughout, but rather that it is noticeably disjointed. Still, there is no denying that it is ambitious in its own way. There is relatively little difficulty in turning World War I into a first-person shooter. In comparison, significantly more challenge exists in building a small 2D puzzle game out of the subject. Rather than take the path of least resistance, they opted to do something unique. The final product is reflective of that, despite not fully succeeding.

This is the point where Tomb Raider starts to utilize more of the tropes from standard Hollywood action movies.

The game has an interesting, yet appropriate and subtle, tone shift either at around this point or slightly before it. In the very beginning, Tomb Raider takes queues from classic survival stories. We see how this heroine and her ragtag bunch of misfits learn to use the environment they find themselves in to stay alive. Inspiration is drawn from shows like Lost (the first season), and other media of that ilk.

Then, in the middle of the game, the tone shifts somewhat. The more “comfortable” (for lack of a better word) Lara grows with killing the people coming after her and doing what she has to in order to survive, the writers stop relying on those kind of survival stories for inspiration. Because we’ve already seen how Lara can survive, we no longer need any further evidence of it.

For that reason, Tomb Raider is now free, in this last half of the game, to go the route of more pulpy, adventurous stories in the vein of Uncharted and the Indiana Jones films that they are clearly dedicated to. These stories rely much more on spectacle and flare. Details can be left unexplained if they are not relevant to the broader arc, and action takes the day.

I stand by what I said in the episode about the shift being a little abrupt, but I understand what they were trying to do. This was always marketed as an origin story to take a relatively normal girl and transform her into something resembling the Lara Croft we knew from the other Tomb Raider series. Simply put, no one could possibly becomes that hardened without under great ordeals, so this second half is meant to give Lara the ability to overcome adversity. She’s already a survivor, but now she can turn herself into a hero. It’s not a bad idea, it just needed some slight changes to get right.

The whole group is together again in the effort to make this podcast more succinct. We will keep working at this, so feel free to let us know how we do. You may be confused about the title, but Sam lovingly

Remember, if you would like to send us a question or comment to be read on the air, you may do so at thetexturepop@gmail.com. Even if you don’t want it read out loud, feel free to drop us a line if you want to communicate with us.

0:02:05 Gaming News
Deadpool movie costume finally revealed:
Chris, as our comic book guy, seems rather optimistic about the production. After seeing this picture, I can understand why.

X-Files reboot is actually happened:
Sam does bring up a point about “Why does this need to exist?” Most fans of the show agree that the show went out on a whimper after its last two seasons, so a reboot may not be advised. However, it could be interesting to see how they work within the context of the modern world and more contemporary conspiracy theories. For an aliens-themed show, The X-Files aged well, but aliens are still out of favor. I’m interested in what they do with these six new episodes.
Also, David Duchovny did an interview after we record the podcast on David Letterman, talking a bit more about it.

0:14:05 I played a bit of Hitman: Blood Money.
Hitman has been a weird franchise. Even though it’s never really been a big seller, it is almost always brought up as an example of good stealth game design. If you haven’t played Blood Money, it’s worth checking out. The previous games are okay, but never play the first (Codename 47). It’s awful.

0:18:01 I played Final Fantasy III
I like the pacing of a lot of the NES/SNES JRPGs, because they are not meant to take up a lot of time. Considering how much games seek to give tons of content, without much depth or variety, it was nice to play a game that didn’t try to be much longer than it had too.

0:22:30 I played Dragon Age: Inquisition
Despite how irritating it is for me to have to make so many different video game accounts, I am having a blast with Inquisition.
The Hinterlands criticism isn’t exactly new, but it is worth reiterating. It’s a massive trap that designers should have known players would fall for. Somehow, that slipped the net. The rest of the game has been pretty good, but the Hinterlands is a terrible starting area.

0:31:10 Garrett discovers that a rare Beetles CD is stolen.
He didn’t do the stealing. Someone stole it before he could buy it.
Sam had a similar story, coincidentally.

0:37:30 Garrett took his friends through Second Life.
I know what you’re all thinking: “Second Life is still around?” Yes, it is. I don’t go on it, but there are people who still do.
Personally, I’m waiting on Third Life.

0:41:00 Garrett talks about the rest of his week.

0:42:30 Chris talks about Chrono Cross
Note: He did not actually play the game. Yet the conversation we had was worth it.
For reference: The Chrono Cross opening theme.

0:57:19 Sam played Drakengard with a PS2 emulator.
Though it is not a very fun game to play, I remember playing Drakengard just for how darkly compelling it was at the time. You need to play through a lot of mediocre game to get to those interesting bits, but dear god they make it worth it.
I’m also glad Sam used the phrase “,,.how much of a [weeaboo] he is, like me….” He’s become self-aware.

1:06:35 Sam played Bloodborne.
I think Sam’s thoughts on it are interesting. As someone who never played a Souls games, I can’t comment on it with any authority. However, I appreciate that they exist and I am weirdly interesting in listening to people talk about them.

1:23:20 Wrapping Up.
Garrett is starting up a Twitch channel.
My Dragon Age pacing article is here.
Sam’s Bloodborne article is here.
Interactive Friction is here.

In this episode, we begin to talk a bit more about the side characters in the game.

This is also our first experiment with doing some slight editing of the footage. Mostly, we cut segments of combat, or of loading screens, where nothing interesting was happening in the game and we weren’t making any observations or commentary. Without Sam’s editing, this episode would have been a half-hour long, as is evidenced by the fact that “We’re 14 minutes in,” when you’ve only seen 7 minutes worth of show.

Watching both the uncut and cut versions back to back, it’s obvious that the cut version is noticeably better. In the future, we hope to further improve our craft, resulting in better videos from here on out. Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments, as all feedback is appreciated.

In this episode, Sam and I talk about some of the more uncomfortable parts of the game.

As I said in the episode, Tomb Raider (2013) makes most of Lara’s deaths look much more brutal than we’re used to seeing in video games. The ones we show off in this episode are the most gruesome, but they are not the only such fatalities on display.

I believe that the reason the deaths in these games are so uncomfortable because of the way the game lingers on them. In most games, the developers would be in a hurry to fade to black before we see the character start to suffer, and begin to start at the last checkpoint (or save game). Though resets are pretty quick in Tomb Raider, we also see, in vivid detail, just how much Lara suffers as she slowly dies. The death isn’t immediate, and that suffering is uncomfortable to watch.

The way theses scenes cause discomfort in the player is clearly intentional. Not only does it provide an even stronger disincentive to fool around in these scenes (more than usual), but it also helps to sell the feeling that the island is a giant hazard, just doing its best to kill Lara. It is a very interesting way to make the mechanics reinforce the story.

The voice acting, animation, and shot composition are also top-notch in both the deaths and the cauterization scene. Though that scene isn’t a death, it’s another fantastic scene how Lara is beginning to change her way of thinking in order to survive on the island.

Some time ago, I played Dragon Age: Origins. Back then, I expressedissueswith how it was paced, citing The Fade and The Deep Roads in particular as two segments of bad filler content. Recently, I have revisited the franchise with Dragon Age 2. Despite being in the same series, the two have quite different forms of pacing. Because of their differences, I think that taking a moment to compare the two of them and their structures should be interesting.
With Origins, the plot structure was modular. After the initial tutorial missions, the player is given free reign to take on the four plot branches that compose the middle of the game in any order they choose. Each of these modules has its own plot and locations, separate from the rest aside from one or two instances. At the end of the game, the player’s actions in these individual segments will be reflected back in the form of how each faction thinks of them and how much they are willing to help in the grand finale. The result is a fairly free-form gaming experience, within limits.
This structure allows Origins to give each module its own feel, but there is a drawback to this classic role-playing approach. When these sections can be so thoroughly quarantined from the others, it grants the developers freedom to make each part longer than it should be. In particular, the designers have the leeway to create overly long exploration and dungeon locations. Dragon Age: Origins had this problem in spades. Often, any single area could take several hours to complete, more-so if the player is going for total completion. Players could spend entire game sessions feeling that nothing was accomplished in that time. Obvious padding like The Fade and The Deep Roads, during the Circle Tower and Orzammar scenarios respectively, are chief examples of how this structure permitted Bioware to do this.
On the other hand, Dragon Age 2 manages to skirt that pitfall with its narrative structure, yet introduces new ones all the same. Rather than expand on Origin’s modularity, DA2 takes a different approach. Players spend all of Dragon Age 2 in the city of Kirkwall, watching it develop over the course of years. Each of the game’s three acts details key events of a particular year in Kirkwall’s history through the eyes of Hawke, the game’s customizable, yet constant, protagonist. With a distinct beginning, middle, and end, these acts serve as the way Bioware chosen to divide the story.
What is neat about this structure is that it forces a more focused plot. Since any given act has to feed into its successors, it cannot afford to tarry around with plot points that may never be touched on again in the future. Gradually, they all, by necessity, get woven together as the story progresses. Combined with the obvious signs of a limited development cycle, this focus carried on into the dungeon-crawling as well. While a single area could take hours in Origins, DA2 takes a more succinct approach. Locations will rarely, if ever, take over a half-hour to complete, which gives a much greater sense of accomplishment when checking the quest log after a long session. Individual plot elements and their handling can be debated on, but there is no denying that the plot structure for Dragon Age 2 lends to a faster pacing than its predecessor.
Having said that, pacing is in more than just a game’s narrative structure. Combat also tends to have its own tempo in RPGs like Dragon Age. Origins in particular had a slower, more methodical system. Enemies tended to have a fairly high amount of health, so even fights against small parties could take some time. Unfortunately for Bioware, since skill and equipment setups mattered significantly more than tactical planning mid-battle, conflicts were often decided from the outset.
Rather than go the route of its direct predecessor, Dragon Age 2 takes inspiration from its contemporaries, most notably the likes of Mass Effect 2. As with Origins, equipment and skill setups are important to one’s quality of life when going up against enemies. The difference here is that the moment-to-moment action has become equally as important, with an emphasis on faster combat. It can still be said that the player will steamroll most encounters in the game, but it feels more smooth than than of the previous game in the franchise, largely due to its accelerated pace.
Even if the overall combat’s pace is improved, there is problem that adversely affects it: Foes have a strong tendency to spawn in waves. When playing Dragon Age: Origins, the types and number of enemies in a given location was usually set in stone. Because players could see what they were about to fight, they could better plan their attack. Even if a single target took some time to beat down, it was possible to guess how long it will take to win.
This is not the case in Dragon Age 2. In most engagements, players will clear out a given set of enemies only to find that another group has spawned in, ready to fight to the death. Typically, any one fight will be composed of three waves in total. Though individual foes, and sometimes enemy groups, can be felled quickly, the fact that more will inevitably appear immediately afterwards makes it more difficult to anticipate how long a given encounter will take to complete. As a result, even if a fight is not long, it can be made to feel long thanks to how many mooks participate in a single battle. Even if Dragon Age 2 is better paced than Origins, this misstep starts to agitate after playing for a long time.

In terms of both story and combat, Dragon Age 2 drastically improves on the pacing of the game that came before. Enhancing the original structure by focusing the overall plot line and streamlining the fighting resulted in a much smoother flow. Though certain elements like the ending and obvious, blatant reuse of assets can be rightfully criticized by detractors, Dragon Age 2 is certainly worth defending in how it gives the player a strong feeling of progress.

In this episode, we discuss the puzzle design.

Puzzle design in video games is very difficult to get right. In the ideal world, each individual puzzle room will show you everything you’ll need to know in order to understand how to solve the puzzle. Because every person things has their own way of thinking, it is incredibly difficult to do this without outright telling the player how to solve it.

Lean too far in the direction of making the puzzle abstract, and there is a risk that the player won’t have the first clue in how to solve it. Going too far in the other direction, and make the solution obvious, will make the player feel stupid.

Tomb Raider seems to do a very good job of towing that middle ground. Most people I know didn’t have too much trouble solving these challenges, but they still felt smart for solving them. Again, that’s difficult to get right. Even with Uncharted, Sam felt that the puzzles were a little on the hard side, but not overly so. I, on the other hand, felt like the puzzles were too easy. That’s not saying that Sam’s any more or less intelligent than I am. It means that the puzzles in Uncharted were better suited to the way I think than they were to Sam’s. This difference in people is what makes good puzzle design so hard, and Tomb Raider should be applauded for how it gets that right.

Sam was completely exhausted when we recorded this episode. Because of that, he had to miss out on the podcast. A shame, because we talk about a lot of topics which call for his input.

0:02:30 Viewer Questions
“Have any of you guys played Ori and the Blind Forest?”
Guess what? Sam did. And next week, he may even talk about it. As someone who hasn’t I have to admit it looks really good and I’d love to play it.

Have you guys seen the trailer for Pixels?
I am open to this being a good movie. However, Adam Sandler does not exactly have the best track record. I will be watching how this develops with guarded expectations.

0:12:50 Gaming News
Hideo Kojima will be leaving Konami after Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Like I said in the podcast, I would say this is the beginning of the end for Konami. Aside from the YuGiOh card game (and video games), they don’t have much else. With Kojima gone, I have no idea what Konami is going to do with Silent Hills now, since they just let go of the guy who was supposed to make it. It’s not looking good.

PlayStation Vue is Sony’s answer to cable.
And it’s dumb. With far too few channels at far too great a price, I have no idea how Sony plans to make that work. I’m not even sure who the target market is for this service. It’s confusing, to say the least.

0:30:50 Garrett discusses his computer troubles.
Turns out it is an issue with the latest update to the drivers for his graphics card. We’ve all haad issues like this, and it’s good to vent about them when they happen. Also, congrats to Garrett for starting his Twitch channel.

0:39:40 Garrett talks about the rest of his week.

0:44:40 I finished Dragon Age 2.
I wish Sam was here, because it would’ve been a much more interesting conversation than it was. I like Dragon Age 2 is a good game, but it has a lot of flaws. It’s paced so much better than Origins was. At the same time, it’s ending is complete garbage.
Where Chris thinks the game is garbage, and Sam likes it, I’m somewhere in the middle. There will be an article about it soon.

0:57:30 I played Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
It’s a game worth playing, but it bizarre issues with keeping a consistent tone. The puzzles also really wreak the pacing of the game.
While awkward, the game is still good. I’m also working on an article for this game.

1:06:10 Chris talks about playing Punch-Out, featuring Mr. Dream.
And he talk about that for a bit.

1:20:00 Wrapping Up.
Interactive Friction can be found here.
My Resident Evil 5 article is here.

In this episode, we climb the only tower that exists in this entire game. Despite that, I still take a potshot at Ubisoft and their goddamn towers.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about the scene where Lara sits while the pilot of the rescue plane is slaughtered right in front of her. To be clear, not everything we discuss is necessarily a problem. And even if it is, it might not even be a big concern worth addressing with anything more than a passing glance. This is one of those complaints.

Though we occasionally have portions of the game where we have a rough idea of what we want to talk about, the vast majority of our commentary is completely spur of the moment. Because of that, there is absolutely no connection between how often or how long we speak about a specific topic or mechanic and how strong our feelings about it are. We might end up spending whole sections talking about relatively minor complements and complaints. Likewise, we could mention major problems in passing if the conversation doesn’t lend itself to us talking about them.

For example, when I discussed how silly it is for different animal hides to make different bags in Far Cry 3, I do not think that making every animal produce a general hide to make whatever would have improved the game. In fact, it would make the game worse because one could get all the bags at the start. With the pilot issue, it is not a huge problem since he’s a minor, irrelevant character. However, it is worth pointing out just to acknowledge it and move on.

In this episode, we remember Radioshack for a brief moment, further reminding ourselves of its irrelevancy. It’s so irrelevant, that Chrome’s built-in spell check thinks it’s a typo.

For the record, Tomb Raider is the very first game I’ve ever played that used automatic cover. Personally, this game sold me on the mechanic. I’d like to see more games used a feature like this in the future. As somebody who has played many cover-based shooters and action-adventure games in the vein of Uncharted, I think that there could be many uses. In those games, I often find the cover mechanics to be a little sticky. With automatic cover, I could imagine adding a new sense of mobility to a lot of games, as we see in a number of sections in this game.

On that topic, we mention Uncharted a lot in this episode, and the comparisons for this game is unavoidable. In the way that Naughty Dog took much inspiration from the old Tomb Raider games when making Uncharted, Crystal Dynamics took a large amount of inspiration from Uncharted when making the new Tomb Raider reboot. Still, even though they both have the same sense of style, there are enough differences, both big and small, between the two franchises to give them their own flavors.

Lastly, I cannot take credit for “What do they eat?” That’s something I took from Shamus Young after watching a lot of Spoiler Warning, another Let’s Play series that you might enjoy. Generally speaking, it is a good question to ask in order to see how much a writer has fleshed out their world. If the explanations for how people acquire resources stretch credulity, then the odds are that the game world in question wasn’t thought out very well. There are always exceptions to rules like this, but it can be a reasonable barometer.
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