10 Gaming Moments IMPOSSIBLE To View The Same Way After This

8. The Story Is Based On WWI Letters Written By The Lead Dev's Grandfather (Valiant Hearts)

Valiant Hearts
Ubisoft

Years before Ubisoft pivoted towards creatively-bankrupt titles like Tom Clancy's XDefiant (sigh), the studio put out several unique, lower-budgeted games on its 2.5D UbiArt engine - stuff like Rayman Origins, Child Of Light, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

All these games are fantastic, but Valiant Hearts is one that not many people have played. Its audience is obviously quite limited due to it being a story-heavy, side-scrolling puzzler, but the game deserves a lot of credit for attempting to keep things as historically-accurate as possible, while still providing a fun experience for players.

Well, "fun" might be the wrong word, because things can get pretty dark at times - and what's more, the inherent emotion that stems from the game's WWI setting runs a lot deeper than most players will realize.

The developers didn't want to create a heightened work of fiction - they wanted things to be as grounded as possible, so they actually based the game on letters and documents written by the lead designer's grandfather (who was a soldier during the war), where he spoke about losing his leg, and the general horrors of trench life.

The game is already emotional as it is, but when you discover how personal this project was for the people who made it? The experience hits even harder.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!