10 Powerful Video Game Stories Told Without Words

While the story presented in 2014’s Valiant Herts is connected by short segments of narration, and there are pieces of dialogue here and there, its gut-wrenching tale is present in abundance during gameplay sections of continuous and prolonged silences.

Valiant Hearts takes place in the thick of World War I. Resisting the urge to use the setting for a generic first-person shooter franchise, developer Ubisoft took a rather different approach, opting to focus on the human side of the Great War with a harrowing tale of friends, family and the futility of sending fathers, brothers and husbands to the front line.

Not unlike Sam Mendes’ excellent war film 1917, Valiant Hearts’ power comes by way of its poignance and realism. The colours are drab, the music is tragically melancholic, and the excellent sound design often incorporates eerie silences that illustrate just how unspectacular war can be.

Valiant Hearts doesn’t need scores of battlefields and a barrage of weaponry to tell a memorable war story. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Valiant Hearts leaves a lasting impression by reminding the player of the consequences of war and the devastating results of global disagreement.