14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft's upcoming adventure title Valiant Hearts: The Great War aims to tell a different kind of wartime story, one that relies on the emotional impact of the whole inhuman ordeal, instead of glorifying it and ignoring its consequences.
Ubisoft Montpellier's Simon Chocquet-Bottani has revealed on the PlayStation Blog that, although Valiant Hearts: The Great War is based on World War I, the four playable characters that players will get to control in the game will never kill a single enemy.
He has pointed out that the team knew from the beginning that the game was not going to be a typical action-focused shooter, as they wanted to move away from that idea and create a war game that was about what actually happens to regular people during such a large-scale conflict.
"In order to focus on the more 'humanised' side of the war, we were very careful not to have the characters kill anyone," he begins.
"The war kills people, but none of the characters do. We really thought that enabling players to kill someone would lead to a break in the bond between player and the character and would confuse the game's overall message. Even while performing an indirect action, such as destroying a bridge, we made sure to show the player that the soldiers on the bridge escape before the explosion," he explains.
He has also talked about how each of the characters will have their own personality, a fact that is reflected in the gameplay, when players assume control of each one of them.
"Emile is older, wiser, and slower than the other characters. He does not want to fight, and so most of his maps will be puzzle-oriented, though he will be confronted with other diverse situations in the game, such as digging through the ground to avoid direct combat," Chocquet-Bottani says.
"Freddie is more aggressive and action-oriented because of his back story and will very often be close to the action."
"Anna has a particular healing gameplay which is based on a rhythmic game. This gameplay is meant to make you feel the urgency of saving someone's life by having to react quickly while at the same time remaining precise and accurate."
"Karl is also an unwilling fighter and he really wants to solve things peacefully, so his ability is being able to disguise himself in order to get out of difficult situations without having to enter into any conflict. The levels in which you play Karl are mostly stealth-based," he concludes.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is coming out today, June 25, on the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms.