Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The Good
This game has a very well written story. It's very atmospheric and has great music. It's a side-scrolling puzzle game. The puzzles aren't very difficult for those that play adventure games often. I think I had about three puzzles that took me a while to figure out. A lot of puzzles have to be played in a specific order to get further in the game.

There is also a bit of exploring involved in the game. Most levels, with the exception of the driving levels, have a number of hidden artifacts that you must find. You can finish the game without searching for the artifacts, but you won't get a 100% achievement score.

In the pause menu you can look at these artifacts and learn about the use of it.

The Bad
The touch controls are poor. You have to swipe and press highlighted buttons to preform actions. Often you get killed, because the main character is performing an unwanted action after performing a gesture. There is too much lag between the player and the character. And when you give a second command, before the first was finished, the character walks to the place you touched last. For example, you tap the symbol above a ladder to let the character grab the ladder, then you swipe up to let him climb the ladder. If the character hasn't grabbed the ladder before you swipe up, he won't preform the action wanted, causing him often to die.

You can use a MFI compatible gamepad to play, but since I don't have one I cannot say if this improves the gameplay.

The Bottom Line
A side-scrolling puzzle game, with some exploration. Plagued by bad touch controls.