The Valiant is a squad-based real-time strategy battle progression game, set in 13th Century Europe and the Middle East. Developed by KITE Games and published by THQ Nordic, bring a tale of honor, betrayal, and loss, it gives you a fantastical look at crusader knighthood and the faith they held on to when supposed holy relics are involved. With easy yet rough tactical gameplay, this game is quite challenging, even on easier difficulties. It had some mechanics, or more so, a lack of, that diminished the experience and others that made it a very enjoyable journey.

The story follows our main protagonist, Crusader Theoderich Von Akenburg, after a falling out with his brother-in-arms, Ulrich Von Grevel. Witnessing his friend commit some less-than-knightly actions on the field of battle, Theoderich cannot abide by his former friend and brothers’ commands, leaving the order to live a peaceful life away from war. Fifteen years later, a young Monk, Malcolm, convinces Theoderich to don his armor one last time, track his old companion, and stop him from claiming the remaining fragments of an ancient holy relic, the pieces of the ancient Rod of Aaron. If made whole again, it is said to contain a power that no mortal should wield. With this, you must travel to find allies and build an army to stop Ulrich from potentially bringing evil to the world.

On a bit of a side note, there is a bit of a coincidence between the game and something personal to me; a playable character you gain, Grimhild. Grimhild is also the name of a D&D character I made, as well as the name of my Viking character in a role-playing game I’m a part of. Obviously, she is one of my favorite and most used hero units.

The controls are simplistic and easy to use, and for the most part, you can just use the mouse for most things. I only occasionally needed to use the keyboard. Some keys allow the option to attack, move, or pause the combat, but what disappointed me the most with this, however, is not being able to issue orders while paused. Dispensing orders while paused could have made the tactical strategies needed for this game easier, whereas the combat seems scrappier instead.

The same can be said using formations. Traveling in formation is possible, but you have limited control of where units will stand or what shape the formation will take. I would have preferred more control, again, to help with proper battle tactics and unit positioning. You can use keys to switch between units, however, if you were controlling all of your units and you use the keys to switch the highlighted unit to use their abilities, it drops the control of all others for that one unit.

Those were probably the biggest gripes within the actual gameplay that I had, but they’re issues that can be fixed or implemented later. However, the combat itself is great, and the abilities you can gain are dependent on the items your heroes use. As well as the skills you get from doing so, leveling can determine what your unit can do, especially at the start, determining if the unit will be used as defenders, attackers, or support, eventually combining to be mixed. This was my favorite part; spending time working out what items benefit which units more, and if they complement their current position in the army. The levels can be challenging, but I believe this has more to do with the complaints from above, though it also made the challenge more exciting to complete.

I have played many of these types of games, but not a lot of the limited squad-based games. I am more used to building large armies and massive bases. This simplifies it, makes it more personal, and more fulfilling when completing the harder stages with the five squads. Now, unfortunately, I couldn’t join any games to try out the multiplayer side of this, not without trying mind you, but I am still determined to have a go. what I can tell you is that the co-op is wave-based, so survive for as long as you can with two friends. Then there are PVP matches, which are pretty straightforward. Beat other players and earn mastery points to climb the global leaderboard, or create a custom match to tweak it to your liking.

Another highlight for me was how cool the scenery and level design was, allowing for stunning visuals. To top that was the combat animation. If you were to zoom in on the combat when defeating the opposing troops, they perform cool combo animations. The cutscenes are still images that show the story, and these are well crafted and conveyed the emotions of the story in a simple but effective manner. The sounds used to elevate the action in both gameplay and the cinematics use the classic sword and shield era music, from the thrum of war drums to the bellows of horns and trumpets. Being set at a very religious-heavy point in time, there, of course, has to be soft hymns that can both soothe the soul or chill you to your bone. There is also voice acting, and they did a great job as there is no mocap in this. All the emotion has to be done through the voice and the subtle grunts and noise to make it feel real and raw.

This is a very enjoyable game with only a few frustrating parts that are easily forgotten. I just hope they look into maybe adding in and changing the few observations I had. If not, that’s also fine for what this game is. It does its job and does well to suck you in and keep you hooked for hours. Any fan of any war-type game should check this out, if not now, definitely after any patches in the near future.

Written by: Adam Brasher