Grit and Valor – 1949 review: Roguelike rut

by

1949’s “Grit and Valor” plays out like a refined sketch that’s not quite ready for its public debut. It’s a real-time strategy game with a unique twist, pitting a group of rebellious robots against a vast, formidable army of mechs. The premise is engaging, and certain map designs are commendable. However, Milky Tea’s interpretation of roguelike replayability leans heavily on the grind for improvement, without providing enough enjoyable aspects to make this process more appealing.

What if

Title Revision: An Imagined World War II Scenario – 1949 is an alternate history of World War II, in a universe where the Soviet Union failed to capture Berlin and Nazi forces conquered the United Kingdom. People were forced into underground work facilities, while a small resistance, equipped with powerful mechs, is defying the oppressors. Employing terms like “labor camps” and “World War II” casually in this context appears thoughtless. It doesn’t require a historian to recognize the similarities between these words and actual Nazi concentration camps, and it’s surprising that no one seems to have considered whether they are appropriate themes for a game about robots.

It’s peculiar that the plot structure in Grit and Valor doesn’t influence the gameplay significantly. The narrative seems more like decorative elements, providing background information for battles and introducing characters who mainly serve to offer new missions or upgrades. These aspects don’t impact the progression of each mission, so they could be replaced with a different plot without affecting other aspects of the game. A general resistance storyline could have been used instead, with minimal changes needed to the gameplay mechanics.

Robots in the skies

The game, Grit and Valor, focuses on destroying robots in small grid-like battlefields instead of narrating war tales. During each mission, you control two mechs and a non-combatant command vehicle, engaging waves of hostile units. While there may be certain points to defend or towers to activate, the primary goals are enduring enemy attacks and safeguarding the command vehicle.

The layout of a map changes based on its purpose. When the game is at its peak performance, it places you in areas filled with numerous defense points and diverse terrains to traverse. Even when played at regular pace, there’s a noticeable sense of urgency as you move your troops to gather incoming resources and prepare for the next enemy attack. The most thrilling maps are those without any prior information – large, gray icons on the selection screen with no hints about what lies ahead.

On multiple occasions, these unexplored areas presented not only the standard duties, but also an extra challenge – like taking out missile silos before an enemy attack ended. These challenges, similar to any objective, are entirely discretionary. The sole requirement for each mission is to endure and protect a designated spot. However, accomplishing optional tasks will earn you in-game currency or components for enhancements. This approach allows players to adjust the difficulty level without making it overly challenging if they prefer a simpler victory.

Although Grit and Valor often shines, there are instances where it falls short. Certain maps feature a single optional objective, lack creativity in their layouts, or both. The enemy troops usually mass toward the map’s center, which allows you to combine a ranged and ballistic unit effectively to handle incoming assaults. In some memorable missions, I found myself with no remaining skill points and two heavily damaged units. Remarkably, these units were able to defend against four enemy waves without utilizing terrain benefits or implementing any tactical maneuvers other than staying put and annihilating anything that approached. Whether this was smart strategy or poor design, it felt more like the latter.

The outcome of battles is often determined by a “weakness triangle” in which ranged, ballistic, and fire mechanical units are strong against one type and weak against another. However, since you can’t switch your mechanical units during a campaign, the results seem to depend more on luck rather than careful planning.

Combat drills

One aspect where strategic planning prior to missions seems crucial is your selection of the pilot. In your journey through Grit and Valor, you’ll uncover additional pilots and mechs, each possessing unique abilities. For instance, one pilot allows their mech to leap over multiple tiles in a single move, making it useful for repositioning or catching enemies off guard. Another pilot can lay mines that are almost certain to annihilate the enemy unit stepping on them. These abilities have limited uses, and since replenishing them primarily depends on finding random supply drops that may contain skill charge boosters, it’s essential to use these skills judiciously at the right moments.

During every enemy wave, there are strategic supply drops that occur right in the midst of battle. The delivery aircraft arrives in a group, setting down somewhere on the map – often at an awkward location, necessitating careful tactical maneuvers before the next wave of enemies arrives. These drops contain three different bonuses, and you can only select one. The balance between these upgrades is remarkably good. Although none of them are likely to alter the course of the battle significantly, they all offer valuable benefits such as increased critical hit chances, the ability to destroy a mech under specific conditions if attacked, or a crucial health boost when needed most.

In Grit and Valor, the main issue is that there aren’t many ways to alter the outcome of missions, and the gameplay loop relies too heavily on failure and re-starting with new permanent upgrades. This means you often feel like you’re spending time on a futile endeavor just to get minor stat improvements for your preferred mech. In other words, Grit and Valor doesn’t offer many chances to impact the sequence of missions.

The game is designed to appear challenging and unsympathetic, yet it comes across as a superficial grasp of what truly makes roguelikes engaging and enjoyable enough for repeated playthroughs. Even in Dead Cells, where the player gains new abilities following failures, you’re acquiring skills at an acceptable rate and there are diverse paths to discover. However, the only alternate routes in Grit and Valor consist of selecting between two missions with various optional objectives. This pacing problem becomes less pronounced once you begin unlocking new mechs for frequent upgrades, but Grit and Valor continues to give off a vibe that it’s more about grinding than strategic gameplay.

Despite the odd, overly juvenile premise that initially seems off-putting, Grit and Valor – 1949 can be an engaging mini strategy game at times. Occasionally, its map layouts and additional tasks demand clever use of limited assets, making for a tough but rewarding experience. What’s more, even when you encounter setbacks, the game makes it relatively straightforward to recover quickly. Unfortunately, its implementation of roguelike elements is less deep than one might expect for a game of this nature, prolonging the feeling of shallowness longer than desired.

For the purpose of this critique, I was given a previously-owned version of the game “Grit and Valor – 1949” by its publisher. Currently, you can purchase

Read More

2025-04-09 03:58