Valiant Hearts is an adventure game set during World War I. You play four characters who help a young German soldier find his love in a story about survival, sacrifice and friendship. This is achieved by solving puzzles and interacting with various objects and people. As you progress you discover hidden items that reveal facts about the war.

Although this may look like any other war game, it actually works hard to communicate the emotion and impact that war can have on different people's lives. The development team's goal was to assist players to remember World War I during its centenary in 2014. They listened to first-hand accounts of the war, read letters written by enlisted soldiers and travelled to the remains of wartime trenches in France during their development of the game.

The game is made of four chapters split into several parts. Each one requires you to clear an objective to progress through the story. These are mainly solving puzzles by obtaining certain items needed for the situation. This can include wartime segments where you have to survive heavy gunfire or stealth sections where you must avoid being detected by enemies.