Parents' Guide to Valiant Hearts: Coming Home

Valiant Hearts: The Great War gave audiences a personal look at the onset of the first World War through the eyes of a handful of characters living through it. Valiant Hearts: Coming Home continues the emotional tour of duty with new and returning characters. Like the first game, Coming Home doesn't focus so much on the gameplay, but rather the plot. It's more of an interactive storybook than anything. While there are puzzles and mini-games that break up the narrative, they never really amount to much of a challenge. And unlike the reality of war, if you mess up here, the screen just fades to black and has you try again. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as it give the player an active role in the story's progression and adds an extra personal stake to the overall experience.

Valiant Hearts: Coming Home tells a heartfelt story with a beautiful art direction that manages show the grim and gritty side of battle without losing the humanity of the characters. But the game also serves as a great teaching tool. By progressing through the game and picking up the occasional collectible, players unlock entries that feature historic facts and archived photos from World War I. The game makes a point of shining the spotlight on how black men dealing with racial prejudice and segregation at home fought bravely overseas. It details the formation of the 369th Infantry Regiment, the "Harlem Hellfighters," one of the first black regiments to serve on the Western Front. These entries include photos from the time and encourage players to go beyond the game to learn more about the war and the people that fought in it.