The Valiant is a real-time strategy game developed by Kite Games and published by THQ Nordic. During the 13th century Crusades, a group of Templars stumbles into a lost ruin held by the Saracen Caliph. Inside holds a shattered piece of a mystical Rod, said to have been crafted from the Garden of Eden. When all the pieces are gathered, it will grant the wielder great power, but at a possible cost of their morality. The heroic Theoderich may be one of the few to withstand the Rod’s temptations and bring justice and peace to the lands.

The Valiant’s campaign is broken up into two main frontlines of war. The Crusades into the Middle East, and the aftermath that takes hold of Central Europe. The former showcases Theoderich’s past career as a Crusader and the falling out with this best friend and brother-in-arms, Ulrich. The other part takes place a decade later, as a young monk who finds the danger of the Rod and searches out to stop Ulrich.
 

Various heroes will come and go, fighting alongside Thoderich. Each has their own unique attacks, defenses, and abilities. Some are direct attackers other support or defensive tanks. Each story chapter takes place on large maps, with many different objectives and dozens of enemy squads. This can lead to playing sessions lasting up to 30 minutes and no means of saving without restarting.

As an RTS, players use the mouse to highlight the squads they want to control and then send them toward a target to auto-attack. Abilities can also be selected from a radial menu or used quickly with a hotkey. Unfortunately, many campaign encounters are rather simplistic. The main strategy almost always involves moving melee forces to engage the enemy and moving any ranged characters out of the way. This can also be manipulated as the game will fully pause when going into a submenu like help or graphics options.

The Valiant features a 2 vs. 2 multiplayer mode. Players first select from a number of heroes featured throughout the campaign. Theoderich is a balanced sword fighter that can heal nearby allies. Reinhard is a brutal axman who can redirect attacks toward himself. Konard is an archer who can fire a fast barrage of arrows. Grimhild, a defensive wall that can temporarily make herself invincible, was stationary. And finally, Gascoigne is a mounted knight that can knock down foes as he charges his steed.
 

Each hero can also lead a smaller band of generic soldiers, typically totaling a group of three or four. This includes Swordsmen that charge the field and can push back enemies, Spearmen that can throw javelins or counter horse attacks, long distance Archers, mounted Calvary with extra speed, Axmen that deal increased damage when focusing on one target, Crossbowman that can lay traps along the battlefield, Shieldbearers that can withstand other’s charge abilities, and War Priests that can directly heal.

All heroes and armies in The Valiant can be further upgraded as matches go on. This includes improving the base abilities with more damage, speed, or other features. Most characters also unlock various abilities with more levels and tier progression. At times a hero’s talents will only apply to certain army types, such as Gascoigne increasing the defense of War Priests. This leads to idle team pairings, but there is still a range of customization.

Matches are conducted in medium size maps, with each player controlling a quadrant of the map, with allies being closer to their teammate’s base. The objective is to control resources on the map, which can yield materials like wood or gold used to purchase upgrades. Players can also go for objects which will yield points, but if not properly upgraded, may be easily defeated by the opposition. The first team to get a set amount of points - from 100 to possibly 500 - will win.
 

A second cooperative mode is the Last Man Standing. This is instead limited to three allied players, taking control of just Theoderich, Konard, and Reinhard. Each also has a more limited army selection, typically matching their own class. However, to make up for this, each hero gains far more talents compared to the competitive mode. All have skill trees for offense, defense, and utility. This includes enemies taking additional damage when Reinhard is nearby, Konard resting cooldowns, or Theoderich healing himself when shield bashing.

The Last Man Standing mode itself is arcade survival based. The team must defend three wagons against hordes of enemies approaching from all sides. There is no time limit, and the game will continue indefinitely until a loss. However, the experience will be gained after the match to gain new talents. There are even new pieces of armor and weapons to find, making each hero stronger during intense matches.

Despite all of these nice multiplayer features, the online community of The Valiant is rather dead. There are rarely ever public games at any hour of the day, despite a full matchmaking system and server browser. To compare, as of early November 2022, the top-ranking Steam player currently has only won five competitive games of The Valiant total. Those looking to play will need to use outside resources like Discord or message boards even to try multiplayer. This could possibly be remedied with a sale or free trial to boost the player count.

The Valiant is artistically impressive. The graphical fidelity is very high, with character models, environments, and lighting all looking fantastic. What is even more impressive is that this takes no toll on performance, and the game will run very smoothly on ultra-settings. Between missions are also great hand-drawn cinematics. Although presented in an animatic style with minimal animation, the characters are very expressive and have clear silhouettes despite wearing similar uniforms.

The sound design of The Valiant is also very good. Powerful medieval and gallant music fills every level with intensity and heroics. This makes it very engaging at any point during an encounter. Each character is also extremely well voice acted. This gives everyone much life and lets the already great story have even more urgency and suspense. Sound effects are also decent, with the right amount of clash and crunch to feel like a heated battle between knights.

Bugs in The Valiant are rare, but they can be detrimental when they occur. Both during the story campaign and online matches, there is a small chance of crashing to the desktop. In the former, that lack of free saving means that those long chapters can turn into a complete waste of time. For online mode, it is unlikely that players will easily find another new match unless they are already playing with friends or already having organized sessions.
 

While The Valiant has a lot to offer, not all of it is readily accessible. There needs to be a serious boost in active PC players, or the fun online modes will just quickly die out. The campaign may last around eight hours and doesn’t have a lot of replay value. While the game looks good and sounds great, only the most hardcore RTS lovers should really pick it up now. Others still new or tepid to the genre should wait for a significant price drop.
 

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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