Grit and Valor - 1949 Review

Do you love mechs? Do you want to battle against hordes of Nazi robots while IN a giant mech? Well then, Grit and Valor - 1949, the new game from developer Milky Tea Studios, might be the title for you. If you want to know more, then let’s have a look to see if this is an alternate history that we want to experience, or should it be left as pure fiction?

Grit and Valor -1949 takes place in an alternative World War II where the Nazis have, essentially, won. The reason for the Axis’ overwhelming victory? Why, it’s a horde of mechs! You take the role of one of the Resistance, who have a simple goal: deliver an EMP to the centre of the enemy territory while bringing an end to the Nazi menace.

Alternative WWII plots are always entertaining, it’s fertile ground for a good story full of action, which is where the game’s plot focuses. While it might not be the deepest look into the history of the war or the human condition, it does what it needs to. After all, you never really need a reason to want to kill Nazis, and you’re going to be killing a lot of Nazis.

The gameplay in Grit and Valor -1949 is separated into three distinct sections. The first is your home base, where you can use materials to upgrade your mechs with new attachments that boost durability, weapon strength, and more. You can also research improvements for your pilots while building new buildings that add more attachments. Then you have the main map where you have to choose which location to go to next. Finally, there’s the combat, which is where you’ll be spending most of your time. 

The base section is pretty bare bones; it does what it needs to, but there’s no real pizzazz in terms of visuals or design. This isn’t like XCOM, where you can see people moving around; instead, the base here is really just a dolled-up set of menus. However, nothing is confusing, so it’s always clear what you need to do to reach a certain result. 

The same can be said for the main map, which is reminiscent of a lot of different roguelikes. Essentially, you have a variety of different paths that you can take, with some offering a fight, supplies, or a mystery. This helps to add a fair bit of variety, but it shares a common issue with many of these titles. The problem is that, at least in the early game, you’ll be doing the same opening maps a lot, if for no other reason than you don’t have the means to survive a full run. 

On that note, it is obvious to state that in Grit and Valor - 1949, you’re going to be dying a lot, which then sends you back to base. The game is designed that way, as each run has you getting more materials and plans that can be used to upgrade your mechs to make them better in the field while also surviving longer. 

Honestly, combat is initially interesting, but it gets repetitive fast. It works like this: you have up to three units on your team, which will be placed on a small map for each engagement. The focus of the battle is to survive several waves of enemies while keeping your command vehicle, and other mechs, alive. The maps also include a side mission, as well as sporadic drops of buffs that help boost your unit.

The key here is paying attention to what is weak against what, which, honestly, isn’t that hard. There are three-unit types in Grit and Valor - 1949: bombers, machine guns, and flamers. The machine guns are more effective against flamers, flamers are more effective against bombers, and the bombers beat machine guns. It’s easy enough to figure out, but you can also use height to get a damage buff so that even your weaker units can stand a chance.

As such. Grit and Valor - 1949 feels like a particularly violent game of rock-paper-scissors. On top of that, each pilot has a special ability that you have a limited number of uses for on a run.  For instance, the starting machine gun pilot has a jump attack. However, it is worth noting that your command vehicle cannot fight, plus if it dies, you lose the match. What it can do is drop a healing pad while completing some objectives. 

That pad is important because you don’t gain health back as you complete missions unless you find the right areas on the map. As such, if you don’t work around the strengths and weaknesses of your and the enemy’s troops, you’ll quickly find that you can’t complete a run. However, like the other abilities, there’s only a select number of them, so you need to improve your mechs to be more survivable. 

Speaking of upgrades, you have two main sources of revenue that you can pick up by completing missions: coins and fuel. With these you can buy new attachments for your mechs, as well as install any that you find out in the world. You also gain research points for completing certain tasks that you can use to improve your pilots or, crucially, allow you to take out three walkers instead of two. 

The issue with all this is that it just gets kind of dull really fast, especially if you play longer than a few hours. See, while the actual gameplay is fun for a bit, it isn’t all that complex. The most you’ll have to think about is if you get in cover or stick to the high ground. There’s nothing advanced like ambushes or flanking, that you need to worry about. However, the boss fights that culminate at the end of each section do help to add some needed variety.

This lack of complexity is made even worse when you realise that the game reuses a lot of maps in the early stages, and they’re not the most interesting thing in the world. They do get better, but you’ll be replaying the initial maps a lot more than the later ones. 

Graphically, Grit and Valor - 1949 is fine, and the maps do look nice, same with the designs of the mechs. There’s not really much voice acting to comment on, but I like the art assets used for the characters.

Overall, this is a background game, something that you don’t need to focus on for long periods. While it can be engaging, I don’t think it can keep people invested over long playtimes. With that said, everything the game tries to do, it does well, and it’s mechanically competent. I think it’s ideal if you want to spend a couple of hours watching a movie or something. Who doesn’t like mechs, after all?