Grit & Valor 1949 Review

Grit & Valor 1949 is set, fairly obviously in 1949, but it’s not the 1949 that our grandparents experienced. This is an alternate history, and one where WW2 still rages on. It’s also an alternate history drawing on Steampunk ideas and aesthetics, where battlefields clamour with the sounds of mechs and unlikely weaponry. Grit & Valor takes this setting and turns it into a real-time tactical roguelite, fusing ideas from games like Advance Wars and Into The Breach with small scale RTS games like Bad North into a new, mostly cohesive, whole.

You’re part of the Resistance, fighting back against the evil Axis from a small island outpost off the coast of Scotland. Your task is to liberate each region from its Axis occupiers, forcing them from the British Isles, back into France and Western Europe, before finally facing the enemy’s seat of power in New Germany. Each area has multiple stages, and multiple pathways through which, as this is a roguelite, you’ll be hoping to pick up the best enhancements along the way.

The tutorial is suspiciously straightforward, and extremely quick before sending you over the top into live combat. While you move around each battlefield by stomping through a fixed grid, you don’t select individual targets for regular attacks; instead, you rely on your mechs targeting the nearest villain in their sights.

Just like Fire Emblem, there’s a weapon triangle at work here to distinguish who will have the upper hand, so Ballistic Class is strong against Fire, Fire is strong against Explosives, and Explosives beat out Ballistics.

Each Mech has a different class then, but also its own pilot, with each driver having their own special ability to help you out in the field. Archie Miller, the chap in control during the tutorial, has a Jump Jet ability that lets you leap across the battlefield and cause damage to enemies in a wide area, while Emilia Rochefort can heal her Mech. The third starting pilot, Jan Nowak, can lay traps, leaving mines in the path of advancing enemy vehicles. You need to know when to deploy these skills, not least because they have a limited number of uses, and they’ll often mean the difference between success and failure.

During each battle, there are crate drops containing enhancements for your mechs. Each crate gives you three options to choose from, with different levels of rarity denoting the most powerful or unique abilities. You might also pick up repair packs here, letting you regain some health for one of your team, while you steadily try to create an arsenal that will see you through to the very end.

That’s unlikely to happen in one run. As you fight you’re also earning currency to spend on permanent upgrades, and it’s these that will fundamentally raise your chances of success.

There’s a lot going on in Grit & Valor’s diorama-like levels. You have to juggle grabbing objectives, taking cover, protecting your Command unit, and taking out the Axis forces, all the while making sure you’ve got the best matchups going on through the weapon triangle. As it takes place in real time, it can be a little chaotic, and while the pad controls do a good job, I can’t help but feel that a mouse makes these things easier. Now, if they happen to drop a Switch 2 patch with mouse support, that might be the perfect answer.

It’s all a lot of fun though. While the game on Switch isn’t as detailed or high resolution as on other platforms, I still appreciate the Steampunk comic-like visuals. The action is easy to parse, but challenging, and there’s a clear sense of progression, as every run grants you new Mechs, new parts or the ability to upgrade something that will make your life easier next time out. It’s fast-paced and it doesn’t waste your time, and as a Switch game, it’s an ideal title to pick up and play, get a run in, or a couple of stages within one, and then head off to do something else.

There were a couple of times where the game crashed while playing, with it soft-locking in the menus and preventing me from advancing. However, a quick reset let me progress, and it didn’t get in the way of things too much – it’s possible that it might have been an oddity compatibility support when playing on Switch 2.

By its very nature, Grit & Valor becomes quite repetitive. It’s carried through by your steadily expanding arsenal and abilities, and that search for an ideal run into enemy territory, but you have to be completely sold on the fundamental gameplay early on. Personally, I think it pulls it off, with the visuals and alternate history setting really drawing me in, but I could see some players losing faith with the repetition and chaos-tinged battles.