A Tactician’s Dream in VR

Grit and Valor 1949 is a tabletop dieselpunk real-time strategy game set in an alternate history World War II, where mechs battle to determine the fate of the European continent.

For gamers of a certain age, Grit and Valor’s premise isn’t exactly new. Konami’s Ring of Red on the PlayStation 2 spun a similar tale, and the grid-based strategy boards of G&V are reminiscent of Square’s Front Mission 3, which debuted in 1999. But Grit and Valor’s take on the classic mech-warrior formula brings enough clever ideas and interesting mechanics to keep even us veterans enthralled.

Originally developed for flatscreen platforms, Grit and Valor is even stronger in VR. Looming over the diorama battlegrounds, you feel like a general at war. Leaning in to inspect mechs, grabbing hold of the battlefields, and physically positioning your miniature war machines in real-time is engaging in a way not found outside a VR headset.

Adding to this interactivity are the game’s intense live-or-die roguelite elements, where each region must be won in an unbroken string of victories or we’re forced to start over. We end up with an exhilarating tabletop wargame that’s difficult to put down.

Grit and Valor 1949’s plot is presented in gorgeous and gritty comic-style cutscenes and through character-delivered exposition.

The evil Axis powers have all but won the war. Through the development and deployment of brutal mechs and augmented super-soldiers, they’ve pushed the Allied forces back month after month until, at the game’s opening, the good guys have been diminished to a tiny holdout force based in Scotland.

But now, we’ve got mechs of our own. The plan is simple, but dangerous: a small assault unit of captured enemy mechs will escort a command vehicle armed with a massive EMP device, straight into the heart of Germany. Once there, we’ll detonate the EMP and demolish both the enemy’s mech units, and their ability to wage war.

It’s a good premise, and it’s presented in a sort of pulpy way that’s easy to digest yet stays interesting. The bad guys are evil. The good guys are good. We hate fascists, so let’s blow ‘em up!

The Loop

Grit and Valor 1949’s core gameplay will be familiar to roguelite fans. It uses a run-based structure in which the overarching campaign is divided into regions that contain a sequence of player-selectable battlefields. You fight your way through the region, battle by battle, with each region culminating in a final boss battle. If at any point in the run you fail to protect the command vehicle or all your mechs are destroyed, that’s game over. You retreat to your base in Scotland, spend your resources to become more powerful, and try again.

The field of selectable battles shows nice variety. Some paths will lead to higher-risk battles full of elite enemies, while others offer an easier path. There are unscouted locations that lead to random encounters, including an enemy ambush, extra rest for troops, an enemy defection, a bonus stop at the item shops, and other events.

On the whole, the progression is well-managed. While you will certainly die numerous times before becoming powerful enough to clear a region, and that can certainly feel frustrating at times, augments and power-ups come quickly enough that there’s always a feeling of forward momentum. Varied battlefields and the risk/reward dichotomy of the unscouted locales keep every run engaging and unpredictable.

Combat and Strategy

Combat plays out on compact, grid-based maps that are presented as dioramas. Your goal here is to survive the waves of enemies, destroy all opposition, and progress to the next battle.

Positioning is critical, since cover objects absorb damage and protect your few mech units, and elevated high ground grants damage bonuses. While this adds some strategy, it can also lead to those frustrating moments. For example, cover is marked by a green grid on the game board, and this only exists illogically on one side of a cover object. Though it may look like our mech is hiding behind cover, if it’s standing on the wrong side of the wall, the cover doesn’t count. Also, the elevated mechanic doesn’t always work out- sometimes our mech is standing on a ledge mere meters away from an enemy, but for some unknown reason, decides not to engage even when attacked.

Enemies approach in waves, come from all four points of the compass seemingly at random, and are dropped onto the game board via helicopters. This means that it’s not possible to simply set up in one position and ride out the battle. Instead, we’re always rotating the game board, always positioning and repositioning units so that before long, combat turns into a frantic and continuous dance.

Another combat wrinkle is the “rock-paper-scissors” logic of the mechs, which are made up of three different class units: Ballistic, Explosive, and Fire. Each of these three class units is weak to one and strong against another, and the knowledge and exploitation of this dynamic heavily influences the tide of battle.

Despite a few annoying quirks, mostly touched on above, combat is almost wholly satisfying and effective. Much care and attention is paid to creating a balanced, rewarding, and challenging experience, and the final result is one of the best strategy wargames I’ve played in VR.

Extensive Customization

There are six pilots that can be selected for any given mech. These have their own unique traits and their own special attacks, including laying down suppressing mines or jet-assisted attack jumps. Incidentally, they all have their own unique and endearing personalities, with excellent voice-acting to match.

Grit and Valor’s many elements are almost infinitely upgradeable. Pilots’ stats and skills can be upgraded with Valor points awarded through combat. New mechs can be unlocked by finding blueprints throughout the battles, and mechs can be upgraded with collected scraps. There’s achievement-based research and development, which leads to further stat boosts, and new weapons can be crafted from fusing together lower-spec items in the workshop forge. And that’s not even the entirety of what we’ll find to tinker with between runs at the Resistance Base.

For me, it’s all a bit overwhelming. There’s just so much to keep track of, so many parameters to tweak and augment, so many collectibles and resources to manage and develop. If you’re like me, you may find yourself simply equipping the coolest looking gear and jumping into battle, grinding it out until we’re just strong enough to win.

VR vs Flat

The flat version of Grit and Valor has been positively reviewed, but it’s even better in VR. Leaning this way and that to peer at our game board, reaching out and grabbing the battle to spin for a better angle, and plucking our deadly mechs up with our fingertips to drop them wherever we like is fast, fluid, and fun.

That said, the flipside of this great interactivity is that you’re often standing or sitting with your neck bent to better see the game board. The continuous roguelite progression and the fast pace of combat mean that longer game sessions can be a bit tiring. Still, in 30-60 minute sessions, Grit and Valor in VR is great.

Grit and Valor 1949 Review – Final Verdict

Grit and Valor 1949 is a polished blend of tight grid-based combat, roguelite progression, and tactile VR interactivity that makes for a fresh and exhilarating experience. The compact battlefields are tense, the combat is engaging and exciting, and the many upgrade systems continually compel us to play just one more run. While the game’s complexity may be a bit overwhelming for some players, on the whole, Grit and Valor 1949 is a tactician’s dream.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.