Grit and Valor 1949 Review

Grit and Valor 1949 is a roguelite that might resemble Into The Breach with a combination of mech based combat, pilot abilities and tactical diorama battlefields, but Grit and Valor 1949 goes in a much different direction.

Although visually similar, Grit and Valor 1949 feels closer to real time strategy games minus the building and gathering phases combined with tower defence and infused with a roguelite progression system. Unfortunately, the in game upgrades for your mechs are always underwhelming and really lack that hook, the mission types as well as the locations can also feel a little repetitive in each region. Nevertheless, the genre fusion and fast paced gameplay create an engaging roguelite.

What is Grit and Valor 1949?

Grit and Valor 1949 takes place in an alternate history, diesel punk WW2 universe. War rages on and the allies are on the brink of defeat. Deadly Axis mechs have been the lynchpin to their domination. However, slivers of hope remain as you have become the leader of the remaining survivors who have formed “The Resistance” and represent that last chance for the Allies.

The mission begins in the British Isles as you need to deliver an EMP through Scandinavia, Western Europe and and into to the heart of New Germany to disable their mech forces. The command vehicle will transport the EMP, but you will also have three mechs that should help carve a way through enemy territory and execute the mission.

At the core, Grit and Valor is a run based roguelite, which doesn’t require much explanation at this point. There are four regions, and in each one you will travel across a Slay The Spire inspired map where you will decide which battles you will take before meeting the region boss, that pose vastly different challenges.

At the end of each run, when your last mech has fallen or after each successful region, you will return to the resistance base, where you will be able to research new abilities and passives at the command center through achievements you earn in battle. This includes allowing your command vehicle to use a turret instead of a repair bay or providing each region with improved cover, which is essential to victory.

Over at the mech yard is where you will be able to purchase new gear for your mechs and equip it to one of the five slots on the iron hulk. You will also have the ability to unlock new mechs here with enough collected blueprints in battle. Finally, over at the barracks is where you will be able to improve your pilots skills such as the cooldown of their skills or the effectiveness of their abilities.

Grit and Valor Highs

One of the biggest victories with Grit and Valor is that it’s not going into Early Access, which is a rarity for a rogue-like, which is extremely refreshing. I hope that there will be some DLC, or extra region or extra mechs added, but launching into 1.0 meant that it works and it’s feature complete, which shows because performance was flawless on Steam Deck.

What makes Grit and Valor 1949 engaging is that it’s super easy to pick up, but offers deep strategy. After a few successful ventures, you will have been able to unlock some new mechs and new pilots. Mechs come in three classes: Ballistics, Fire and Explosives, which is enough variety on it’s own, but the game has a unique rock, paper, scissors damage dynamic and this is where the strategy begins. Pilots also have unique abilities and trying to pair the proper skills with the proper mechs is crucial and this is all done before you hit the battlefield. With nine mechs and six pilots there are a lot of potential combinations.

Once the lead starts flying, you will need to think quickly on your feet as Grit and Valor employs a wave based system reminiscent of tower defence. The waves come quickly and you will need to determine which mech needs to be on the frontlines, which mech needs to be on high ground, which mechs need to be behind cover. You will have split seconds to decide all of their and execute.

During the seconds between waves you need to think about deploying counter measures such as laying down landmines or repairing mechs if you have enough ability charges that is. This is all happening in real time combined with you needing to reposition, quickly decipher which direction the next wave is coming from, which type of enemies are coming and trying to capture bonus objectives, which are essential to levelling.

What’s great about the roguelite progression is that pilots don’t die and upgrades to your mech don’t reset upon failure. Instead, you can take your earned blueprints, scrap metal, and valor back to base to upgrade and return to the battlefield slightly stronger and slightly more informed.

Grit and Valor Lows

With such a strong emphasis on the pilots of the mechs, just like Into The Breach, it did seem a little low on quantity to only have six pilots. When you combine the abilities of the six pilots with the abilities of the nine mechs, there are a lot of different combinations, but having a few more pilots and giving them a bit more personality would have been a nice touch.

There is too much familiarity and repetition within each region. Each map is missing something visually memorable. Objectives can feel similar such as destroying rockets or capturing radio tower and due to this maps can feel repetitious.

It’s also missing a daily, weekly or endless mode that tweaks the formula enough to encourage return visits.

In game airdrops that serve as your traditional rogulelite levelling always felt a little underwhelming. There was never a run that felt like you were getting all the right rolls and you could create a broken mech. Most of the beneficial upgrades comes between runs back at base, and the silver lining in they did feel meaningful.

One of the biggest issues is that your mechs will walk blindly through the line of fire and take massive damage without returning fire on the enemy forces because their first priority is moving to the location you marked for them. Once they arrive at their destination, then they will engage. This doesn’t feel right as i’m already being punished for leaving cover.

VERDICT

I’m an easy mark for a good alternate history game and I thoroughly enjoy a good roguelite. Grit and Valor 1949 perfectly finds itself in the middle of this Venn diagram, but what I didn’t expect was for it to reignite my nostalgia for classic RTS as it feels like a distilled version minus the hours spent base building and collecting resources. Essentially an all killer, no filler RTS.

Instead, you are constantly in the middle of a very satisfying, wave based gameplay loop that emphasizes strong strategy and quick thinking. Unfortunately, it missing the addictive hook and run variation that the best roguelites offer.

While there might be some Into The Breach inspiration with mechs, pilots and small battlefields, Grit and Valor 1949 is an extremely unique roguelite that easily carves out its own identity thanks to its blitzkrieg gameplay and strategy.

7/10