A Dieselpunk RTS That Stomps to Victory
Grit and Valor – 1949 should be right up my alley – and if you like RTS games, it might just be up yours too.
Milky Tea and Megabit Publishing describe the game as a dieselpunk, roguelite real time strategy game, which isn’t a combination of words I anticipated typing when I downloaded this title!
But can a roguelite RTS game work, or is it a fusion of genres too far? Well, strap into a big stompy mech, as we’re about to find out.
Polished Pixels
It’s with the presentation of the game where I’ll begin today, and here the news is good. Grit and Valor – 1949 is presented in two phases; the main hub screen and the various battlefields that we find ourselves on.
Starting with the hub, there are various nodes we can select that will allow us to upgrade our team and their mechs, research new stuff and more. I’ll go deeper into the systems later in the review, fear not. And then the other section of the game is a map of whichever country we are fighting in, with various places to visit; dropping in allows for a discrete arena style map to be loaded. This is fully rotatable and allows you to always get the best view of the action. There are various features of the maps too, with height changes and cover to be taken advantage of, and things seem to be different each time we start a run.
Alongside that, the design of the enemies and the mechs that we control is very nice indeed, and the way that they stomp about is extremely effective. Yes, the graphics are fairly simple, but they are certainly well polished.
Sound is likewise very good, with the battle being nicely recreated – each mech has a type attached to it, and the different attacks of each mech are all very distinct. The explosions, the stomping; it all works very well indeed. Even the stiff upper lipped commanding officer speaks a bit, and this adds to the immersion.
An Alternate History
What about a story? Well, that is the next thing for us to discuss, and Grit and Valor – 1949 takes place in an alternate timeline around the Second World War. The Axis forces have conquered all of Europe, including the UK, by using giant mechs to intimidate the population and flush out any rebels. Luckily, a group of rebels has united on a Scottish island, and having captured some of the enemy mechs, are determined to give the baddies a taste of their own medicine.
We must fight our way through Europe, country by country almost, in order to deliver a devastating EMP weapon to the heart of the Axis mech’s controls: only then will the threat be destroyed. Can we make it all the way to the end, or will we perish along the way? Well, that depends on you, Commander!
Gameplay and Mech Matchups
With the scene set, it’s time to see what the game has to offer in the fun department, and the answer is again a pleasing one.
You see, Grit and Valor – 1949 is a real time strategy game, almost in name only, as while you are responsible for positioning your mechs on the map and choosing when to use each pilot’s special ability, the actual fighting is taken care of automatically. As long as your mech is in range of the enemy, and can see them (no shooting through buildings here) they will attack. And attacking isn’t as straight forward as you may think.
No, much like in Pokemon, there are various types of mechs, and each of them relates to the others in different ways. There are fire mechs, which are strong against explosive type mechs, which are strong against ballistic mechs, which are strong against the fire types. It’s like a triangle of strengths and weaknesses, and it is helpfully displayed on screen while you are fighting.
Moving your mechs so the correct mechs attack the weak enemies is rule number one. Of course, the enemy mechs have the same types, so making sure that the weak mechs aren’t attacked is rule number two. Rule number three is to make sure that your control vehicle isn’t left vulnerable, as losing that means the end of a run. As does losing all your active mechs: if this happens, it’s back to the drawing board and a whole fresh run from the start.
A Rewarding Mech Loop
Luckily, it isn’t a case of banging your head against a brick wall, as there are various ways to make your mechs and pilots stronger. As we progress through a run, there are various things that are dropped on the battlefield that can power mechs up, giving increased damage or more health, for instance. At the end of every battle comes the opportunity to pick an upgrade, and each mech can have three augments attached at any one time, working through different degrees of rarity to collect, with rarer augments having more of an effect.
In addition, Grit and Valor – 1949 allows the chance to unlock various currencies that can be spent at the hub to make ourselves permanently stronger. These range from extra training for the pilots (which uses a currency called Valor) through to making new modules for the various mechs, which uses scrap collected on the runs. Keep running, dying, improving and running again and you’ll soon start to notice the difference.
An Interesting Tactical Roguelite
Grit and Valor – 1949 is a very interesting game. Each mission is different to the next, requiring you to do attempt various things to win out: just defeating all the foes is enough to move on, but each level has an extra objective, whether it be protecting camps or destroying V2 rockets, and these add a lot more of the currencies to your coffers.
It means that Grit and Valor – 1949 is extremely interesting, as well as being pretty fast paced. While it isn’t, strictly speaking, an RTS, it’s close enough for me, and that means it is more than worth a dabble.
Important Links
Your Finest Hour is Here: Liberate Europe with Giant Mechs in Grit and Valor – 1949 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/your-finest-hour-is-here-liberate-europe-with-giant-mechs-in-grit-and-valor-1949/
Grit and Valor – 1949 brings real-time tactical roguelite action to PC and console | Release Date Confirmed – https://www.thexboxhub.com/grit-and-valor-1949-brings-real-time-tactical-roguelite-action-to-pc-and-console-in-2025/
Buy Grit and Valor – 1949 on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/grit-and-valor-1949/9p34s5h6pprb
