‘The Little Acre’ Review (PS4)
While adventure games seem to be dominated by Telltale’s high action style, sometimes it is nice to look back to the good old point and click adventures. This is where The Little Acre comes in, offering exactly that but with some little extra twists to the game play…
The first thing you notice about The Little Acre is how charming the artwork is, it feels like you are playing a cartoon. If you’ve played any of the Broken Sword games then you’ll feel right at home with the graphical style, and the fact that Charles Cecil is the Executive Producer does say a lot about the visual style and influence. The debut title of Dublin-based Pewter Games, based on what I’ve seen here this may be the company to watch for fans of this particular gaming genre – the graphics are charming and the user interface is intuitive enough to make the player feelcomfortable from the get-go.
In the game you play two characters, Aidan and his young daughter Lily. Set in 1950s Ireland, it appears that Aidan’s father has gone missing. His search for him transports the character to a strange new world full of bizarre creatures. Lily, being ever the adventurer doesn’t waste time following him too.
In terms of puzzles, I’ll admit I found the game a little easy, but this could be down to the fact that The Little Acre is aimed at a younger market. But the fact that the puzzles are easy to get through with logic is a nice touch, sometimes these styles of games tend to make things a little too cryptic to add a challenge. This can often lead to the fun being taken out of the experience. This is something that this title thankfully keeps away from.
While I won’t say much about what to expect in the game, one thing that should be celebrated is the fact that Pewter Games have mixed the traditional ‘find object to solve a problem’ with more puzzle based adventuring. This includes finding certain paths to get to the place you need to go. While there isn’t really a danger of death in the game, the interesting monsters on show do tend to add to the puzzles in novel ways too.
What I liked about The Little Acre is that it concentrates on keeping the story important. The theme of the game is the importance of family, and this is something that the game handles well. Whether it is Aidan trying to find his father, while also trying to protect Lily, or Lily and her experiences in the strange world she finds herself in, the importance is always family.
I was lucky enough to try The Little Acre on both PC and PlayStation 4, and it runs well on both systems. While point and click adventures tend to work the best on the PC I had no problem playing it on the PS4. This is the reason my review is predominantly based on the PS4 version.
If there is one thing that bugged me about The Little Acre it is the fact it is short, it will only take a few hours to complete it. For the length of time it lasts though, be prepared to be charmed and most importantly entertained. Hopefully Pewter Games will provide us with more games of this quality, but next time, make it last longer because the worlds they create are ones we want to get lost in, not find out way out so quickly.
**** 4/5
The Little Acre is out on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One now.
