The Little Acre Hands-on PreviewÂ
The Little Acre is a classic point and click adventure game filled with humour, gorgeous hand-drawn worlds and a heartwarming tale of a family trapped between two worlds. Developed by Pewter Game Studios, The Little Acre follows the story of Lily and her father Aidan who live in a quiet rural cottage with Lily’s eccentric inventor grandfather Arthur. One day, Arthur goes missing and through a series of unfortunate events, Aidan and Lily get caught up in the mystery of a strange parallel fantasy world.
The Little Acre’s biggest strength is the beautiful art style. Pewter Games has clearly put a lot of thought into the visual design of the world and there are intricate details throughout every panel. It’s almost reminiscent of old school hand-drawn animation from Disney or LucasArts and definitely works in favour with the point-and-click style gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, when it comes to point-and-click titles, it’s the puzzles that make or break the experience. The Little Acre does well in the sense that most, if not all puzzles, have a common sense solution and are not unnecessarily complex or convoluted. However, that also means there is little challenge when it comes to puzzle solving, something that potentially could be remedied in the second half of the title.
The voice acting and soundtrack are top notch, and really bring an added element to creating a believable world. Lily is the loveable scamp, Aidan is the concerned but daring father and Dougal, the family dog tries his best to keep the family safe (to some comedic extent).
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“The Little Acre’s biggest strength is the beautiful art style.”
The Little Acre is a loveable game, and should be on the radar for anyone that enjoys the classic point-and-click adventure style games in the vein of Kings Quest or the more recent Broken Age. The only question is whether the game has the ability to continue to build off the worlds it creates within the first half of the title, and if the puzzle solving elements develop more complexity in their execution.
The Little Acre is set to be released on PlayStation on December 13. A preview copy of the game was provided by the publisher, with the first half of the game eligible for review.
***Preview code was provided by the publisher***
