It’s been a while since I played a point and click adventure. Back in the day these were very popular. Recently they seem to have fallen out of favour with gamers looking for the next adrenaline rush.

The Little Acre, from independent Pewter Games, aims to create a game which is fun for all age groups, although younger gamers may have to get some help with the pattern recognition portions, I know I did.

If you’ve not played a game like this before the basic principle is that you’re engaged in an interactive story. The characters have to interact with their environment to forward the narrative. Pewter have added the ability to choose some actions by just pushing the action keys, which makes simple tasks like opening doors a whole lot simpler. The heart of the game is not only the touching story but also your ability to solve problems which may take two or three things to happen.

For instance if you want breakfast you may need water, but what happens if the pump is broken, can you find the right object to repair the pump to get the water to put in the pot you need to find... well you get the idea.

The story follows Aiden and his lively daughter, Lily. Aiden awakes to find that his inventor father has gone missing and has to find out how and why he disappeared. The vocal acting is top notch, but I couldn’t quite understand how, if the story is set in Ireland and Aiden has a soft southern Irish accent, how come Lily didn’t.

First Aiden and then Lily are sucked into a new realm, which owes much to the imagination of Lewis Carol with more than a few touches which makes you think you’re going to bump into Alice at any moment. Through the game you get to play as either Aiden or Lily, depending on the requirements of the story.

The level of puzzling may put off some players as there is little here that would stretch someone used to this type of game, in fact there is an achievement trophy for completing the game in under an hour. But I don’t think that this is the audience the game was aimed at and there is a reason the overall tone of the game is very family friendly.

The game has a charm of its own, from the delightful hand drawn animation to the whimsy of the soundtrack; although over time it does become a bit repetitive.

Whilst it’s not for the hard bitten gamer, I could easily see parents enjoying playing along with their younger kids.

Ultimately it depends on the price you're able to pick it up for; even with a younger player it should take no more than a couple of hours to complete with no real replay value.

5

Charles Packer