The Little Acre is a point-and-click adventure game set in the charming 1950s Irish countryside. Developed by Pewter Games – also based in Ireland (but present day), and published by Curve Digital, The Little Acre will be available from 13th December. I got to go hands on with the first part of The Little Acre and fell in love.
There are two playable characters in The Little Acre: Aiden and his infant daughter Lily. You start off your journey as Aiden. Your first challenge is to get dressed. No, I’m not talking about choosing clothes that “go” with each other – which is a real challenge for the stylistically challenged people such as myself. No, Aiden will awake to find his clothes strewn all over the attic room he shares with Lily and the family dog – Dougal.
You will have to solve a few puzzles to retrieve your clothes while avoiding waking Lily from her slumber, which is apparently a fate worse than death. Thankfully if the puzzles ever get too strenuous on the ol’ grey matter, you can ask for hints and solutions through the game’s menu – so things never get too stressful.
The central plot point in The Little Acre is that Aiden’s father, Arthur, has gone missing. Arthur is something of a mad scientist, and you can see his inventions scattered around the house. A personal favourite of mine is the automated blind in the bedroom, operated by a footswitch.
Investigating the clues and exploring the cottage will eventually lead Aiden to an alternate world through a particularly strange contraption found in… you guessed it, the garden shed. It’s at this point that Lily wakes up back in the “real” world.
Aiden had hinted that Lily is somewhat of a liability, and her actions prove that ten times over. In the simple process of making breakfast, she nearly gets crushed on two separate occasions by different pieces of furniture, and almost sets the cottage on fire. To be fair, I think we can all attest to doing similar before the first coffee of the day.
Being the keen adventurer she is, Lily decides to go off in search of her grandfather, and father, too. Lily is bold, brilliant and hilarious. Aiden seems fairly nonchalant and definitely the more careful of the duo – Lily’s actions are a bit more… erratic. The two complement each other well and the voice acting is fantastic throughout.
The game’s hand-crafted visuals are absolutely stunning and manages to transition between a traditional point-and-click adventure and an isometric viewpoint so seamlessly that you probably wouldn’t have noticed it. The game is charming, funny, emotional, and stunning.
From what I played of The Little Acre, Pewter Games have an absolute gem of a game on their hands. It can be in your hands from December 13th on Xbox One for £10.36, or as a special pre-order price for £8.83.
Keep an eye out for my full review of the game real soon.
