Review scores can be such stubbornly rigid, unfeeling things. Ideally the result of totalled up positive and negative points with some critical connective tissue woven in-between, these cold sums can sometimes miss that almost intangible essence of just why a game excels or fails in the particular way that it does.
By conventional measurements then, The Little Acre shouldn’t get anywhere near the 8/10 score (saved you the trouble) that you’ll glimpse at the bottom of this review as it can be beaten in just over three hours, has puzzles that you could solve during an absinthe-powered hangover and provides no real reason to replay the game. Yet in the case of The Little Acre, I found such clinical logic to be rendered almost entirely irrelevant on account of just how horrendously charming the whole thing is, and chances are, I think you will too.
A spellbinding adventure
Created by plucky, Irish-based developer Pewter Games, The Little Acre is wonderfully steeped in Celtic charm and nowhere is this more evident than in the narrative and the cast of characters that inhabit it. Set in 1950s rural Ireland, The Little Acre is a point and click adventure that has players taking control of inventor Aidan, who after uncovering some clues as to the location of his missing father, is accidentally sucked into a strange alien world, causing his head-strong daughter, Lily, to give pursuit.
The yarn that The Little Acre weaves is a twee and warmly entertaining one that not only reaches the heady heights of an otherworldly adventure, but still manages to feel palpably grounded and heartfelt at the same time. Take the opening act for example; controlling Aidan, players awake in their bed but must try and get changed while not waking up either Lily, or their ever-suffering dog, both of whom are slumbering on the same floor as Aidan himself.
It’s this sort of easy going humour that permeates all the way through the game, and The Little Acre feels all the better, and dare I say, happier, for having it. Notably, once the story expands beyond the confines of its sleepy Irish rural setting, The Little Acre ventures into more fantastical locales and though the established whimsy slips into something a little darker, it never feels jarring; underscoring the fact that the game nonetheless boasts more charisma in its little pixel finger, than most games have full stop.
Sublime hand-drawn visuals and an entrancing score
Even if you’ve only glimpsed The Little Acre in still shots, its appeal should be immediately apparent; the game looks absolutely sumptuous. Clearly inspired by Don Bluth, that indomitable animation powerhouse of the 80s and 90s whose practiced hand was behind such memorable films as The Land Before Time and All Dogs go to Heaven, The Little Acre is a masterwork of classic hand-drawn art and animation. Every scene, background and foreground just bleeds stylishly sketched detail in a way that few other games can boast, while the characters all benefit from this much more personal artistic touch; displaying a range of warm emotion and animated flourishes that the fully three-dimensional worlds of many high budget efforts have struggled to capture.
Ably matching the soaring calibre of the visuals is the musical score, which draws parallels not just in quality, but in theme too; taking in all manner of Celtic instruments to craft a soundtrack quite unlike any other heard in a PS4 title to date. Without a doubt then, The Little Acre is truly a labour of love and the passion that the developers obviously have had during the creative process is clear in the final product from start to finish.
Little challenge for veterans
Despite having more charm in its little finger than most comparable offerings have in their entire duration, The Little Acre will not be quite for everybody. A big part of this is that the puzzles which so often represent the crux of appeal for point and click efforts such as this, are sorely lacking both in difficulty and in variance to such a degree (the solutions to such conundrums are almost always painfully obvious) that anyone who is of age and even remotely familiar with the genre, will tear through the game in short order.
Speaking of short order, The Little Acre is not very long at all. Clocking in at around three hours total, not only is The Little Acre a decidedly brief affair, but there is no real reason to go back through it all once the end credits have finished their roll. Nonetheless, despite the fact that The Little Acre offers little challenge for older players, the infectiously charming audiovisual presentation, coupled with relatively simplistic puzzles (not to mention the fact it dishes out Trophies like candy), means that The Little Acre represents a superbly family-friendly introduction to the point and click genre for younger folk.
In Summary
With its adorably styled presentation that evokes a throwback to an earlier era of point and click adventuring, The Little Acre manages to accomplish that rare feat of inspiring a kind of blissful satisfaction from an older audience that would otherwise find its lean challenge and duration to be significant demerits. As it is, The Little Acre has rekindled that long forgotten feeling of joy that I first experienced when I played The Secret of Monkey Island all those years ago, and as such, I can think of no stronger praise to recommend it to others, be they genre rookies or stalwarts alike.