Developed by Pewter Games, The Little Acre is a point-and-click adventure game filled with a lot of charm. Its beautiful art gives life to kind-hearted characters who are unexpectedly trapped in a mystic land. I honestly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this title as much as I did.
Aidan and Lily, who are father and daughter, live in a fairly mundane world. They have a small house, complete with a garden and shed, along with a shaggy old dog named Dougal, their faithful pet. Everything seems to be normal, until Aidan accidentally gets sent to Clonfira, what can only be described as another dimension filled with fantastical creatures. Their adventure to find one another and get back home isn’t spectacular, but it is a fun, heartfelt journey through the end.
There isn’t a huge cast of characters, but those that are included play important roles. While Aidan and Lily are the central characters that we follow, a few more pop up along the way. Nina, a researcher of some sort, is a young woman who knows a lot about Clonfira, and helps create a way to travel to that world. In Clonfira, we meet a creature named Merr. He isn’t hostile at first, but ends up serving as an antagonist against Lily and Aidan. Lastly, there’s Dougal, who I previously mentioned is their dog. He’s incredibly loyal and does whatever he can to keep the family safe.
I don’t play point-and-click games frequently anymore, but The Little Acre brought me back to when I was younger and spent a lot of time playing similar games on my old computer, which probably makes me sound much older than I actually am. As Lily searches for Aidan and he in turn tries to get back home to Lily, the game switches perspectives between each character once a section is complete. The puzzles themselves generally aren’t hard to figure out, and you can look at hints and solutions if you so choose.
Throughout my playthrough, I was delighted by the graphics, which look almost as if they could be from an early animated Disney film. There’s just something about its hand-drawn animations that add so much magic to The Little Acre. I’d actually describe them as heartwarming, in a sense. Clonfira especially looks enchanting.
Even for such a simple game, there was a point where it completely froze and I had to exit it. This occurred close to the end of the game and luckily it had saved just prior to this happening. As this was the only issue that I had, I assume it was just a random issue and not a widespread problem.
Summary
The Little Acre is a short experience, around two hours or so, but the entire game is a joy. The puzzles are never too difficult to figure out and the story itself could have easily worked as a children’s book, giving it a larger appeal to both parents and kids. Additionally, it’s worth it to pay attention to the end of the credits as you’ll be treated to a picture of the real-life Dougal, whose animated presence in the game is one of the highlights.
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.