Little Big Adventure is one of those games that we never
quite got around to playing despite having bought it a few times. A cult
classic, it has a loyal following and is fondly remembered by pretty much
everyone who played it when it first came out. DotEmu have now released this
enhanced and updated version of LBA but is it enough to make it work for
newcomers?
Little Big Adventure follows the story of Twinsen who has
been locked away by the tyrannical Dr FunFrock for having strange dreams about
the end of the world. The evil doctor has taken over the planet and holds
control through the use of clones which he uses to impose his rule. Twinsen’s
first job is to escape from the prison and then set about finding out exactly
what his dreams mean and what he can do to save the world.
The game is set out like a semi-isometric adventure where
our hero enters and exits different areas via arrows around the edges of the
scenes and everyone looks a bit like Weebles. You can talk to just about anyone
and everything is voice acted which gives a solid feeling of a functioning world
as the various inhabitants impart advice and general gossip to you. There are
normally enemies roaming around as well which can be avoided by sneaking or
punched and kicked. Shortly after the start you also get a magic ball thing you
can chuck at them
The game plays out as an action adventure title where you
have to go around and find clues about what to do and then collect objects and use
them in order to progress. For instance – in one area you need to get the local
people to trust you. They will then help you distract some guards which in turn
allows you to get into a house. It’s the
sort of game that doesn’t really exist anymore but one that was very prevalent around
the time of the LBA’s original release on the PC. However, it was always a
unique adventure game and that feeling still remains to this day.
A number of changes have now been made to the game in order
to try and bring it up to modern standards. The most obvious of these is the
new set of control systems. We started out with mouse control which turns LBA
into a sort of point and click game. However, it’s dreadfully un-intuitive and awkward
to use. We found simple getting around the screen difficult and numerous times
interactions with the environment simply didn’t work. After a while we found ourselves
descending into clicking all over the place near interest points in the vein
hope something would register as the right place to click.
Not to be defeated we switched to the gamepad control and
everything immediately became about one hundred times better. With movement now
under direct control and things like running, jumping and sneaking mapped onto
the buttons the whole thing becomes a much more joyful experience. The original
keyboard ‘tank’ controls can no longer be used however, so you’ll either have
to play the original version of the game that’s included or get used to one of
the new schemes.
There is also a new status bar added which displays things like
health and magic and if you are in sneak mode or not. You now zoom in and out as
well, which certainly helps but could have been further improved by allowing
you to pan around your environment in the same way as games such as Baldur’s
Gate. Far too often you are left at the edge of the screen not able to see what
is right in front of you as the camera doesn’t really keep Twinsen centred but normally
scrolls along when he reaches certain points.
A welcome chance is improved saving as it's all too easy to die or get captured. Although you can still only load them from the main menu screen. While this does stop constant cheap use of the system it's still a bit annoying when you have to go out to the main menu just to load a game. A better system for working out where you are jumping or where exactly the magic ball is going to be thrown is also a very welcome addition.
The graphics haven’t been improved or filtered either so you
get a sort of grainy jagged look to everything. That’s not a major issue on the
face of it but it seems strange to release a new version of a game without
giving it a bit of a facelift - especially when the original version of the game
is also included. The map and objective screen could have really done with a
facelift as well and we found it almost completely useless as everything just looked
like pixelated blobs. A clear list of objectives and locations would have
really helped.
It’s certainly not perfect but even as a relative newcomer
to LBA once we got into it we really started to like it. The adventure itself
is still very solid and there’s a unique humour and charm to everything. We
also haven’t really played anything like it before which goes to show how
original and unique the game really is. Ok, so more could have been done to
make this a really special release but the gamepad controls at least make it
playable for newcomers and the game underneath is certainly worth experiencing.
With a bit of patience there’s still a lot of magic to be found here and we’d certainly
recommend it to adventure game fans.
Overall 7/10
Colour Blind Issues - No
Review Code - Yes
Colour Blind Issues - No
Review Code - Yes
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