Little Big Adventure – Twinsen’s Quest – crooked, but still cute. Review

Played on PC

Little Big Adventure was released back in 1994 and offered a seemingly gigantic world, many activities outside the main plot and entertaining behavior of enemies who reacted to the user’s actions. Then it looked like something incredible, but now, of course, you won’t surprise anyone with something like this, just as you won’t surprise anyone with remakes of old games. Little Big Adventure – Twinsen’s Quest tries to modernize a 30-year-old classic, but while it managed to preserve the unique atmosphere of the original, everything else is not so lucky.

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⇡#All in one

On paper, Little Big Adventure is considered an action-adventure game, but in reality it is no less a quest, especially in the first half. And even with the beginnings of stealth and platforming. The game clearly leans more towards the adventure part, as we have to explore a lot of locations, talk to a bunch of funny characters and unravel the necessary sequence of actions to move forward and rid the planet of the tyranny of the evil Dr. Funfrock. The action, it seems, was sewn in here on the side – judging by the history of the creation of the original, the publisher, represented by EA, wanted to see the funny Twinsen as a stern protagonist, capable of giving bream to anyone and everyone, and the developers did not really agree with this idea. Therefore, the combat turned out, to put it mildly, not very well.

The remake, unfortunately, did not improve the situation. It eliminated the need to constantly pause the game to switch between different modes of movement for the protagonist, which is grateful for, but when it comes to any interactions with enemies, it becomes painful. For example, Twinsen hits not in the direction where he is looking, but in the direction where the cursor is pointing. And where this very cursor is is not always clear, because it does not move across the entire screen, but hangs at a short distance from the hero. The auto-aim takes on a life of its own and gets lost at the slightest movement of the mouse, so throwing a magic ball is also not a pleasant experience, especially on the move. But you need to run circles around enemies, otherwise being hit by a bullet will reset the hero’s running animation – and you may simply not get out of this hellish loop.

In the original game, the character was waiting for the new Star Wars trilogy. It’s good that he didn’t know that another one would follow.

In general, the number of various bugs and rough edges in the release version is disappointing. If you can ignore the graphical problems, then the rest cannot. Sometimes Twinsen can be pinned in a corner by a character walking next to him (you can’t pass through him, a collision, sir), the lift once again leaves without the hero, gluing him tightly to the floor, or the poor fellow simply gets stuck in the process of studying the next box and stops responding to key presses . Considering that the game saves progress only when moving to another location (for example, leaving the house on the street), and not actions inside the room, the need to replay certain areas begins to irritate over time, even despite the relatively modest timing.

It’s a shame, because the game is still charming when it doesn’t try to pretend to be an action or platformer (it’s still a pleasure to play a platformer in isometric mode and with a second input delay for jumping). There are a lot of unusual, albeit sketchy, characters, an interesting world in which it’s nice to just be in, a plot with hints of dystopia, and it’s interesting to deal with the problems of local residents. Throughout the first half – exactly until Little Big Adventure forces you to constantly fight – it’s difficult to tear yourself away from the project precisely because of its unique atmosphere.

In addition to the usual guards, a TANK may come for you!

Then the atmosphere fades into the background, and the combat causes more and more irritation. Usually in remakes they try to at least somehow correct the shortcomings of the original – not always successfully, but attempts are made. However, in the case of Little Big Adventure, it would have been necessary to redo almost half of the game, which towards the end for some reason switched from an entertaining adventure quest to an action movie. The new version does not make any fundamental changes to either the structure or the gameplay – it only seriously changed the graphic style and partially expanded the narrative. Otherwise, this translation is almost one to one. It is clear that the budget is low and the team smallbut leaving something that didn’t work very well even in the original is a so-so idea. After three decades, it certainly won’t work any better on its own.

What would an adventure be without puzzles involving moving boxes?

As a result, Little Big Adventure – Twinsen’s Quest, although it is called a remake – yes, some things have changed here and there – but for the most part it looks more like a remaster, where the graphical part was improved, but the game design and structure were decided not to be really touched. The old problems remained in place, and an unpleasant number of bugs and various shortcomings were added to them, which simply interfere with enjoying the game. It’s not a bad attempt, it will help to remember your youth, but nothing more.

Advantages:

• the game world has not lost its charm;
• The first, calmer half still looks decent and interesting.

Flaws:

• a huge number of bugs, from small ones that don’t interfere too much to ones that force you to replay entire sections;
• everything related to the combat system is either crooked or simply inconvenient;
• When the game switches to pure action, all the charm instantly disappears.

Rating: 6.0/10

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