Lil’ Guardsman – Review

Truly a game where cosy and chaotic elements blend together nicely

Hello, world. Constantin here with another review from the realm of cosy games. My experience with Bandle Tales: A League of Legends Story didn't scare me enough to go back to my souls-like games. So I tried my luck once more in the unknown realm of cosy games – this time with success. Apparently, second time's the charm, and I'm all the happier that Lil’ Guardsman is the first game released by indie studio Hilltop Studios and published by Versus Evil and tinyBuild this year, on 24 January. Although I had the chance to personally meet Scott and Artiom, the founders of Hilltop Studios, I assure you that I will be ruthless when it comes to problems or elements that could be improved.

What would you do if, at 12 years old, you were forced to work in your father's place so he could gamble?

This is the dilemma that plagues Lil, our protagonist, throughout the entire game. What starts suspiciously as a one-day replacement for her father as a guard at the gates of the fictional kingdom of Sprawl turns into a full-time job for Lil, when the forces guiding the kingdom from the shadows realise her potential – that, and the fact that she does her job much better than her gambling-addicted father. Armed with a series of instructions from the leadership, a toolkit with supernatural powers, and the intuition of a 12-year-old who is clearly unqualified for this role, Lil guides the fate of the kingdom based on the characters she allows into the kingdom and those she denies access to.

Speaking of characters, I have to praise the writers for the ideas they used in creating them, as many are references to well-known pop culture characters, but with tiiiiny behavioural adjustments. Thus, you'll have the chance to meet visitors such as a Cinderella with an apron stained with what looks like cherry jam, a Gandalf a bit more stoned than he should be, or even some not-so-skilled ghost hunters.

What adds flavour to these characters are precisely these small details that the writers twisted and turned to provide a unique humour to the series. I can honestly tell you that I laughed out loud throughout the game thanks to the creative dialogues I had to have with these visitors and more. What's more, just when you think all you'll have to do is decide who enters the kingdom and who doesn't, the game adds different plot twists, makes you travel through the kingdom and participate in other decisive events for its future – again, a lot of responsibility for a 12-year-old girl. And if you want to be sure you've made the best decision, you'd better keep your eyes and ears open for clues offered by the developers through dialogues and instructions from your superiors.

What does this button do?

The gameplay is intuitive from the start: at the guard post, you have 3 levers that allow you to let someone in, deny them access, or send them to the dungeon. To make one of these decisions, you need to question visitors and get them to share their real reasons for wanting free passage. A series of instructions from the great powers controlling the kingdom (which you can conveniently call on the phone) come to your aid, as well as tools such as: a ring that decodes secret messages and more, a truth serum, an X-ray scanner, a metal detector, and a whip because why not. They work with crystals; you receive 5 initial crystals, 3 at the beginning of each guard shift, and you can increase the number of crystal slots or buy more throughout the game.

Whether you talk to someone, use one of the tools, or call a friend, it consumes one of the maximum 3 available actions for each dialogue, after which you have to make the decision: let the visitor in, send them away, or send them to jail. Each decision will be evaluated by the game and you will receive a score. And at the end of the shift, you will have an average score based on your decisions. Use too few actions and you risk letting a murderous psychopath into the kingdom; use too many actions and you risk annoying an important official or someone with urgent business. Some decisions will affect the future of the kingdom, and the developers have been lenient enough to tell you which ones. Fortunately, the game offers you an extra tool that allows you to turn back time (for a limited number of times) when you think you've messed up too badly.

As I mentioned earlier, the fun doesn't end with the guard shift. Because you're a very mature child, you also have to travel to other locations in the kingdom to solve the problems of many other adults who are too incompetent – sometimes you'll even wonder how they managed to get the positions they hold. I won't give you too many details about these extra activities so as not to spoil the surprise. But I will tell you that in these extra activities you can unlock a lot of sudden and dramatic story endings – I started checking them deliberately, just to collect them all.

I didn't encounter any unforeseen difficulties in terms of gameplay and everything ran smoothly. However, there are a number of improvements I recommend to the developers:

• While live streaming this game, I felt the need for recap scenes, so that everyone knows where we are in the story, even if there are new people joining the stream or just forgetful ones.
• A narration of each character's outcome would be useful, instead of just throwing 2-3 blocks of text at me to read. I suggest this because it is implemented for the final outcome of each character at the end of the game.

An art direction and sound that make you feel comfortable

I was very pleased with the visual aspect of Lil’ Guardsman. No overly bright colours, no graphical glitches, no hard-to-distinguish elements. Being a text-based adventure, the text was always legible and I didn't encounter any reading difficulties or grammatical errors. And the calming music completed the storybook landscape. And if you feel the need to change the ambient music, you're offered a jukebox where you can do that. Honestly, I didn't notice the hours passing in Lil’ Guardsman thanks to the whole atmosphere and I can't wait to play it again to unlock the rest of the secrets.

Drumroll, please!

With the exception of the minor improvements mentioned, Lil’ Guardsman is a point-and-click adventure full of humour and (at the right moment) emotion. You'll laugh, you'll recognise many of the references the developers have made, and you'll want to play again just for the sake of seeing how crazy your decisions and their consequences are. If I were to give it a score based on their in-game evaluation system, I'd say 3.75 out of 4 stars. If I were to give it a score in the classic system, it would be 9 out of 10. What's certain is that it pleasantly impressed me, and now I understand why Xbox included it in their Xbox Indies Select edition in February, and why the Game Development World Championship awarded it the prize for “Best Commercial Game by an Extended Development Team” in the same month.

Played on: PC
Release date: 23 January 2024
Developer: Hilltop Studios
Publisher: Versus Evil, tinyBuild

Review by Constantin Dumitru