Review for Lil’ Guardsman
I’ve always struggled with decision-making, fearing mistakes and regret. When I first played Papers, Please, its realism and portrayal of people’s lives in extremely delicate situations were painful. Some years later, I played a free game called Sort the Court by Graeme Borland where you control a prince or princess and make political judgments when members of the community come to ask you for favors and suggest policies. In that experience, I felt more confident in my decision-making abilities and deeply appreciated the sense of power and accomplishment it provided. However, that game was too short, and it left me wishing for a longer version with the same style and themes. Now, five years later, Lil’ Guardsman fulfills everything I wished for back then and more.
You control Lil, a 12-year-old-daughter of a guardsman, someone who determines if visitors should enter through the borders of their well-secured medieval city. One day, Lil’s dad asks her to replace him at work, as he needs to bet on a Goblinball match. As she does so, the girl finds herself involved in a world full of political intrigue, revolutions, wars, bigotry and all sorts of funny, curious and scary characters. As Lil becomes known as a good decision-maker, she keeps her post as a guardsman and needs to ascertain what’s good for the kingdom. Some of her choices will affect not only the future of her community but also the game’s ending.
In this way, the experience works as a mixture of the “border guard” managerial type of game such as Papers, Please (although in a fantasy setting), and a traditional point-and-click adventure. In the first stage, you will interrogate visitors and decide if they enter the city or not. In the second phase, you will walk around the city running errands, talking to people, delivering items, etc. The adventure aspect is downplayed here since there is not a great emphasis on puzzle-solving and item usability as in a traditional point-and-click game. Rather, solutions are often limited to handing over items to characters in need. That’s not a problem, though, since the decision-making aspect of Lil’s job, the central part of the game, would work well even on its own. There's also some problem-solving involving items during interrogations while on duty, but don’t expect anything too complex as you would in, for instance, a LucasArts classic. There are no item combinations in this game.
At first I thought the solutions were too simple and obvious, and I feared that the developers might have a younger audience as a target. But, during its course, I found some of the solutions not to be that straightforward after all, as (surprisingly) I'd often not get maximum scores for my work shifts. The immersion provided by the experience makes you feel thrilled with being a guardsman and intrigued about each case.
During work sessions Lil can use a variety of tools to help her choose whether to accept or deny entrance to someone. She can call one of the crown’s advisors, three distinct characters with their own personal agendas; also, some items can be upgraded and used by the visitors, such as a “truth perfume”, an x-ray lens, and a metal detector. All advisors and items are necessary in specific parts of the game, but I found myself looking for advice from one of the characters a lot more than the others and using the perfume and x-ray lenses in most cases. They looked a lot more useful, which granted a feeling of unbalance and easier choice-based dilemmas. To keep things more challenging, though, Lil has a limit of three actions per visitor before she can make a determination. That involves any call, using an item, using a tool, or talking to a stranger.
There’s also a time travel element. Right at the start, Lil is called by a city scientist to be a guinea pig in certain experiments. The Chronometer 3000 — a device that allows you to replay previous interrogations and change your selections — becomes available, but you are warned not to abuse this power. This mechanic allows the decision-making to be less overwhelming, making the player more comfortable with experimentation.
All these elements, when introduced for the first time, can seem like a lot; but the visual presentation is very clear and controls are straightforward. During work sessions, players use the mouse to click around, ask for help, or acquire objects. If you need advice, pick up the telephone to talk to one of the advisors. If you want to use an item, check out a cabinet for the guardsman tools or a little bag for the personal objects collected during a journey. Players can also click on the characters for interrogations and on the gate levers to make the decisions.
During non-work sessions, players click around to move Lil and access elements of the screen to hear her commentaries and observations. In this aspect of the game, I found the movement a bit awkward, as you must click on an object twice, first to get closer and then to interact. If you take too long, though, she gets too close, and it won’t work. That might be the gameplay’s biggest flaw, but not one that would ruin the experience in any way. You’ll soon get the hang of how to interact properly and forget any initial frustrations.
One of Lil' Guardsman's greatest qualities is world-building. The city where Lil lives is not purely medieval but is also full of electronic gadgets such as computers and alarm clocks. In addition, contemporary elements and themes are presented in the way characters talk and in the problems Lil faces, such as bigotry against goblins and Cyclopes in the city. This anachronism doesn’t disconnect us from the experience, though, since the lore is carefully crafted and the boom in modern technology is well-explained. The modern themes and behaviors also, rather than feeling weird, are a refreshing and amusing take on our own world, reminiscent of those in the Monkey Island series (with a character like Stan, for example) or in shows like Futurama.
Characters can make or break a game like Lil' Guardsman and, in this case, the result is a very strong positive. The characters are complex, interesting, funny and very diverse. Lil encounters goblins, slave owners, princes and princesses, psychopaths, thieves, revolutionaries, sports managers, Cyclopes, a mole, and several other kinds of creatures which will make you excited about every new work shift (isn’t that something new!). A special mention should be made in relation to the night shift, when Lil has to face vampires, zombies, witches and other creatures of the night, always having to use deduction and tips to find the best way to deal with them. Horror fans will certainly enjoy this, which is one of the game’s many highlights.
All of this is enhanced by the flawless voice acting, present from beginning to end, the beautiful visual art, and the kind of soundtrack that gets stuck in your head and begs you to listen outside of gaming hours. Also, the tracks for each specific character not only suit them but also serve as great representations of their personalities and worldviews.
The result is a heartwarming, entertaining and very solid adventure with the potential to appeal to a large audience. All the elements described above contribute to an experience where you care about the characters and their future. My recommendation is to choose to play Lil' Guardsman, but ultimately the decision is yours to make! After all, it's all about making "the right choice."
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