harshal chheda game analysis lba

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SIG Advanced Harshal Chheda

Game Analysis | Little Big Adventure

GAME ANALYSIS | Little Big Adventure

SPECIFICATIONS

Platform PC

Year of Release 1994

Genre Adventure

Video SVGA

Developer Adeline

Publisher Electronic Arts

OVERVIEW

3D Adventure game played in isometric view Set in a large, intricate unique universe that blends sci-fi and fantasy Story-driven gameplay with pre-rendered cinematics and abundant player-NPC interactions 4 different action modes: Normal, Aggressive, Athletic and Discreet Keyboard-only controls 12 levels / 30 hours gameplay approx CD music and recorded dialogues

THE UNIVERSE AND STORY

The protagonist, Twinsen, is a young male Quetch living

in a bizarre world called Twinsun, a world that is balanced

between two suns. The races inhabiting this planet are

Quetches (humanoids), Rabbibunnies (rabbit-like

creatures), Grobos (elephant-like creatures), and

Spheroids (sphere shaped creatures).

The people are ruled over by an evil dictator called Dr

Funfrock and live highly regulated and monitored lives.

There are a lot of laws like the outlawing of all discussions

on the Legend ofSendell, the planets goddess.

Twinsen begins to have dreams of this legend and he sees the destruction of Twinsun. The authorities

find out and imprison him. He must now escape the prison to rescue his wife, solve the Legend of

Sendell and defeat Dr Funfrock.


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GAMEPLAY

Movement is via the cursor keys, with spacebar for actions Actions depend on the mode the player is in Modes

o Normal: The player walks around normallyand can interact with NPCs, use items and

search objects using the action button

o Athletic: The player runs and can jump withthe action button in this mode but takes

damage if he collides with any object

o Aggressive: The player can punch and kickn this mode by pressing the action button

o Discreet: The player sneaks about and canhide using the action button

For most of the game, the focus is on avoiding enemies and talking to different NPCs It is semi free-roaming. I.e. There are waypoints within which the player can go where he

chooses to

The game also has events and puzzles where the player has to try and find a way to solveproblems using NPC interactions, actions or certain scripted events

Normally, players cant fight and kill enemies but there are also fightable NPCs who you kill byfacing their way and spamming the action button in aggressive mode

Most NPCs are active and have their own personalities, paths and dialogues, leading to richinteractivity

There is an inventory system to store powerups, health boosts and important objectsPROS

High production values for the time with a unique, detailed universe, 3D SVGA graphics,cutscenes, recorded dialogues, CD music, varied NPCs with different AI

Interesting universe with quirky characters and creatures Story that blends sci-fi and fantasy nicely High attention to detail regarding graphics, animation,

dialogues, sounds and music

Semi free-roaming world Interesting blends of different gameplay depending on

mode: Normal - adventure, Athletic platform, Aggressive

action, Discreet stealth


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CONS

The ergonomics verge on unplayable:o Normal walking is too slow and athletic mode running can damage you if you bump into

things which happens all the time because of the cramped environment

o Isometric view means that pressing up will make the player move diagonally this canbe especially annoying when trying to face a certain direction to fight, run away, jump

onto a moving platform, etc

o Switching modes is not fluid and obstructs gameplay a loto NPC dialogues cant be skipped or made fastero The bounding boxes of pickups are too small and you have to literally stand on top of

them to pick them up

The fighting system is extremely poor andinvolves standing facing the NPC and

spamming the action button no movement,

no blocking, no combos nothing

The save system is strange, as it savesautomatically after completing each scene with

no way to go back or have any control over

saving

Too many instant-death situations means theplayer has to do whole scenes all over again

very very frustrating

Slow general pace added to which dialogues and cutscenes cant be skipped even whenplaying the same scene again after dying

CONCLUSIONS

Decent game for its time but the gameplay is horribly outdated now The focus during development seems to have been on immersion rather than gameplay That does lead to high production values Interesting mix of different styles of gameplay Funky universe and characters with a Big Brother-type plot that is accessible to most people Horrible ergonomics

The gameplay could be so much more fluid like the LucasArts Star Wars desktop games Boring and cumbersome overall in my personal opinion

harshal chheda game analysis lba

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