Lil' Guardsman Review - The devs had fun with this one
by GamertechAUpublished on
A fun and unique indie take on the border control genre
Lil' Guardsman was a great playthrough and it's plainly obvious the devs had fun making it. I sure had fun playing it.
It expands the border control genre with an engaging story, puzzle mechanics and even a catchy yet disturbing musical number 🤣
The story is full of well thought-out references to other popular games, movies and real world events, plus lots of smoothly delivered 4th wall breaks. The writing is excellent and deserves to be experienced.
Plot
In a mixed-technology fantasy world with both goblins and televisions, you play Lillith or Lil, the 12 year old daughter of an underpaid gate guard charged with protecting the Sprawl. A multi-species castle town that encourages peace between all races. However, not all is as it seems (is it ever?).
Your dad needs to take the day off from work to get his gambling on, and recruits you to fill in for him at the gatehouse. Decide who gets through the gate, and change the fate of everyone in the kingdom all the while powerful people attempt to control you for their personal gain.
Gameplay
Your decisions directly affect the future of the Sprawl, both good and bad choices, as well as partial "you made the right choice, but missed something important" outcomes. The game tells you when choices affect something, though not how, and some effects may not be discovered for a while.
Early on, you unlock the Chronometer3000. A magical device that lets you restart your shift completely, or rewind back to when a specific person arrives at the gate, though the latter only has a limited number of uses per shift. If you don't get a suitable result from your choices, you can rewind and give it another go. You aren't required to use it at all, but it's nice to have and features prominently throughout the story, so it's not just a gimmick.
Making careful use of your tools, you need to question people attempting to get through to find their true intentions. Some are good and can be let through easily, some are planning harm and must be turned away or sent to the dungeons, others are timewasters at the time, but may become relevant later and how you treat them matters.
Most applicants come with a possible 4 star rating. The more completely you identify their purpose and anything they may be hiding, the higher your star rating and the better the eventual outcome for the city.
You get three action points with each visitor. You need to pick from a range of actions such as simply talking to them, to using the right tools or phoning an advisor. Once you use all your actions, you have to make your decision as to their fate. Do pay attention to the dialogue. Not only is it brilliant, but frequently gives faint hints as to how to handle them. As does the daily Royal Writ, which contains news and instructions from advisors that are important to keep in mind.
In addition to your own personal time machine, you have a range of other tools at your disposal. These range from a bullwhip and decoder rings to x-ray machines and truth spray. Powerful tools, however they're limited on the number of times they can be used per shift, initially only once a day each. They also consume power crystals that you need to carefully ration and assign to your tools, as they're pretty limited.
You can purchase additional crystals from a store that opens (if you don't prevent it) as well as purchase additional maximum daily uses of each tool. These purchases of course cost gold, which is also pretty sparse. Many of your choices directly impact your income, earning performance bonuses, gambling on the local Goblinball, confiscating and selling belongings or accepting bribes.
Tech
Honestly, not much to say here which is a good thing. Lil' Guardsman ran perfectly out of the box with zero performance/resource usage or stability issues.
The graphics matched the vibe perfectly, as did the audio. There was one line that was missing a voice, maybe missed or added in later to fill a gap. Was short and doesn't impact the game in any way.
The voice actors themselves did a great job and sold the atmosphere well. Great casting and direction.
Compatibility-wise. the game has earned a Platinum ProtonDB rating and is Steam Deck Verified, ensuring it runs well for all.
Recommendation
It was a joy to experience Lil' Guardsman and I give it my full recommendation to lovers of point n click adventures and the border control genre.
It's just a plain ol' fun time and a great indie game. One playthrough without 100%'ing took 11.7 hours on stream.