La Croix Pan

Year - 2007
Length - Short
Engine - AGS
Suitability Factors - Strong Violence

Ok, so it's back to AGS today with something refreshingly different from The JBurger.

Story

The story told in La Croix Pan is a simple one. As a lone American sniper in World War II, you enter a small deserted town which you must defend until reinforcements arrive.



Atmosphere

The game does a really good job here. The overall impression the game gives is one of dreariness and loneliness. To say this is something I really liked about the game may seem a little strange and probably needs an explanation. I guess my point is that it's refreshing to see the game doesn't try to glorify war in any way, nor does it try to glorify the actions of the main character. By not depicting the main character as a hero, the developer is able to show the horror of war, not through the eyes of civilian suffering, but instead through the apparent emotionless and almost routine way the protagonist conducts his horrific task of killing enemy soldiers.

I know I know, it's only a game - no need for me to get so analytical.

Moving on, I must admit that as I stared out at the town I was defending, the game actually made me await the possible arrival of enemy soldiers with quite a degree of trepidation. I was impressed with the way the game managed to do this especially given the short amount of game-time.

The backgrounds are impressive despite the intentional dreary nature of them. There's no bright colours on offer and rightly so - the game does just fine without them.

Lastly, the soundtrack is excellent. Some of the music is borrowed whilst some is the work of Nick Dangerous and Steel Drummer. Am not sure who is responsible for what but it all worked very well. In particular I liked the end game music and felt this fitted in perfectly with the tone of the game.



Gameplay

There are very few puzzles included, however the few that you will be required to solve have logical real-world solutions. You do have an inventory although only one object is ever added to the Springfield Sniper Rifle you carry throughout the game. This was quite a nice change from the 'pick-up everything' type approach.

The main part of the gameplay however may be a turn-off for some adventure gamers. The player is required to shoot approaching enemy soldiers in an arcade type sequence. This isn't too hard though and despite being completely rubbish at it I did manage to proceed without any real hassle.

The game is short but the fact that you can die does prolong things. A well implemented aspect of the game is the autosave feature which comes into effect before the more dangerous parts of the game.



Summary

La Croix Pan provides a different experience to most adventure games. The choice of subject matter alone makes it unique in the adventure genre, the way it deals with the issue increases this uniqueness. For anyone that wants a change from the more common comedy, sci-fi, or horror adventure game stylings, I would definitely recommend La Croix Pan.

Pros
- Different
- Great atmosphere
- Nice graphical style
- Great soundtrack

Cons
- Few puzzles
- Arcade sequence might put off some players
- Short

Download for free;

La Croix Pan