The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology review

The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout was originally released in an episodic format a few years ago, and presents one of the few existing options to visit the world of Brian Jacques’ Redwall universe in video game form. Now released altogether as The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology, the full game gives fans the opportunity to play the entire adventure in one go.

I was never a huge fan of the books as a child, though I have read several, and always appreciated that each told a new story with new characters and didn’t necessarily require prior knowledge to enjoy. The Scout Anthology follows suit here. It follows Liam and Sophia, the two newest recruits to the Lilygrove Scout Corps. You choose which one to play as with the other providing support and advice throughout, as you make your way through the charming world of Redwall.

After their inauguration into the group, Liam and Sophia’s celebrations are cut short by the arrival of invading rat pirates who must be sent packing by the plucky duo. There isn’t a great deal to the story or writing, considering the source material, and the whole adventure won’t run much past 6 hours across all three episodes. But this is certainly a game aimed at younger players or big fans of the books, and as such it’s perfectly serviceable.

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Graphically it’s not particularly strong, but it’s not offensive either. It lacks a sense of real visual personality though, with some fairly uninteresting environments to navigate. That said, the character models – Liam and Sophia in particular – are well-drawn, and do a good job of evoking Brian Jacques’ original illustrations, which is a lovely touch. There are a few technical issues here and there, though, such as characters clipping through the scenery, and inconsistent textures, but they’re minor problems that don’t really affect the flow of the game.

The bulk of gameplay involves sneaking around enemies either using stealth or distraction. There’s no combat to speak of, and most areas are laid out like short stealth puzzles that require patience and memory to get through. Perhaps the most interesting mechanic is the ability to follow scents. As Liam and Sophia are cute little mice (the Redwall series is about intelligent rodents, by the way), they can follow their noses to sniff out things to follow and identify where enemies might be lurking.

Enemies can also sniff you out, though, which can lead to some frustrating moments where it’s difficult to work out how to avoid that. The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology isn’t a hard game, per se, but it presents a decent level of challenge for younger gamers which is only exacerbated by a bare bones UI and inconsistent enemy AI. You have a slingshot to attract attention or distract enemy rats, but quite often it fails to work for no given reason.

I appreciate that much of the lore comes from dialogue and story beats rather than just having stuff to read all over the place. For example, you’ll often be called on to help out the survivors of the rat attack with small tasks that lead to a little exposition in the dialogue. These tasks are rarely laborious, and break up the otherwise straightforward sneaky-squeaky gameplay.

The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology feels like what it is: an adventure game made for kids. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but older gamers or non-fans will likely be left looking for either greater challenge or more context, respectively. It’s a pleasant enough experience though, and won’t out-stay its welcome; just don’t go in expecting an epic adventure and you won’t be disappointed.