What do you get when you cross a silent-type protagonist, a treacherous villain, a beautiful love interest, and a whole lot of kicking butts? No, it's not the latest Hollywood blockbuster, it's HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN: The Ugly Prince Duckling.

Although similar in name to the popular fairy tale, The Ugly Prince Duckling is an original, fictionalised account of the early life of the famous Danish poet and storyteller himself, Hans Christian Andersen. The real Andersen was responsible for a number of well-known and enduring fairy tales, including The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Princess and the Pea.

HCA opens with Hans Christian himself sitting in front of a puppet-theatre, narrating his life story as it's played out by "actors" on the stage, while his sidekick the Ugly Duckling cracks wise at his side. As the story begins, we see a beautiful princess leaving her 19th century castle home in Copenhagen on her 15th birthday to find love and excitement, and the king dispatching his trusted adviser, Councillor Dunkeldorff, to track his daughter down. Shortly afterwards we see a young Hans, dressed in peasant garb, departing for the big city. It is now that we gain control of Andersen, and our adventures begin.

So what do these adventures entail? Well, this teenaged Hans has some vague aspirations to become famous in the theatre, but after meeting the aforementioned Princess early in the game, it becomes apparent that an evil is about to befall the land in the form of hordes of trolls, the leader of whom is after the Princess' hand in marriage. From this point onwards, it seems Hans' destiny is to save the Princess from the trolls, return her to safety (conveniently in another quarter of the city that someone of Hans' lowly position can't access), then attempt to better himself enough to enter said quarter. Doing so generally consists of Hans wandering from place to place, talking to people and performing odd jobs, until something happens to progress the storyline slightly; rinse, repeat. This basic pattern is repeated a number of times until the final showdown of the game. The game is divided into five acts, with each act being set in a different district of Copenhagen, with Hans having a higher social status in each.

The attempts to better himself is one of the more interesting, yet also most disappointing features of the game. Billed as 'Social Gameplay' by the developers, Hans' position in life's hierarchy is supposed to determine how people react to him, and what places he can travel to. This is partly true, but you never return to previous quarters once attaining a higher status, and aside from this linear progression from region to region, not too much changes for Hans. In fact, some of the characters wandering the streets in your current district were actually in the previous one too, and their reactions don't really change much, other than to say "ooh, lah-di-dah, look at Mr Rich Man", or words to that effect. You're either accepted by people from the start of the game in the poor quarter, or barely tolerated by the posh folk in the later sections. If they didn't like you to start off with, no amount of money is going to change their minds.

Aside from the small changes in response to Hans' class, characters don't have much of interest to say. Passers-by will repeat the same few lines of gossip over and over, with small changes depending on what's happening in the game. Important NPCs even refuse to talk to you any further once you've given them what they want, or taken what they have to offer. Surprisingly, Hans himself never speaks during the course of the game. People react as though he has addressed them with questions or comments, but no dialogue ever visibly or verbally comes from him. Being silent makes him a bit of a doormat (the Princess after whom he pines is not the nicest of girls), so Hans is never much of a player character to emphasise with. The NPCs aren't much better. Having nothing to say other than a bit of gossip, and quite often having no names, makes for a pretty flat set of characters overall. Well, aside from the merchant who sells "cakes, shoulder-pieces and carrots" — she seems pretty interesting.

Making the story more appealing are a number of elements and characters from (or at least parallel to those from) Andersen's famous fairy tales. A principal part of the story is the Tinderbox, taken from the story of the same name, and other themes from that story are also used. Besides the Ugly Duckling during the narrative cutscenes, early on Hans meets the "Little Match Girl" and partakes of her wares. As the game progresses, many more of Andersen's stories are similarly referenced, either explicitly or subtly. A list of Andersen's fairy tales, with images from the game used to highlight where similarities occur, is available on the official HCA website. Personally, I came to this game not knowing much about Andersen's tales, so I didn't recognise many of the game's corresponding elements. Such familiarity certainly isn't necessary to enjoy the game as a standalone story. However, those better acquainted with Andersen's works should have fun trying to spot all the references.