The original Little Nightmares was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews in 2017. Its combination of grotesque and terrifying visuals, a mysterious narrative, and plenty of puzzle platforming caused a stir.
Now developer Tarsier Studios is bringing us back to that spooky little world with Little Nightmares 2, a game that builds on the style and successes of the original while adding new ideas and continuing the story.
Little Nightmares 2 Review: Beautiful Nightmare Fuel
Little Nightmares 2 can best be described as an atmospheric puzzle platformer. You step into the role of a child named Mono, who wakes up in a mysterious world full of dangers. As you explore your surroundings, very little of the story is directly explained. You're not going to find audio logs teasing a big bad or a cackling bad guy explaining their master plan.
Instead, Little Nightmares 2 relies on its clever world-building to hint at what happened in the terrifying places you explore. The world is suffering. The environments are destroyed and dilapidated, filled with abandoned items from before the calamity that befell this world.
Clothes piled up in trash cans, wavering wits, and a mysterious TV signal are just a few of the many sights you'll notice that indicate exactly how things have gone wrong.
As you pull the levers, avoid the traps, and figure out how to get through to the next area, you'll want to explore every little side area to make sure you don't miss a thing.
For the most part, the enemies in Little Nightmares 2 tower over you, and if they catch you, it's game over. In the first game, you can dodge and sneak past beings like the bosses and the incredibly armed janitor. In Little Nightmares 2 there are different types of confrontations; sometimes you'll even have to fight the fight directly against your enemies.
The enemies you encounter here are equally gruesome and full of surprises. There were several times when trying to survive against these various enemies caused me to jump out of my seat, as they tend to burst through doors or suddenly turn around when you take a break.
While the levels aren't designed to look like him, most of your attempts to survive against these insta-kill enemies are essentially timing puzzles. You'll need to hide under a desk here, cause a distraction there, and sprint into a tight grid just as they reach out to grab you.
This means that Little Nightmares 2 has a lot of trial and error; Due to the nature of some puzzles in the game, death will sometimes strike you out of nowhere. Checkpoints are usually very close together, so it's usually not too frustrating.
Usually.
Sometimes it takes a few more “mistakes” than I would like to find the perfect combination of events to get me to the next scene. In this way, Little Nightmares 2 is a game that sometimes desperately calls for a break. You can easily find yourself banging your head against the wall, restarting a section a dozen times, and nothing happens. This is before giving up in frustration.
This is most evident in the combat sections of the game. There are a few minor enemies this time around, and you can grab items littered around the environment to hit them. This, however, is easier said than done.
Usually the weapons you find are as big as your character. Swinging them takes a long time, and it's incredibly difficult to judge how far you'll go and how fast your enemies are moving. There are several sections that made me swear because I couldn't find the right time to hit the various enemies charging at me.
But more often than not, when I crashed the game and came back with a clear mind, I walked through the section I was stuck on for the first two tries. This "insensitivity" is the only aspect of Little Nightmares 2 I can fault, and even that has an old-school charm to it. You will die many times here; it's just par for the course.
Little Nightmares 2 Review – The Bottom Line
Benefits
- Extremely impressive atmosphere
- Well-designed environments
- Gives player credit, not full of prompts and tutorial sections
- Fascinating history to discover
The inconvenients
- Some sections are too frustrating
- Combat mechanics aren't impressive
Little Nightmares 2 is much more substantial than the first game, offering more enemies and environments to explore. It also continues the story threads of the first game; even if you play as a new character, you will meet an old friend very early on who will follow you for much of the journey.
There's also a new central antagonist to deal with, and you'll see several hints of this villainous enemy (and some of what they've done to cause so much destruction in the world) as you progress through the different areas of Little Nightmares 2.
Finally, Little Nightmares 2 feels good to play. The way everything plays out with hidden loading screens and a vast interconnected environment, the way the huge enemies seem to go about their daily routines until they spot you, sending them into a terrifying rage – this game begs you to continue exploring its twisted world and rarely ceases to impress.
In short, Little Nightmares 2 is a must-have if you're a fan of the first game or similar platformers like Limbo or Inside. It's spooky and beautiful, and it flexes the puzzle-solving areas of your brain. It's not perfect, but it's one of the best of its kind.
[Note: Bandai Namco provided the copy of Little Nightmares 2 used for this review.]
