Played on PC

Developed by Tarsier Studios

Released 28th April 2017

While there is a third game on the way, Tarsier Studios has nothing to do with it, and I didn't really understand the disinterest in the project because of it until now. 'Little Nightmares' - originally named 'Hunger' - was developed by the Swedish team to explore the "wild extremes of childhood" and with its combination of horror, stealth and puzzle-platforming, Bandai Namco would highlight this game and its series as a "headline IP", going as far as making a third game without the original team. Embracer Group acquired Tarsier Studios, losing the rights to the IP which had launched the team out of a limbo where they'd be making 'LittleBigPlanet' DLC for Sony. While it's not an immensely popular indie game, its use of ambience and unsettling visuals firmly plant it as a must-play for anyone willing to spare 3 hours of their time.

Story

While there may not be any cutscenes or dialogue that flat-out explain what's going on, the design of the characters, environments, and animations that appear at the forefront and in the background provide enough context to make the story feel like it is progressing. This environmental storytelling is so nuanced that the crux of the narrative is being told clearly, but it still has enough mystery and unanswered questions that make you want to seek more of it. The tale follows the girl in the raincoat as she finds her way through this iron vessel that deals in shady ways of preparing food for the upper class to gorge themselves on. While the game is nearing 10 years of age, I don't want to spoil too much about the story as its surprisingly well-paced events add so much depth and severity to the ship's grotesque inner workings that had me enamoured as I pieced everything together myself. The only issue I had with this was the inclusion of the masked woman, as her brief appearance towards the end wasn't built up enough to be worthwhile when confronting her, resulting in feeling lacklustre. Yet, this game's potent motifs and almost obsessive thematic imprint with its concept of hunger were done incredibly well.

Gameplay

Being a puzzle platformer, where it lacks a variance of puzzles and depth in platforming, it makes up for it with how elegantly the two are combined. 'Little Nightmares' is one of those Playdead-esque games where you play as a semi-agile and fragile character that needs to push/pull objects around to progress before being detected in an insta-kill environment. In other words, if you've played 'LIMBO' or 'Inside', you've already experienced what this game offers. However, I would still recommend you play this. Besides the incredible atmosphere (more on that later), these puzzle platformer moments are finely tuned to bring out the best of its limited variety. The puzzles never evolve past having to drag something you can jump onto or throwing an item to activate a button away from reach. However, their structure around the levels bordered this simple yet clever ideology where the amazing use of lighting, scene placement and colouring would be used to highlight the next point of action for the player without necessarily spoiling the solution. The only thing they could've done better is implement the lighter as part of the puzzles, rather than just to light up occasionally dark sections of a level.

As for the "platforming", there isn't much beyond climbing ladder-styled segments in the level or holding onto a moving platform, and while it being rudimentary doesn't enhance the experience in any shape or form, it doesn't ruin it either. In fact, it's needed to prevent any disconnection between the story and gameplay - after all, you're playing as a fleeing, hungry child in a world scaled up and filled with beings that hunt you constantly.

The other core element of the gameplay loop is stealth. This stealth is referred to as "hide and seek" by the developers as they thought that the term "stealth" gave the idea that the player character had power in the first place. This "hide and seek" was well done for the most part, as enemies would get appropriately distracted by sounds and would lose track of you if you ran out of their field of vision. This feels like a no-brainer to have, but in these games, detection often means instant loss, so it's nice that the player has an accurate chance at survival by escaping their line of sight. However, the part that works the least about these "hide and seek" sections is that initiating the scenarios where one of the monsters would look for you wouldn't always feel as clear, making it a trial and error of getting spotted immediately before you understand how to progress.

Between all of these "hide and seek" moments and the puzzles would be the classic instance of chase sequences - after all, this is a horror game as well. While the chase sequences are used quite a bit, they never overstay their welcome due to the game's short length and its ability to build these thrill rides up. Blended with the already superb visual and audible design, the tension from these is consistent throughout. The last part I got to talk about is the control scheme. I played using an Xbox controller, and the buttons all felt haphazardly assigned, with X being run, the left trigger as crouch and the right trigger as grab. I got used to it, but even in the game's final breath, these controls felt odd.

Bossfight

By technicality, there is a final boss encounter. However, its staging and positioning within the gameplay loop and story didn't present enough of a "boss fight" circumstance, making it no different from the other encounters with the other monsters in the game. It doesn't feel right to critique or berate this 20-30-second moment that is no different from how you engage with the rest of the game, so, I'll be refraining from factoring this into the final score.

Characters

There isn't any showcase of characters here. There are no speaking parts or animated body language that could suggest anything otherwise, with the cast of the protagonist and monsters that chase them acting as pawns for the environmental storytelling told throughout. As such, I won't factor this into the final score either.

Atmosphere

I've mentioned it a couple of times throughout this review, but the atmosphere here is fantastic. Firstly, the soundtrack is so haunting and eerie while remaining intoxicating. It truly captures that sense of horror that you could find within a child's innocence. The piano in some of these tracks is elegant and soft, but coupled with the daunting ambience, the aggressive clanking or the monstrous trumpets, the energy of each situation gets flipped onto its head to reflect the terror of what's occurring.

The visuals are no different in this regard. The monsters like the chefs are so foul and unpleasant to look at, but in every bit successful in the feeling they're supposed to evoke. I've said this earlier, but the lighting, scene placement and colouring of the world are impressive, with them functioning as environmental storytelling, a gameplay guideline but also as sights to behold, with the colour yellow being quite prominent in breaking through these murky mixings of greys and browns. There's a lot here to unpack, both visually and audibly, and in turn, it makes for an irresistible atmosphere that makes the rest of the game so compelling.

Story - 7.5/10

Gameplay - 6/10

Atmosphere - 9/10