Little Nightmares is a sidescrooling horror game in the vein of Limbo or Inside (and by in the vein I do mean it is basically the exact same style of game). You play as "Six" though she is never named in the game, a dwarf/gnome girl who lives on a ship filled with monsters trying to eat her! You follow her adventures through the Leviathan solving puzzles, avoiding enemies, and trying to escape. You are helped along the way by a few friendly gnomes and other odd creatures that make their residence on the ship.. while also trying to not be eaten.
The game is only a few hours long, I was able to beat it on my second playthrough here in a neat 3 hours. The ship is divided into a few sections with a strong theme + one monster type to evade as you solve simple puzzles and platforming. To start with you are in the bowels of the ship and avoiding a long-armed blind caretaker, you make your way to some kitchens where you avoid chefs, a main dining area with rotund guests, and finally to the lady of the ship's quarters and do battle with her. It feels a touch formulaic with each section despite the short running time but each section doesn't outstay its welcome either. The enemies are all disgusting and horrifying in their own ways that is a treat to ogle them as a new one is introduced.. the more you study them the more you realize they're not just disfigured - they seem to be wearing the skin of some other creatures... perhaps humans once existed in this world and they are now extinct? Also what relation do these gnomes have to the rotund monsters - are they human beings transformed? Or are these fomorian-style things invaders in our world? There's an awful lot to chew on story wise which is a lot of fun to try and speculate as you make your way through the areas.
If we're going to talk about anything though, it is the SPECTACULAR ending. As you make your way through this world Six is often struck by severe hunger pangs where you have to make your way to some food. No gameplay mechanic here, purely story driven. You start off just eating chunks of meat however you later feed on a rat... you feel a bit bad but it was caught in a trap anyway and was likely dead. You had to survive right?? Well, near the end as you are approaching the end of the game and the lady's room a final pang strikes - and this time you find a small gnomish alliy offering you a hunk of meat. Sweet, right? WRONG! Six is so overcome by her hunger that she devours the creature attempting to help you instead. Delightfully creepy and messed up. You continue forward to do battle with the final boss - a geisha type who seems the closest to human we've seen outside a strange TV show. She has shattered all of the mirrors in her quarters but you find one tucked away and use that to battle her. After some back and forth she is defeated - then you consume her as well!! Man, we're getting some steaks here right? NO IT GETS EVEN BETTER - Six slowly walks her way to the exit and demonstrates some extreme new psychic powers and easily slaughters her way through a dozen guest fomorians to the exit. and ascends into sunlight, off the ship. After a whole game of crawling through ducts and running from these beasts for your life, the sudden swerve in fortunes here is tremendously satisfying and watching Six's descent into a Little Monster is suitably epic.
While Little Nightmares isn't quite the Tour-De-Force of Inside it certainly has excellent pacing and plenty of scares. I would call it more creepy than horrifying but there's enough here to unsettle even a die-hard horror fan. Some puzzles are a bit obtuse and the "boss" encounters are too trial-and-error for my tastes they never get SO frustrating that it puts a damper on the experience. The mood and ambience of the Leviathan ship carry the game from its mysterious beginning to its cathartic and satisfying end and it was a pleasure to get to experience it again.
The game is only a few hours long, I was able to beat it on my second playthrough here in a neat 3 hours. The ship is divided into a few sections with a strong theme + one monster type to evade as you solve simple puzzles and platforming. To start with you are in the bowels of the ship and avoiding a long-armed blind caretaker, you make your way to some kitchens where you avoid chefs, a main dining area with rotund guests, and finally to the lady of the ship's quarters and do battle with her. It feels a touch formulaic with each section despite the short running time but each section doesn't outstay its welcome either. The enemies are all disgusting and horrifying in their own ways that is a treat to ogle them as a new one is introduced.. the more you study them the more you realize they're not just disfigured - they seem to be wearing the skin of some other creatures... perhaps humans once existed in this world and they are now extinct? Also what relation do these gnomes have to the rotund monsters - are they human beings transformed? Or are these fomorian-style things invaders in our world? There's an awful lot to chew on story wise which is a lot of fun to try and speculate as you make your way through the areas.
If we're going to talk about anything though, it is the SPECTACULAR ending. As you make your way through this world Six is often struck by severe hunger pangs where you have to make your way to some food. No gameplay mechanic here, purely story driven. You start off just eating chunks of meat however you later feed on a rat... you feel a bit bad but it was caught in a trap anyway and was likely dead. You had to survive right?? Well, near the end as you are approaching the end of the game and the lady's room a final pang strikes - and this time you find a small gnomish alliy offering you a hunk of meat. Sweet, right? WRONG! Six is so overcome by her hunger that she devours the creature attempting to help you instead. Delightfully creepy and messed up. You continue forward to do battle with the final boss - a geisha type who seems the closest to human we've seen outside a strange TV show. She has shattered all of the mirrors in her quarters but you find one tucked away and use that to battle her. After some back and forth she is defeated - then you consume her as well!! Man, we're getting some steaks here right? NO IT GETS EVEN BETTER - Six slowly walks her way to the exit and demonstrates some extreme new psychic powers and easily slaughters her way through a dozen guest fomorians to the exit. and ascends into sunlight, off the ship. After a whole game of crawling through ducts and running from these beasts for your life, the sudden swerve in fortunes here is tremendously satisfying and watching Six's descent into a Little Monster is suitably epic.
While Little Nightmares isn't quite the Tour-De-Force of Inside it certainly has excellent pacing and plenty of scares. I would call it more creepy than horrifying but there's enough here to unsettle even a die-hard horror fan. Some puzzles are a bit obtuse and the "boss" encounters are too trial-and-error for my tastes they never get SO frustrating that it puts a damper on the experience. The mood and ambience of the Leviathan ship carry the game from its mysterious beginning to its cathartic and satisfying end and it was a pleasure to get to experience it again.