Despite its richly detailed environment, great soundtrack, and super fun gameplay, the game's story and characters still left me a little underwhelmed. It's still pretty good, but compared to other aspects of the game which are absolutely fantastic, its issues are pretty glaring. At its core the story is just another friend-become-foe tale with frustrating characters that never seemed to learn their mistakes, leading to predictable outcomes. Along with this the story missions become repetitive because there's only so many variations of gunfights imaginable before it becomes tired really quickly. The gameplay remains entertaining despite its repetitiveness however so it didn't bother me too much. There's also a chapter in the main story that felt a bit jarring compared to the rest but at the same time features one of my favourite gameplay sections so it's not really an issue. Despite all of this, the story near the end did add a surprising level of depth to the main character which ended with an emotional climax. And even though the epilogue felt a bit out of place (and its presence felt like it was just for pure fanservice), I was so invested in the story and characters that I was still engaged throughout, not to mention it has a satisfying conclusion.

Compared to the second game, this one has a tighter narrative, albeit a slow start, which picked up considerably when the main character reached Mexico. The protagonist and story are less compelling however, though his sarcasm and dry humor kept the dialogue fresh. The graphics are serviceable for a 2010 game, while the gameplay remains more or less the same with the second one. The language and sexual content are more explicit however, which makes it interesting that the sequel seemed to sanitize these aspects, though the violence remains just as bloody. I also love the additions of Wilhelm scream, and while the ending is less emotional, it remains just as poignant and even more shocking than the sequel. The conclusion really fits with the dark and gritty universe they created and I really appreciate that the developers didn't skimp out on it.

I'm roughly 40% into the game and I just gave up. The abandoned buildings set an effective creepy atmosphere and an encounter early on with the ghost girl was suspenseful but the rest of the game just kind of deflates from the strong beginning. None of the subsequent monsters are remotely close to being as scary as the ghost girl, hardly anything was known about the main characters, and the lack of any compelling backstory whatsoever makes it hard to trudge through the game which quickly devolved into a series of frustrating cat-and-mouse stealth with no satisfying payoff. It's competently made, I just have no interest in finishing it.

As someone who thought the first game was just fine, I'm very pleased to say that Little Nightmares 2 is a vast improvement. The graphics are much more polished, the environment is more varied, the story is more ambitious, there are more intense chase sequences with creepier enemies, and the addition of a secondary companion character added more variety to the gameplay which is still very similar to its predecessor. The gameplay still relied heavily on trial-and-error which might be frustrating, but the improved checkpoint system and controls more than makes up for it. While its game mechanics are sometimes too reminiscent of Playdead's INSIDE, this game offered enough new material to deliver an entirely unique experience. I do wish that the story is less cryptic, but at the same time its open-ended nature allowed for more interpretations to be made.