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More of a fever dream than a fright-fest
When I think about my early childhood, the memories are a bit hazy. I can picture the broad strokes - cattails in the pond, tall figures walking around and talking, shadows and shapes of houses in the distance. But all the details, like faces or words spoken, are lost.
Little Nightmares is like those memories translated into video game form. At least aesthetically. The actual events and creatures contained within the game are certainly more unnerving than anything I ever experienced first-hand, but the visuals hold a dream-like quality to them that is really engaging as an art style.
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Playdigious, Namco Bandai Games America Inc. Developer: Tarsier Studios Platform: Played on PC Availability: April 28, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. May 18, 2018 for Nintendo Switch. |
From the very first moments of play it is clear there is something more to the game than meets the eye. The camera sways and shifts as you wander through the dark. Giant figures stalk the halls, reaching around corners and under furniture with long, spindly arms. Grotesque people with squished faces look for every opportunity to devour you. So much of the game is dripping with a sinister visual flare, it's impossible not to think something deeper is happening here.
Yet, the game doesn't give you any direction in the storytelling department. There are no cutscenes or text boxes, no dialogue or notes to find. Everything is communicated through environmental design and music.
That music does a lot of the emotional lifting, too. While it mostly fades into the background, it is a tense and disconcerting score that shows up in all the right moments - keeping you on your toes when there's an enemy nearby, or inducing paranoia through clever sound design in more quiet moments.
Hide and Seek is the name of the game.
Unfortunately, that wordless, oblique story-telling doesn't really give you much to work with on a surface level. You don't learn much of anything about any of the characters’ (including Six, the protagonist) motivations or ideals, and you'll never hear a thing about how they're all related. While not necessarily a negative, that hyper-focus on visual style over all else means that people not looking to do a deep-dive on the environments might not get much out of the experience.
At this point I'm sure you've noticed we haven't discussed the way the game plays at all. Truthfully, I find the actual action to be the most underwhelming aspect of Little Nightmares. At its core, this is a puzzle platformer with a heavy focus on stealth. I'm using the word “puzzle” a bit loosely here, as the most difficult decisions you’ll have to make are whether you sprint past an enemy or wait them out under a table.
There is no combat in this game - you're just a child running for your life. You'll dash, crawl, swing, climb, and jump to safety as you're chased across the few short levels in the game. There's not much mechanical depth to the action - you have a grab button for picking up items and climbing/swinging, a jump button that doubles as a throw button when holding an item, a crouch button to walk silently or slide while running, and a lighter to illuminate the darkness.
That mechanical simplicity works in the game's favor, as it never feels like you're searching for the right move. There's a clarity of purpose when you walk into a new room - hard to mess up when you have so few options available.
Little Nightmares has great ambience, combining a unique visual flare with a moody soundscape.
Disappointingly, that lack of mechanical depth goes hand-in-hand with mostly uninspired level design. Each room usually has a single exit, and it's just a matter of finding the right object to climb up, or finding a key for the door. There are a few exceptions to this formula, but they're rare. The chase sequences are great fun (maybe the most interesting part of playing the game), but suffer this same problem. There's really no creativity in the way you progress or navigate the world.
Luckily, Little Nightmares is an incredibly short game, with my run clocking in at just over three hours. The brevity of the experience keeps the game fresh, even if it is mechanically repetitive. There's always something new and interesting to look at or figure out in the brief runtime.
Despite these hiccups, Little Nightmares was still a positive encounter. It is extremely expressive in its visual language and it kept me on the hook for the whole ride. The music and art direction create a very uneasy atmosphere, which I found more interesting than scary, but your mileage may vary. In the end, Little Nightmares feels just a bit unfocused and comes away seeming more like a fleeting daydream than the nightmares it sought to emulate.
Verdict Little Nightmares is a game begging to be examined more closely, but even if you do, I'm not sure you'll ever get a concrete answer. Despite being visually engaging, nothing I was shown motivated me to dig deeper - leaving the experience feeling a bit underwhelming. With such a short runtime, Little Nightmares stays engaging the entire playthrough, but it never quite reaches the heights I had hoped for. The game has a captivating atmosphere (both aesthetically and musically), but it ultimately left me feeling more ambivalent than excited.  |
Image Credits: Taylor Rioux
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