Little Nightmares 2 it's a puzzle platform horror developed by Tarsier Studios, the same studio behind the original Little Nightmares. The players control Mono, a child forced to explore an almost "mammoth" world populated by strange monsters and chock full of dark secrets. Most of the game is set in one dark and winding city, where it seems to rain incessantly and it is always night. The population of the city is controlled by one mysterious television broadcast which makes everyone almost completely passive, but they are i grotesque monsters to represent the greatest threat to Mono and his desperate escape attempt.
Haunted buildings within the city make up most of Little Nightmares 2 levels. One of them features a school full of deadly students / puppets who will chase us on sight and an unbalanced teacher able (in Mister Fantastic style) to stretch his neck out of all proportion. Another section of the game is set in an abandoned hospital where patients are nothing more than mannequins scattered throughout the building on stretchers, wheelchairs or, at times, simply crammed into huge baskets or on the floors and deprived of their limbs.
Only by looking at the enemies (and their strange behaviors) does one have a sense of lingering tension and fear, but when they come to life with excellent and in several cases daunting animations, everything takes on an even more frightening aspect. Enemies move inexorably towards us with jagged, erratic movements and varying speeds that make them nothing short of inhuman, and each of the game's great monsters has unique animations that make them even grosser and creepier than their "normal" enemy counterparts.
Version tested: Xbox One S
A thousand ways to die in Little Nightmares 2
The main way you can interact with Little Nightmares 2's creepy environments is through various types of puzzles, which you need to solve in order to move from one section to another. Most of these are fairly straightforward, but they get a little more challenging (and virtually clueless) as you progress through the game.
One puzzle made us place pieces on a chessboard (following the directions of a clue hidden behind a map) to reach a secret switch, while another made us find a rather macabre way to extract a key from the stomach of a teddy bear. of plush. The school level features a large stealth section where we were called to turn a crank to reach an elevated platform while the monstrous teacher played the piano.
His playing could mask the sounds of Mono operating the crank and pulling some sort of rotating piece of furniture to get to the top of the platform. The tension was palpable. As soon as the melody was interrupted we had to immediately stop and wait with a thousand beats for the teacher to resume playing. These puzzles aren't exactly groundbreaking, but they fit well into the world of Little Nightmares 2 and create constantly new ways to interact with the creepy game world.
We have died so many times, either out of haste, or out of the woodiness of the controls. It is inevitable to leave the feathers there; all it takes is a rash move or an error of judgment on the effective abilities of the enemies et voilà, here is a memorable death. Pyrotechnic falls with lots of background noise of shattered bones, traps that we should have used to our advantage that instead turned against us and so on and so forth. Undoubtedly, the horrible deaths we have met show the incredible creative ability of Tarsier Studios.
Commands to be reviewed
I jumps in the game they seem inaccurate and a bit awkward. The mechanics are entrusted to a combination of keys that in different moments, rather than helping us have penalized us (and not a little). As well as using tools to offend, such as pipes, axes, hammers, turned out to be a titanic undertaking to say the least. The whole game requires the use of such equipment, sometimes even to open certain passages (for example in a door or to cross a wall). The section where we were forced to use them the most was in the school, perhaps among the best achieved levels but also the most difficult to deal with. The pupils / puppet have impressive speed and coordinating and waiting for the right moment to strike with a good hammer was not easy at all. Even after completing the game, we relived a few moments from the third level and died - even knowing what would happen - countless deaths.
In addition, several sections suffer from one evident lack of indications on where to go and what to do specifically, which could translate - added to the mechanics lacking in jumping and using objects - in a frustrated and deadly wandering.
When the game's level design is at its best, it's enough to make up for the awkward platforming. Most of the platforming segments of Little Nightmares 2 are directly related to solving a puzzle or provide a new perspective on the environment, allowing us to climb over previously crossed areas to see them from a new angle, or giving us a new perspective on the environment. together.
These combined puzzle and platforming moments forced us to explore every inch of the game's most disturbing and dangerous rooms, slowing the pace of the game and amplifying every moment of tension.
Better alone or accompanied?
Little Nightmares 2's biggest news is adding a companion called Six, the protagonist of the original game. During most of the levels, Six wanders with us, assisting us in the platforming sections to reach distant ledges, guiding us in the right direction, or even simply holding our hand as we run in a particularly dark place. Yes, there really is a "hold hand" button and it's lovely.
In some of the game's most stressful, frightening, and climax moments, Six separates from Mono, leaving us more alone than we ever could have been in the original game. The levels felt much more lonely and the enemies became even more creepy and gigantic.
In a particularly inspired section, Six is kidnapped by the evil force of a level. At the beginning we were concerned, as it should be, to save our unfortunate companion in adventures. Then we realized that we would have to continue through the game world on our own, which introduced a whole new type of fear that was far more effective than simply finding another way to prevent our character from dying. It was a permanent sensation, amplified to say the least, far from what the first chapter of the series managed to give us.
Sometimes it's best to just run away
Sometimes, Little Nightmares 2 ditches its clever puzzle platformer style in favor of more action-oriented sections. Most of these scenes involve the game's monsters who, upon discovering Mono, chase him incessantly. These sections, while radically changing the staid pace of the game, seemed to us the least inspired of Little Nightmares 2.
You want it because they turned out to be a little bland and you want it because we felt they were too punishing. As we ran down a random corridor, we found ourselves over and over again blocked by an awkward view or a command that inexorably made us fail the "mission" as the boss on duty devoured us.
Also, being a gloomy, dimly lit game, most of our deaths were recorded as we had to pass dozens of giant dummies ready to catch us. The reason? The inability to figure out how to sneak past this particular and very fast enemy without being captured. With a little effort and inventiveness we made it but it was incredibly hard and at times discouraging.
All of these control and camera glitches are unnoticeable during the slower moments of the game. The stealth sections are quite forgiving and generally an uncoordinated misstep hardly ever doomed us, and the platform sections don't feature excessive "drop damage" that would make failure excessively frustrating.
But when Little Nightmares 2 turns into an action game, these missteps become very evident and the death animations that are so creepy and exciting to watch the first time become stale by the third or fourth trial and error experience.
In a way, the inclusion of these sections makes a lot of sense. They feel like a kind of pressure relief valve that allows the immense tension to be released, preparing the player for the next round of slow exploration. In a horror movie, these would be the moments when the scare finally comes and we see the killer reveal himself. But in Little Nightmares 2, this "choice" wasn't actually necessary.
When we sneaked around avoiding an enemy's gaze again and again, we had tremendous rewards for making it through the section. Each of those little fears were infinitely more effective than the game's protracted insane chase sequences, and were better designed around game controls and camera-related limitations.
Graphics and technique
From a technical point of view, in addition to the problems related to the controls and the rather uncertain and poorly calibrated camera, we must however point out what surprised us most positively. The level design as well as the art design and art direction is incredible, in some moments we had the feeling that the developer had drawn inspiration from the vast catalog of cult films of the genre: Poltergeist, Slender Man, and several dystopian titles.
A painstaking work that really left us speechless. Beautiful weather effects, the rain is incredibly detailed and convincing and the sound design is also memorable. Every moment of Little Nightmares 2 is punctuated by perfectly timed sounds and audio effects. In some moments they have been able to add a further layer of subtle discomfort to simple actions such as walking in a completely empty room or moving in the pouring rain between buildings folded in on themselves and the most absolute desolation.
Final comment
When Little Nightmares 2 sticks to the things it does best, it's a great horror platform title, unique in its fears. Almost everything, from Mono's perspective as a tiny and almost helpless character in a gigantic world, to representations of grotesque monsters, to the mysterious city that has been conquered by its televisions, combine to create a wonderfully unsettling world that we didn't want to stop exploring. , even after the shocking end of the game.
Undoubtedly not everything works perfectly, especially in terms of combat and during the action sections but Little Nightmares 2 represents a worthy successor to the first chapter and opens the door to a new genre and why not, to a new exciting sequel, which considering when we have seen, it could be even more raw, gloomy and full of tension.
