Little Nightmares II
A sleepy puzzle platformer to doze through? Dream on!
Leaving the decks of the Maw, the first game’s sinister ship, and its hungry ghosts behind, this spooky followup signals a shift in focus. She of the iconic yellow raincoat, Six, is only along for the ride; Mono – a boy with a penchant for putting things on his head – takes the lead in exploring what is the opposite of a sweet dream.
Like the first game, this has stretches of platforming and puzzling punctuated by running away. Mercifully, as you leap towards safety, fall damage this time around is much less likely to take out your pint-sized protagonists. However, you’re still bound to miss your fair share of jumps in this 2.5D platformer.
Directing small children in real life is often not dissimilar to herding cats, and that’s a dynamic replicated here. There’s a slight lack of responsiveness to the controls that on the one hand definitely adds to the illusion of being a tiny child trapped in an overwhelming world but on the other causes more than its fair share of frustration when you’re trying to act. The otherwise-sound puzzle design is complicated by these issues. Multiple times we bang our head against a wall, believing we’ve exhausted all options, when actually an interaction just hadn’t triggered the first time we tried something. While we appreciate how asking for a fresh pair of eyes on a puzzle mimics the co-operative dynamic between Mono and Six, fighting with the controls takes the bite out of the game’s best scares.
TRIAL AND TERROR
Trial-and-error gameplay has always been a part of the series and there are a handful of ‘videogame deaths as game design’ punchlines that, alongside generous checkpointing, we couldn’t help cracking a smile at. However, when you’re once again
Asking for a fresh pair of eyes on a puzzle mimics the dynamic between Mono and Six.
running down a narrow corridor with grasping hands on all sides, it’s difficult to ignore how little tension remains after three or four deaths between the same two checkpoints.
These issues can rear their head when you’re simply scampering through the game but there’s absolutely no escaping them during your confrontations with the still-rudimentary but now more direct combat mechanics. A number of set-pieces are undercut by resets that could’ve been avoided were it not for a) an awkward camera angle obscuring the distance between you and whatever beastie is currently desperate to eat you and b) just a brief moment of insufficient co-ordination. All of that said, when you do finally splat the baddie your attack lands with satisfying weight, and the novelty of seeing teeny-weeny bag-headed Mono waving around an axe as big as he is does not wear thin.
ASTRAL PROJECTION
The words ‘AI co-operation’ may strike fear in the hearts of gamers of a certain age but we assure you there’s no need to worry here. Six returns as an asset to your fight for survival, not just offering a leg up to hard-to-reach places but also signposting how to move forward, sometimes telegraphing when it’s safe to leave your hiding place – after all, she’s got the experience.
How her time aboard the Maw has affected her is a question ever-present at the back of your mind. The answers offered here only serve to lead you further down the rabbit hole but also leave us feeling like more tension could’ve been drawn out of your uneasy alliance with her. The narrative beats that bookend the story suggest this dynamic was the intention but it doesn’t land, ironically due to Six being a reliably helpful AI partner. She won’t hold your hand through every obstacle (though you can choose to keep her close by pressing i) but when she is taken out of the picture, it’s not because she’s chosen to ditch you.
What definitely does meet its mark is the stellar art direction and environment design. Presenting an expanded take on its predecessor’s world of childhood fears brought to twisted life, highlights include the towering pursuers of your tiny tots. These range from a sack-masked hunter with an unfortunately very particular quarry to a teacher with an ever-watchful gaze that’s bound to make your skin crawl, and a classroom full of truly sinister students. Each one is paired perfectly to their stalking ground and is heralded by their own crudely crafted following.
OVERGROWN-UP
The third pursuer you have to evade has perhaps the most memorably creepy gameplay gimmick but the big bad themself is built around the tired horror trope of presenting larger bodies as grotesque. It’s a disappointing way to follow an opening half that otherwise shows such creativity in realising its villains. Overall, the closing act villains feel less well
Pursuers range from a sackmasked hunter to a teacher with an ever-watchful gaze.
realised and not nearly as scary as those you encounter earlier on in the game.
The first game was constructed upon the horror of insatiable hunger and it’s clear that the sequel doesn’t throw its thematic stones too far away. This is definitely not a game for children; these confrontations get right to the horror of childhood powerlessness in a way that feels more direct than ever before. Little Nightmares II has far more to say beyond that, but untangling the fraught symbolism of this bad dream is an experience we don’t want to spoil here – especially when it comes to what you’re left with upon waking.
While leaving the cramped, submerged decks of the Maw and opening up the setting is the right call, the Pale City itself feels far more disparate in comparison to the ship. We enjoyed each landmark and, um, scary tour guide we encountered along the way, but this nightmarish cohort of grotesque grownups are only loosely connected and things don’t feel as cohesive as a result. At the same time, we were left wishing each variation on a theme went just a bit deeper.
In many ways, this sequel feels like a recurring dream; playing it was both nightmarish and strangely familiar. That’s not to say it was a dream we were desperate to wake up from as even now its stunning, deeply shadowed visual direction calls us back for a cat nap. However, even though the puzzles are much less fiendish this time, the controls present an unwelcome case of déjà vu.