Little Nightmares 2
An amazing little horror game.
There’s something rotten at the heart of Little Nightmare 2’ s horror. An impressive unpleasantness that sticks to you long after you walk away from its strange, eerie world and twisted characters. I’m saying this is a good thing by the way, as this bizarre child-like place is quite literally nightmare fuel, somehow without any gore or jump scares. Everything just feels… wrong, in a way that seems to pull up some sort of almost primordial revulsion.
It’s things like the leering face of the Teacher, who chases you without moving with an endlessly uncoiling, creaking neck. Or the ceiling bound Doctor that scurries above the beds under him, occasionally dropping down to check his patients below - people who hate themselves so much they’re happily replacing their body one prosthetic part at a time. There are moments where you feel like you might have had this dream, which could be why it feels so cloyingly sinister. While other horror games can be described with words like ‘shock’ or ‘terror’, this is probably best summed up by ‘seeps’.
Continuing on from the previous game this is a sorta 2.5D puzzle platformer starting a tiny weird child. This time the playable character is Mono, accompanied by Six (the original star) as a companion. Together they navigate a strange city for reasons that are never entirely clear but also don’t matter. It’s an experience made of discrete moments, contained by the buildings they pass through. There’s almost an anthology/short story feel to the beautifully disturbing moments crafted in the first chunk of the game, with areas defined by some sort of ruling monster whose character or purpose permeates their domain.
The sound design only adds to the layers. I can still recall the dreadful screech of triumph from a particular monster finding you far too clearly as I write this…
An amazing horror game that can be as frustrating as it is brilliant.
Leon Hurley