Game review: Little Nightmares (2017)

The video game that I am going to be reviewing this afternoon is one which caught me by surprise, and has quickly become one of my favorite platformer games released within the last 10 years, it's called Little Nightmares. Little Nightmares is a horror/platformer, something that I find pretty odd if I think about it. I believe this might be the first game I've seen combining those two genres. Little Nightmares was developed by Tarsier Studios and then published by Bandai Namco. This stylish little horror game was released back in April of 2017 on the 28th, and was made available to play on the Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC. The version of the game which I will be reviewing is the Playstation 4 version. 

Now, I hadn't heard too much about this game before finding it for sale, to be honest. Even then I only became aware of it from browsing around on youtube and one of the channels that I'm subbed to uploaded a video of a lets play of the game. I had no idea what this game was, but ended up clicking on the video to check it out. After about 4-5 minutes of watching them play the game, I became really interested in checking it out myself and proceeded to head over to the PSN market and pick a digital copy of it up for myself. I can definitely say, I'm quite glad that I grabbed myself a copy, as I think this is probably one of the most entertaining games I have played in the past year or two that enraptured me almost immediately. 

Little Nightmares takes place on a grimy, dark, mysterious ship called The Maw. In this game we're put into the shoes of our strange, silent protagonist who happens to be a nine year old little girl going by the name of Six. I definitely think this was an odd, but interesting choice for the main character. The main group of passengers on board of The Maw are disfigured, horrifying looking creatures, with the ship catering to most of all of their dark, grotesque desires and whims. The game begins with Six waking up in the dark depths of The Maw, inside of a little hideaway she has found. She decides to try and escape the cruel enclosure, during which she experiences excruciating bouts of hunger that become more and more debilitating for her as time goes on.  

As Six proceeds to make her way upward through the ship, she encounters more and more awful creatures with most of them attempting to capture her in the hopes of devouring her or serving her as a meal to the other guests. As she escapes from her pursuers, she gets a view of another ship docking with The Maw, showing huge obese figures slowly in line to board onto The Maw, for what appears to be a giant feast. These figures head to an oriental section of the ship which is overseen by a strange woman who is simply named The Lady, the presumed leader of The Maw.  

The story of the game is divided up into 5 different chapters for you to play through, with each of them having their own focus on certain aspects of the gameplay. You can expect these 5 chapters to run you about 7 to 8 hours total on your first run through. The first chapter is mostly a tutorial teaching you the controls of the game, and is a bit of a slow burn. Thankfully they don't hold your hand too much in this tutorial, leaving you to figure out most things on your own which keep it from being too boring. There are some secrets you can get while playing in the form of collectibles which unlocks special artwork and another can slightly affect your ending of the game. I feel that 8 hours of gameplay is pretty fair for the price, and that it tells its story pretty well within the time frame. 

As you would come to expect with most platformer style games, the camera angle is in side scrolling fashion as you make your way through the levels. You can of course move around freely throughout your entire environment, however. So, you can explore around the rooms if you wish without too much of a problem. The controls of the game are pretty basic for the most part, since there is no consumable items, combat or HUD. The controls do however allow you to crouch, crouch walk, sprint and single jump of course. (Though it would have been nice to have the nine year old girl jump high enough to whoop some goomba ass, am I right?) You can also hold onto and throw smaller sized objects, as well as pull/push certain objects in the environment to help you move forward. There's also a lighter available at your disposal to give you a better look at what is around you, and you can use it to light lanterns and candles to keep the light going and also earn yourself an achievement.  

If I had to compare the game controls to something, I'd say that they're very similar to how Little Big Planet had you control the character from that game, except this is more of a 3D landscape in comparison. Something which can get to be frustrating at times is that the camera angles you're given in a few of the areas make it really difficult to get a sense of depth within your environment. This has led to me taking some nasty falls to my death occasionally, either leading me to have to restart from the last checkpoint or falling into the hands of a creature that has been chasing me. Although this can be somewhat annoying at times, I think it helps elevate the sense of dread and being vulnerable while you play. Something that works quite well for a horror game I'd say. 

The lighting and the use of the shadows within the game honestly gives it an unnerving and haunting atmosphere as you play. You get the feeling of creeping darkness around you with no idea what to expect. Combine this with the creepy creatures hunting you while you walk around, the excellent sound design, the fact that there is no dialogue to lighten the mood in the game and you'll be feeling very tense and nervous while playing. While in the dark, you can't really make out what is around you or coming near you. And, once you've enveloped yourself in light you'll be questioning if anything has seen you and is coming to grab you. The game uses the horror elements its given so well, leaving you on alert almost the entire time you play. 

You know, I feel like I should talk more about the sound design of the game since I really thought it was utilized so amazingly well throughout. The majority of the game lacks any type of music, and uses very subtle ambiance for the most part, leaving you to focus on the sounds of what is going on around you. These sounds will be things like footsteps, the hauntingly creepy creaking of the ship and floorboards, the sound of your character breathing and the sounds of objects breaking. It makes the game much more intense and nerve wracking when you realize how significant those sounds can be, as making one wrong move or hitting on object can have you ending up in the hands of a monster that will tear you to shreds. Of course, you do get some fast paced intense music once you start getting chased, which is mostly there to let you know that you need to haul ass if you wanna stay alive. I personally think having a soundtrack to this game probably would have ruined some of the thick atmosphere, and I believe it was a smart move being so minimalist with it. 

I find myself nothing but impressed with this game for so many reasons. The graphics are stylish while also retaining a dark, dirty look which works perfectly with the setting. The lighting of the game and the way the shadows blend make it more intense as you play, along with the excellent sound design. Add in the disgusting looking monsters that you'll be trying to escape, and it all makes for a fun horror game experience. While being a horror game, it's also a fun platformer that can be challenging and take some time to perfect. The grim world tells a very bleak, disturbing story but one that actually is moving and that will stick with your for a hot minute. While the pace slows down a bit towards the middle of the game, I really don't have any complaints about it. I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone even remotely interested. 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my review. Appreciate it!