The Little Nightmares series returns with a new lead developer: Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology, and The Quarry. With Tarsier Studios moving on to another project, it makes sense to pass the baton to a team that is familiar with the horror genre. Whether the third game does enough to differentiate itself from its predecessors is something I thought the entire time I played through the ten-hour campaign.
If there’s one thing Supermassive nailed, it’s the sense of dread that permeates through the entirety of the campaign. You can feel a tension that escalates, growing longer you play, and I applaud the studio for knowing how to make me feel uneasy. The surreal dread and childlike vulnerability which defined the previous games return alongside some new experimental mechanics.
Some logistical changes make their first appearance, including the addition of cooperative and combat elements. The third entry can also be considered a new starting point, so newcomers won’t need to play the first two games (although you should) to know what’s happening.
Little Nightmares 3 is a dread-inducing dreamscape
You play as Low and Alone, two friends who have become close whilst surviving a nightmare. The pair are equipped with items to help them: Low has a bow, and Alone has a wrench. This allows the duo to work together to sneak through passages, hoist themselves over obstacles, and watch out for each other. Low’s bow can help him face enemies and also strike down objects hanging above him. Alone’s wrench can be used to smash through walls, open doors, and hit enemies. Like Six and Mono, the new protagonists search for a way out of Nowhere.
You can play solo with an AI companion or with a friend, and you’ll need each other to operate and progress. There are clues hidden in the environment telling you what to do. It is up to you to find a path forward, like with Low’s arrows hitting high targets or Alone’s wrench crushing enemies.
Little Nightmares 3 continues the series’ tradition of stunning, oppressive environments. From the towering Necropolis to the grotesque carnival filled with marionettes, the game’s visual storytelling is one of its strongest assets. Returning to Nowhere, an alternate world where children enter through their dreams. The third entry is set mainly in The Spiral, an area we’ve previously seen in trailers, which includes the Necropolis, the Candy Factory, and the Carnevale.
Return to Nowhere
If there’s something I find these games excel at, it’s utilizing the environments – places that are visually arresting and psychologically manipulative. You’ll maneuver through rooms only to feel a heightened sense of anxiety as grotesque dolls focus on you while attempting to stay away from their gaze.
While one area has you dealing with a massive monster baby doll that is intent on finding new toys to play with, another has a woman with six hands stalking you in the Candy Factory. The antagonists constantly search for you and will make sure you don’t make it out of the area alive. Later levels introduce smaller enemies like flying beetles, which Low must shoot down before Alone must get up close to strike them.
There are some combat elements, a first for the series, which I’m not sure were necessary to add. Three games in, and I feel as if having that new element adds unnecessary busywork to the mix. Having a series of focus on environmental puzzles suddenly requires me to fight enemies, which doesn’t sit well with me. Not all games need to include combat, and Little Nightmares 3 is one I can say with my whole heart that doesn’t need it. It adds little to the experience, but if I had to guess why it was added, it was to reinforce the need for cooperation between two players.
Low and Alone have contextual tools like their Bow and Wrench, but the first few chapters introduced an umbrella which can be used to float to higher platforms or prevent injury from a fall. It’s another tool that breaks up the pacing of moving forward and having to duck out of sight from enemies. It’s a shame that it’s something the developers decided would only last for half the runtime. Another tool is later introduced, but it’s not nearly as entertaining, and I’m not sure what the decision was, but it took my interest away with the umbrellas.
Tonally, Supermassive nails the mood and captures the spirit of the previous games flawlessly. They’ve even kicked things up a notch, and the series has never looked more dingy, more dreary, more sad than it does today. The way the darkness interacts with the flickering lights from the outside world, and the way various buildings seem alive in the worst possible way, with danger embedded in their very foundation, is such an improvement over the previous games.
Mismatched
For all the things I enjoyed about Little Nightmares 3, it has some gaming transgressions that immediately make me want to stop playing. Combat scenarios are my least favourite additions to the formula, but then you have instant kill sections where you’ll repeat the same section repeatedly until you can overcome the enemies.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if the controls were more responsive, intuitive, and enjoyable to use, but they aren’t. In the first hour, I struggled to grab onto boxes or ledges, not because I didn’t know how, but because unless you were explicitly lined up with the right angle, your character wouldn’t even try to grab the ledge.
In addition to those issues, I mentioned, the tutorials are few and far between. I can generally figure out the controls within a short time of playing the game. Still, this time, there was one particularly frustrating section where Low and Alone had to jump on a hinged door repeatedly. Still, there was no way to confirm that was the correct path until the AI decided to move there and start haphazardly jumping in one spot. There’s a disconnect between what I thought I was supposed to do and what the game implicitly wants you to do.
In a series first, co-op arrives with a caveat—you can play online only. That’s right, there’s no way to play couch co-op; instead, the other person requires a copy of the game or an invitation via the Friend Pass. After spending half the campaign with a friend, I find the experience to be considerably better solo. You’re free to delve into Nowhere at your own pace, and with a companion, they’re either briskly moving forward or caught up in a stealth section. Ultimately, I appreciate the addition of cooperative, but it’s a better experience solo.
Verdict
Little Nightmares 3 is, for better or worse, more of the same. Supermassive Games understands what makes the series work, and it effectively translates to the third entry. The formula works after three games. However, the combat is such a distraction from what makes these games work: the tense exploration of a world filled with dread and horror, as well as the environmental puzzles.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
