Written by Bernard Julius Paje
Title: Little Nightmares Complete Edition
Developer: Tarsier Studios
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Price: $29.99
Genre: Adventure
Also Available On: Steam, XB1
Little Nightmares is a platformer slash puzzle game developed by Tarsier Studios that lets you assume the role of a hooded yellow little girl named Six who suddenly wakes up alone in a dark and gloomy place called The Maw. Armed with only a lighter, your goal is to help her escape this place where she is trapped in. Everything around her is full of mystery, and as you guide her around the eerie set pieces of the game you will slowly piece together exactly where she is and what she is up against. And sadly for her, everybody in this place just seems intent on capturing her, making your role to navigate the game’s world a tense and frightening experience at best. The overarching story is also portrayed without any dialog whatsoever but is told very well and naturally unfolds during the game.
Graphically, the environments in the game are mostly dark and dreary. A lot of the game’s areas are intentionally unlit, forcing you to rely on your lighter to find your bearings. The lighting in the game when you have your lighter turned on is very cool, which made me turn it on at every possible opportunity to admire how the light from it casts the shadow of everything in the room realistically. The art style of the game is also very Tim Burton-esque, with the game’s characters having a creepy and somewhat disgusting (but cute) vibe.
The soundtrack of the game is minimalistic, relying mostly on ambient and environmental sounds to set the overall tone of the game. Some enemies will react or notice you if you move too fast or knock over things, so you must try to avoid making too much noise as much as possible. Tense and scary music will play if you do get spotted or chased by enemies though, and the sudden heartbeat-like vibration that your controller makes during these situations adds to the intensity of the experience.
If you played and loved games like Limbo and Inside, then you are in for a treat because the gameplay of Little Nightmares is very much similar to those two games. Puzzles in the game mostly involve you having to find an item you need to progress (like a key for a locked door or a crank for a shaft). Getting said items are not a simple task though, because almost all the time you have to be stealthy and avoid various foes that are normally just minding their own business but will instantly be intent on killing you once you get spotted. And if you do get spotted, make sure you run away and get to a hiding place fast or face the wrath of your captors. There are also some intense chase sequences that will keep you on your feet. The starts of these encounters are also sometimes accompanied by a jump scare, which will definitely get your blood pumping. There are also some ‘I did not see that coming’ moments near the end of the game, and if you are squeamish and/or easily scared these scenes may slightly disturb you (and give you more than just little nightmares).
It will take you around three hours or so to get to the end on your first playthrough, and then a couple more to find all the collectibles. If you are a completionist and want to get all of the game’s achievements, you also need to do a speedrun of the game and finish it within an hour without dying.
If you like to play platforming and puzzle games and are a fan of mystery and horror, then Little Nightmares is definitely for you. The amount of content it has is just spot on, and while there is some replay value in the form of collectibles and a mandatory speedrun to get all achievements, players who only want to experience the story may choose to skip these and not miss out on anything major. Little Nightmares is definitely a contender for one of 2017’s best indie games.
THE GOOD
- Eerie atmosphere and intense chase gameplay moments
- Good use of lighting and ambient sounds
- Chilling and somewhat disturbing story (if you are mostly into horror experiences)
THE BAD
- Relies on collectibles and speedrunning to extend gameplay length
- Minimal use of music
- Chilling and somewhat disturbing story (if you are NOT into horror experiences)
REVIEW SCORE: 9/10
LITTLE NIGHTMARES DLC1: THE DEPTHS
Little Nightmares was a fun little indie gem released last April for consoles and PC. It chronicles the story of how a young girl named Six attempts to escape a large and mysterious vessel known as The Maw. I very much liked the game when I reviewed the game back then, and once the Expansion Pass DLC for it was announced a few months later I was excited by the prospect to go back for more little nightmares (pun intended) in The Maw. The DLC for this game, aptly-named Secrets of The Maw, was designed to be a three-part episodic series, and I intend to review each episode as they come out.
The first installment, The Depths, lets us play as a new persona known only as The Runaway Kid. He wakes up on a familiar part of The Maw (if you have played and finished the main game) and parts of his adventures sees him crossing paths with Six. However, the majority of the areas you will explore as The Runaway Kid are new: the titular Depths of The Maw. Because these areas are further below the vessel, a lot of it is submerged in water. A lot of the puzzles in The Depths enable you to have direct manipulation of the depth of water to say, get an item or access the next area. Also, the chase scenes are made more intense with the involvement of water because the enemies chasing you swim faster than you. Prepare for some really hectic moments fighting this episode’s main baddie!
Overall, if you liked the main Little Nightmares campaign then you will definitely love this DLC. Since this is just a third of the whole experience, expect this to be over fairly quickly in around one to one and a half hour for your first playthrough. This episode also ends in a familiar cliffhanger for those who have finished the main game, and this definitely adds to the anticipation for the release of the next installment.
REVIEW IN PROGRESS SCORE: 2.75 out of 3.33*
*Adding up all my scores will result in my total review score out of 10.
LITTLE NIGHTMARES DLC2: THE HIDEAWAY
The Hideaway is the second of three DLC episodes for Little Nightmares. This episode continues the adventure of The Runaway Kid as he tries to escape The Maw, and this time around he meets a lot of the games tiny entities called the Nomes. In the main game, these creatures served mostly as hidden collectibles you can find throughout the game—once you ‘hug’ a Nome it is more or less marked as ‘found’, adding up to your overall total in the game. In The Hideaway however, these huggable little munchkins will offer more assistance to the player. Once The Runaway Kid encounters these creatures, he can throw them to switches or ledges that are out of reach. This leads to various interesting puzzle mechanics throughout the entirety of this approximately hour-long DLC episode.
All is not well this time however, because I experienced some frustrating flaws for this episode overall—including a game-breaking bug that forced me to restart the episode from the beginning. Most of these frustrations stem from the Nomes themselves, because at times it is hard to hard to make them follow you (especially if you are guiding more than one of them). At times they will either stop walking or get stuck because of an object in the environment, forcing you to go back and hug them again to make them follow you once more. Attempting to throw them to switches and ledges can also lead to some problems at first, because it can be initially hard to properly judge the distance to where you want to throw them. Puzzles involving pushing things with the Nomes can also lead to some frustrations as well, again more so if you need more than one of them with you to accomplish the task. The puzzles themselves are mostly clever though, and the sequence that features the return of The Janitor is pretty intense.
And then there is that game-breaking bug I mentioned, which happens midway in the game. It was in a part where I had three Nomes with me, but one of them for some reason stubbornly refused to follow me (no matter how much I hug the little critter). Because of this I decided to restart from the last checkpoint, and while all Nomes ended up following me after doing this a door that was supposed to be already open was surprisingly closed—the thing I needed to progress spawned at the other side of the closed door. I frustratingly tried to find a way back there for about half an hour, but ended up being stuck to no avail. It has been around three weeks since the release of the DLC episode at the time of writing** and I find it really surprising that they have not released a patch to fix this yet.
The Hideaway is a kind of disappointing follow-up compared to The Depths in this reviewer’s opinion. While the concept of having the Nomes be more helpful in the game seems promising, its execution kind of felt flat overall. Of course, the Hideaway still has various references to the main game, and the ending for this episode sent a chill down my spine. I cannot wait for the concluding episode to arrive on February 2018, and hopefully the concluding chapter ends up being better and more polished than this release.
REVIEW IN PROGRESS SCORE: 1.75 out of 3.33*
*Adding up all my scores will result in my total review score out of 10.
**This review was meant to be posted around the end of November 2017 but did not make the cut. Currently, the bug I experienced has already been fixed upon the release of DLC3—the save file where I was previously stuck on now loaded and continued normally, so those who will plan to play all three DLC chapters in one go will have an overall smoother experience.
LITTLE NIGHTMARES DLC3: THE RESIDENCE
Little Nightmares' third and final DLC chapter, The Residence, finally came out around two weeks ago. After a kind of disappointing second installment—that had a game-breaking bug which I described in my review for The Hideaway DLC—this final piece of DLC more than makes up for that low point in my opinion. Once again, you assume the role of The Runaway Kid and pick up where he left off in the previous chapter, and this time there are some very clever puzzles and a LOT of tense battles.
As soon as the chapter starts, the tension and jump scare factor is definitely high because you are once again going head-to-head with The Lady, the final boss of the main game (now as The Runaway Kid instead of Six, of course). As soon as you step into the third DLC's titular environment, The Residence, you will be greeted by Little Nightmares creepiest setting ever. The dimly lit library as well as the various dark areas littered with statues and mannequins made the hair on my back stand up. The light from The Runaway Kid's flashlight will be your only source of light for most areas, so be prepared for some of the game's most intense sequences ever.
There are a lot of clever puzzles in this concluding chapter, so make sure to bring your wit along with your courage this time around. None of them felt overly difficult, but some of them may stump you for a little bit. Just make sure to peruse everything in the environment and make use of The Runaway Kid's trusty flashlight so that you do not get stuck. In between all of the puzzles, intense battles with the agile Shadow Children, a new type of enemy, will make you shout and jump off your seat. My first encounter with these beings gave me a real fright, because they will literally pounce out of the shadows to grab you.
And then there's the ending. Oh my god, that ending! After all the tricky puzzles and exciting battles, I was treated to a truly mind-blowing ending that literally made me gasp in amazement. The way The Runaway Kid's journey ends, as well as connects to Six's journey is one of the most awesome story moments I have ever experienced in any videogame ever. The ending of Little Nightmares' Secrets of The Maw DLC also easily eclipses the ‘I did not see that coming’ moment of the main game as well, so those who got the shock of their life during that part of the main game will be even more flabbergasted with how The Runaway Kid's story wraps up.
REVIEW IN PROGRESS SCORE: 4 out of 3.33*
*Adding up all my scores will result in my total review score out of 10. Regarding my review score for DLC3 going over the maximum allowable value I have set, all I have to say is: Why not? My review method for this DLC is already unorthodox enough, I decided to stretch it even further because this final chapter of Little Nightmares is just SO. DAMN. GOOD.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Little Nightmares: Secrets of The Maw DLC is a great package that starts off strong, kind of fizzles in the middle and finally goes into overdrive in the end. If you loved the main game, then the Secrets of The Maw DLC will be right up your alley. For $9.99, you are essentially getting a second campaign for the game—a second campaign that connects to the events of the main game in an amazingly clever way in the end. This DLC is a must-buy in my opinion, and is definitely worth every penny of its asking price.
LITTLE NIGHTMARES: SECRETS OF THE MAW DLC – OVERALL REVIEW SCORE: 8.5/10
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