Little Nightmares 3 Review – Adorable Atrocities

Little Nightmares 3 Review

The world of Little Nightmares has always been a lonely one. This franchise is based on a deep fear of being small, helpless and completely alone in a world of grotesque huge monsters. From the flooded prison of The Maw to the static-ridden Pale City, Little Nightmares has perfected the art of creating a very specific kind of horror—one that has less to do with jump scares and more with a half-remembered childhood fever dream. In this sense, Supermassive Games (a developer known for its cinematic horror in games such as Until dawn And Career)now having full control of the franchise, he decided to continue working on what made the first two games great.

Only this time, Little Nightmares 3 dares to challenge the series' founding principle of isolation by introducing a new core mechanic: co-op play.

New you

First, let's meet our new main characters: Low and Lonely. Goodbye yellow raincoat and paper bag. Low wears a plague doctor's bird mask and wields his trusty bow and arrow. Pigtailed Alone uses a huge tool to manipulate the environment. They are lost children, like Six and Mono before them, but immediately different in terms of their bond. This is a team trapped together in a desolate new place called the Spiral, a collection of disturbed places whose first area discovered is a sun-scorched, sand-filled Necropolis. This dead desert city, with its crumbling ruins and industrial decay, seems both familiar in its oppressive scale and pleasantly new in its appearance.

The introduction of two-player co-op is without a doubt Little Nightmares 3's biggest gamble. Luckily, it pays off in spades. While Little Nightmares 2 featured an AI companion in Mono, the third installment is built from the ground up with symbiotic gameplay in mind. Little Nightmares 3 is filled to the brim with enjoyable and accessible puzzles that are impossible to solve alone. Lowe, for example, uses his bow to launch an arrow with a rope wrapped around it, creating a zipline for Odin to cross a large chasm. One uses his wrench to open the stuck gear, allowing Lowe to pass through the closing gate.

Be willing to cooperate

Little Nightmares 3 consistently delivers a fun and rewarding sense of collaboration, similar to games like It takes two And Split fiction. While the puzzles never reach the dizzying heights of Baba Is You, many of them aren't obvious at first glance. Players will constantly exchange ideas with their partner. Some may find this a huge departure from previous entries, but I found it both refreshing and necessary to avoid the “been there, done that” feeling.

Although I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu when it came to the surroundings. Visual artists Supermassive have created a world full of fear and mystery. But one that also feels incredibly familiar. Little Nightmares 3 has a clear theme of loss and insignificance. One that is filled with colossal, decaying structures that make our protagonists look like ants. But I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I think Supermassive may have played a little too carefully with Little Nightmares 3's environments.

Depth of Despair

There is also the challenge of navigating these environments. Little Nightmares 3 suffers most from its inability to detect depth perception. Many times I found myself missing a jump or running into obstacles. I got used to it, but I didn't particularly enjoy studying. A game about getting from point A to point B shouldn't have inherent traversal problems, but Little Nightmares 3 swings and misses in this regard.

However, Supermassive succeeds with the audio design of Little Nightmares 3. If visuals are the body of horror, then sound is its nervous system – a complex network of subtle cues and abrupt shocks that miraculously define emotion. The series has always excelled at using silence, making every sound that breaks the silence feel significant and often scary. Little Nightmares 3 is no different. There are some real scares in the campaign, which are masterfully staged thanks to excellent sound design. Turn off the lights and turn up the volume. Little Nightmares 3 tries its best to scare you.

Perfect for the spooky season

Little Nightmares 3 is a worthy successor to the first two games. He may be playing it safe, but he clearly respects the foundation on which he is built. The addition of co-op fits like a glove and should become standard for all future Little Nightmares games. The riddles are smart and accessible. The audio design is stellar. Fans of the series will find a lot to like in this latest version. This is the perfect game to kick off the spooky season. Don't miss this.

***PS5 code was provided for this review***