Green Room Review| Little Nightmares

 

Image Credit: Steam

Little Nightmares was a game that kind of flew under my radar just sitting in my Xbox library collecting digital just. I had no clue what exactly it would be like as I had not seen much about it leading into it. What really pulled me into it honestly was getting the sequel for $2.99 on the steam sale. So I decided to dive into the first one and found one of the games I didn't expect much but found a game dripping in dread, whimsical horror, and some good scares. Let's dive into this game!

(Reviewed on Xbox Series X on a 4k TV)

Gameplay

Little Nightmares is a 3D platformer with fixed camera angles giving you a view of your character (six) in the room you are currently in. The game is very simple in control you have a lighter to provide light, you can grab and move things, and you can't sprint and slide. Overall the simplistic easy to learn controls make this game very accessible. As you progress through the maw you will encounter some of its inhabitants who will be the primary antagonists in each chapter as you progress throughout the games five chapters. The puzzles are all very simple to learn and I did not have to look up anything just pay attention to the environment and through that was able to make my way through in roughly four hours. The game does have replayability in the collectibles and the incredibly difficult "Hard to the Core" achievement that requires you to beat the title in less than an hour with no deaths.

Story

You play as six who has awakened in a strange ship with even stranger inhabitants. There is no dialogue at all so it is up to you as a player to piece together what is going on. From what I could gather is the denizens of this world are separated as adults and children but Six stands out as the other children are almost colorless and Six's raincoat is bright yellow. As the game progresses you encounter the adults inhabiting the Maw; the Chefs, The Lady, the Janitor, and the Herd. Each adult will try to capture and stop Six in their respective chapters and most of the level revolves around escaping or defeating them. Each character of the adults has an unsettling design to them looking sickly and malformed. These appearances lend to the horror as trying to escape from the Janitor's slender long arms or running past the at times large bodies of the heard who are slow but can even be used as a jumping platform so long as you avoid their grip.

Audio

The music of this game is very well balanced between whimsical and terrifying often matching whatever situation you are currently in. Each chapter has ambience that multiplies the atmosphere. Overall the lack of dialogue leaves you listening to the background of every level and hearing the squeaks of rats, the dripping water, and the constant creaking of the ship. Overall the audio is as much of character as the actual characters in the game and creates both the dread and the whimsical feeling.

Summary

This game is honestly a gem to pickup on any sale if you enjoy an interesting horror game that doesn't rely on cheap scares but instead unsettles you and keeps you in a dreadful state throughout. The game has a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and interesting world that makes its short runtime fly by in an afternoon. Little Nightmares is an excellent way to either dip your toes in horror or just a fun game if you want something different and lighter than most of the current horror games available today. Little Nightmares earns a 4/5 from me for the wonderful atmosphere that left me wanting more of that world and to see what is next for Six. Thank You, for reading! What is some of your favorite light horror games?