Little Nightmares – Short Review: PC Version
Massive Squiredonkey’s
A platform game you say? Small child in a big world you say? Reminds you of a certain indie game does it? Reference that later shall we?
The star of the show is the fantastic art design and foreboding world. Go on, ‘ave a looksie. Please enjoy the incredibly short video; now with exclusive cough and no action. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.
The beautiful environment contains a morbid surprise. Grotesque giants lumber around carrying out macabre chores. These creatures regard you as nothing more than a snack, and your only defence is your diminutive size. A game of cat and mouse occurs. The monsters scrabble around, grasping hands come at you. Despite their size they are always deadly; nearly always within reach. Tension. The level design amplifies this. The world tells the story. All the systems click together.
‘Ello Guv-na
Despite your flighty appearance, your movements have a weight to them. You can’t run rings against the beasts. Care needs to be taken when making a break for it. In essence, together with light puzzling and climbing, this is the game. Despite how it may look, we are working in a fully 3D environment. Essential, as you’ll often need to take flight in a diagonal manner. As our hero’s a sluggish child and the 3D environment’s tricksy, there will be times it utterly screws you over. Bloody depth perception. Swish… a jump and a miss! At times you’ll forget to batter your finger on the grab button. It’s ok, you’ll learn to cope. The short tempered amongst us will not have to endure a disagreeable checkpoint system. You’re rarely far from returning to the action (insipid hiding) soon enough.
This is not a long game. I spent around 5 hours whimpering around this world. Gratefully I’m at the age where I honestly don’t mind. I’m all for the quick wham, bam, long-games-be-damned. The wordless tale resolves itself in a tidy manner. No thank you sir, I’m not so keen to replay levels collecting statues an’ wotnot. I was happy with the first play-through. Drat, I hope I didn’t miss a super-secret ending. Oh well, in the age of youtube, that doesn’t matter to me anymore. Take that withheld content!
Just chillin’
We managed to get through the entire review without once mentioning Limbo or Inside! Well done us!
If you’ve ever played an indie platformer of this type before, the game is slightly diminished. The puzzles feel familiar. The game of cat and mouse… strangely comfortable. The story… much reduced. This is a very fine game, but it does not feel wholly original, even with wonderful set pieces. Oh, and that creature design and animation! Wonderful.
Now please, direct yourself to the score.
A short memorable game thats beauty obfuscates familiar game beats.