Little Nightmares 2 Review (Spoiler Free)
Little Nightmares 2 (Spoiler Free)
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When you think of horror based video games, titles such as Residents Evil probably come to mind. It spooky and eerie, you don’t look forward to creeping around that next corner, and the lighting is atrocious for a reason. It’s spooky, and when played with the lights off, can cause even the bravest folks to get scared! Little Nightmares 2 takes a much different approach to the genre. While it retains the eeriness of other horror games, it’s the sudden movements in unexpected places that make this title easier to play for less enthused horror genre players!
Published by Bandai Namco, Little Nightmares 2 tasks you with controlling the games protagonist through a variety of linear scenes, avoiding various traps and monsters as you go, both seen and unseen. The development team did a great job of creating each and every environment, loaded the game with fun little puzzles to solve, and putting a few frightening moments in along the way.
Controls are fairly simplistic, giving your protagonist the ability to carry specific items, run from baddies, jump over gaps, and crawl, and much more. Often a variety of buttons need to be pressed to complete actions – like holding the trigger while jumping to grab ledges. This adds an extra level of difficulty to specific areas of the games as timing these runs, jumps, and grabs could be the difference between life and death.
The story of Little Nightmares 2 takes a bit more time to understand. Without the use of talking, subtitles, or even written story elements, its really up to the player to decide how to unravel what they are seeing, and how each scene fits into the last, and into the entire story as a whole. I found it part of the fun of playing through Little Nightmares, although others have told me they were less enthused about having to do so much thinking.
Tarsier Studios’ development team wasn’t about to create a hand holding experience, however. Death in Little Nightmares 2 is pretty common, but learning from your mistakes is what ultimately will power you through. Generous quick saves makes redoing specific sections fairly simple, and I never found myself wondering for too long how to get past something. Surveying and understanding the environments is the most important aspect of Little Nightmares 2. You never know where you might find a little hole to crawl into, or a spot you need to duck at just the right time to avoid death. What’s great is that each scene rolls into the next smoothly, creating a seamless, intriguing experience.
While the beautiful art style does keep you engaged with the game hours into the experience, there are less positive aspects of Little Nightmares that pull you out just as quickly, most notably the less than ideal combat controls (when required). These moments seem so few and far between that you wonder if they were shoe-horned into the experience to add an additional element. These could have been left off, in my opinion. That being said, while these moments are the most frustrating, they are not experience breaking to a point where you won’t want to proceed.
Overall, there is little to not like about Little Nightmares 2, and even for someone who hates horror games – my self included – this is an enjoyable romp through a variety of environments that will always keep you on your toes. It’s time to get to safety!
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Article By Adam Roffel
Adam Roffel has only been writing about video games for a short time, but has honed his skills completing a Master's Degree. He loves Nintendo, and almost anything they have released...even Tomodachi Life.
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