A hauntingly beautiful puzzle-platformer | Review - Little Nightmares
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✨Overview
You’ve probably seen gameplay clips of charmingly eerie and interestingly cute game called Little Nightmares all over social media before, I know I did. Little Nightmares is a 3D puzzle-platformer that plunges players into a surreal and atmospheric world.
Developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, it was originally released last 2017 for PC and Consoles. While we got a mobile spin-off in the form of Very Little Nightmares last 2019 (in which I also reviewed), it was really not the same 3D experience it’s big little brother had. Finally, we now have an official mobile port for the actual Little Nightmares and it’s more or less captures the same experience, just translated to touch controls.
🟩Pros
+Subtle, beautiful, narrative experience
+Dark, foreboding environments and haunting character designs
+A tense and varied gameplay experience
+Well-designed puzzles and levels
+Accessible control options
🟥Cons
-Translation to touch controls made some platformer segments a little bit harder
-Long Loading Times
-Unforgiving checkpoint system
-Performance optimization and stutters
📖Story and Premise
Little Nightmares is a narrative-driven experience that relies on atmosphere and tension, the game's subtle yet compelling narrative unfolds without any sort of dialogue or narration, allowing players to interpret the story's darker undertones through its gameplay and visual narrative.
You control Six, a small, raincoat-clad child trapped in a nightmarish vessel known as The Maw. The premise revolves around Six's desperate attempt to escape this grim place, battling grotesque and monstrous figures along the way. The minimalistic storytelling encourages players to piece together the narrative through environmental cues and the harrowing and disturbing experiences Six endures.
🎨Graphics and Art Style
Little Nightmares features a simplistic 3D visuals that will give you some 3D animated film vibes. The game presents a macabre beauty with its dark, foreboding environments and haunting character designs. The use of lighting and shadows adds depth to the atmosphere, creating a visually stunning and immersive experience. Although there are some downgrades visually, especially in the graphical effects and model fidelity, The mobile version maintains this art style and visual direction. The sound design further enhances the artistic elements of the game, with an evocative soundtrack and chilling ambient noises that intensify the atmospheric tension.
🎮Gameplay
Little Nightmares combines 3D platforming, puzzle-solving, and stealth elements to deliver a tense and varied gameplay experience. The controls are simple enough to be translated into touch controls without much complexity; only having a move, jump, crouch, interact, and light buttons for the most part. There is also an immersive mode that replaces most of the controls with gestures, ensuring accessibility without sacrificing depth.
For the most part, it allows players to navigate Six through treacherous environments with relative ease. However, if you're accustomed to physical stick controls, particularly if you've played the game before, you may notice that it's slightly harder to accurately control Six. This is especially evident during platforming segments that involve narrow passageways or avoiding noise-making objects.
🥷Stealth
Stealth plays a crucial role in Little Nightmares, as Six is often vulnerable and outnumbered by the menacing towering creatures that inhabit The Maw. The game successfully creates a palpable sense of tension as players skulk through the shadows, avoiding detection and devising strategies to outsmart their pursuers. The stealth mechanics are well-implemented, providing a satisfying blend of fear and empowerment as players navigate the perilous world.
My only gripe is that the fixed camera views will sometimes be a detriment to the player, not allowing you to see far off creatures while they on the other hand can detect you quite for afar. You’ll find yourself suddenly spotted by these creatures without even knowing it.
🧩Puzzles
The puzzle design in Little Nightmares is simple but logical and effectively. It is seamlessly integrated into the narrative and environments. The puzzles are intuitive yet clever, requiring players to observe their surroundings, analyze patterns, and use their problem-solving skills. While the game is linear, the approaches to solutions are not always obvious to the player and video gamified, sometimes there will be dead-ends or elements that will feel like it’s supposed to be part of the solution, but it’s not. It’s just adds to the overall believability of the world. The puzzles contribute to the overall sense of immersion, making the journey through The Maw feel like an authentic location a rather than mere linear path to walk through.
⏫Progression
Each chapter offers a new layer of intrigue and danger, new styles of location and enemies to consider. Little Nightmares avoids stagnation by introducing fresh gameplay mechanics and environmental hazards as players delve deeper into the twisted world. The progression feels natural, allowing the narrative to unfold organically while maintaining a sense of player agency. It doesn’t get too complex, and the mechanics to learn are just varied enough and are all too logical to forget. My only issue with the progression is that the checkpoint system is very unforgiving, more often than not reverting you back long stretches of platformer segments long before the difficult enemy encounter that you died in.
📊Technical Performance
While Little Nightmares is a decent port that brings the beloved PC/Console game 1:1 to mobile devices, it’s not a perfect port.The game suffers from stutters and it’s a little bit unoptimized. With my Snapdragon 888 device (ROG Phone 5), I only was able to play the game comfortably at low graphics settings and 60FPS, with ocassional stutters. The loading times also take a long time to complete, even during checkpoint loads or do-overs. This, coupled with an unforgiving checkpoint system, compounds into a constant source of frustration.
⚖️Conclusion
Little Nightmares is a hauntingly beautiful puzzle-platformer that successfully transitions to the mobile platform, preserving the eerie charm and captivating narrative that made the original PC and console versions so popular. While it's not a perfect port and there are some optimizations that can be done, Little Nightmares remains a captivating adventure for mobile gamers seeking a dark and mysterious tale.
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