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Welcome to my personal hell
Little Nightmares 2 isn’t just a video game, but a deeply realized concept of escapism and existense. Experienced through the lens of children, making the whole gameplay dark and unsettling. Much like childrens’ distorted nightmares of the reality. Little Nightmares (2017) was a disturbing game, in a good way — can the sequel top that?
I played the first game through before starting Little Nightmares 2, because I wanted to be reminded of the atmosphere the developer Tarsier Studios wanted to portrait in these games.
I played Little Nightmares 2 fully on PS5 console.
Experiencing the plot
It’s nearly impossible to explain the story in Little Nightmares 2. The whole ensemble is more of a statement, that has to be played to be fully understood. The concept lies on the strong opinions of our everyday lifes being covered in escapism. How people try to escape the grim truth of their lifes, by distracting themselves with any TV-channel available.
The other side is the story of these two characters, Mono and Six, and their survival adventure through this environment. Six was the character we played as in the first game Little Nightmares, making this sequel more of the “origin” story for the characters. It’s difficult to explain the story, as I said it’s like an interactive dark Grimm’s story, that must be played to be fully realized — and still it would leave questions hanging in the air.
I was such curious about the story itself, that I went on Youtube and watched some fan-made videos of their deep-dived-thoughts into the story and all the juicy details they found. Honestly, it has been one of the most interesting thing and I suggest you do that after playing this title.
The gameplay, controls, graphics and audio
Players had issues with some of the gameplay mechanics and controls in the first game and the developer wanted to fix those criticisms. I think the controls were much more accurate and better in Little Nightmares 2. I still think they feel a tiny bit janky and slow, but the magic lies just behind that. It’s like those nightmares everyone has, where it’s such a pain trying to move or run away from the monsters chasing you. I love the feeling of the controls and how it affects the mood of the gameplay, and I wouldn’t change a thing with them any further.
The other character, Six, is controlled by AI and I didn’t have any issues with that. Six always helped me and did things needed to do. She also seemed to have her own odd personality and sometimes played with objects or copied things I did.
The gameplay is very much like in the first game, but with new interesting twists and puzzles. I had to sneak around, run away from monsters (personally I think the doctor was the most creepy one), pick up objects and carry them around and solve various puzzles.
Graphically this game looks amazing and polished. It has the same art style than before, but much more detailed, added realism, effects and wider areas. Everything still looks so creepy and odd, just the way I love it. I took countless of screenshots, just the sheer beauty of the areas and surroundings.
I used headphones, another must thing to do when playing games like this. It truly did immerse me into the world.
(I also did buy the physical copy the TV-Edition, which included a neat statue.)
Wake up, it was just a nightmare
There is so much I wanted to say about Little Nightmares 2 and dig deep into the concept and execution of, basically, everything. For me, this wasn’t just a game. TMI: I sleep restlessly; I suffer bad PTSD-nightmares every single night, I sleepwalk, wake up screaming and my nightmares are horrible. That’s why this nightmare-like world, which they created in Little Nightmares -universe, is so important to me, because it gives me a way to handle my own issues. Not just with sleeping, but with life.
OK, with all this said, Little Nightmares 2 is another absolute masterpiece, but it has some flaws. It got little issues with the controls and some bugs here and there. I didn’t care those at all, as everything else was such exceptional. What I loved the most, was the fact how ‘player can interpret events their own way, as they unfold in the game.’
Little Nightmare 2 is, yet again, “something new” as I like to say. It follows little footsteps of the first game, but adds new perspectives, storylines, puzzles, characters, monsters and areas.
I cannot recommend you enough to play this one :]
It can be played on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Windows and Stadia.
(Review copy kindly provided by the publisher)
SCORE:
5/5
“It’s like an interactive dark Grimm’s story, that must be played to be fully realized”
One More Level 