Little Nightmares

Let's go ahead and get the obvious point out of the way right at the start: Little Nightmares looks incredible. From the moment I fired it up all the way to the very end, I couldn't take my eyes off of this curious new action game. It's one of those experiences that doesn't just make a great first impression, but constantly leaves you desperate to see what happens next. And now that I know exactly what happens next, I'm happy to report that this new game from Tarsier Studios is an adventure you absolutely must see for yourself.

Let me set the scene: You play a young girl named Six who wakes up in an old suitcase in a damp and scary room. She's not sure where she is, how she got there or what's going to happen next. In fact, just about the only thing this little girl knows is that she's hungry and will do just about anything to escape the horrible situation she finds herself in. This sets up a stunning adventure with an atmosphere so thick you can almost swim in it.

It won't take long for Six to figure out the obvious: She's stuck in some sort of ship with no weapons and very little chance of survival. What she does have is a lighter and a never-give-up attitude that just may be enough to keep her out of trouble. Six will be safe as long as she can keep moving, navigate the tricky environment and stay away from the people looking to gobble her up as their next meal. That's going to be easier said than done.

Little Nightmares is a 3D action/platformer along the lines of Limbo and Inside. The object is to go from room to room using the environment to puzzle your way to safety. This can mean anything from pushing chairs around to pulling levers to move a suspended piano. Six does little more than run, jump, pick up items and grab onto ledges, so it's up to you to use your wits to solve the increasingly intense situations she keeps getting herself into.

Although the gameplay is simple, the adventure never feels shallow. Little Nightmares is especially good about throwing new ideas and obstacles at you from one part of the ship to the next, and it never dwells in one place for too long. The tension and stakes keep ratcheting up as we begin to uncover the true evils of the ship, which builds to a truly epic final act that kept me on the edge of my seat. We're not given lengthy cinemas or dialog to add context, but rather are immersed in the best of visual storytelling. I simply couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

Like I said at the top, the graphics are positively breath-taking. The way Six moves and how she interacts with the world is cinematic in approach, often looking like it could be part of an incredibly stylish animated movie. This extends to the other characters on the ship, which are all large and ghoulish in a number of disturbing ways. And even when it seems like the subject matter could lend itself to a series of annoying jump scares, I like that it holds back and gives us a genuinely creepy experience that is confident enough to not rely on cheap gimmicks. Little Nightmares lets the disturbing world and atmospheric style do all of the heavy lifting.

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While there aren't a lot of negatives to talk about, I will say that this game covers a lot of familiar ground. While the story and setting is certainly unique, some of the platforming puzzles feel like they were plucked out of other similar games. There are other times when the solutions are a little too obvious, rarely making you work to figure out how to get past a tricky obstacle. It's also worth mentioning that it's possible to get stuck in the environments and have to manually restart the checkpoint. Thankfully, this only happened a couple of times and the rest of the game ran without a hitch. These aren't exactly major issues and they never detract from what is an otherwise masterfully constructed experience.

Little Nightmares is a game that sets a tone and is compelling right from the very beginning. Even when I had to replay tricky sections multiple times, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next and how Six would get out of each bind. I absolutely adore the look of the game and appreciated the quick pacing. Players who didn't like or are just burned out of games like Limbo may want to avoid this adventure, but everybody else should drop everything and seek out Little Nightmares.