Little Nightmares

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

Two words... Dark and Creepy. Little Nightmares is far from a horror game, but does just enough to make you feel uncomfortable while you're playing it. Set in a morbid cruise ship from hell where the guests like to feast on the flesh of children while they pig out like animals, you'll find yourself escaping from humanoid like creatures that truly are the products of nightmares. The story is amazing and you'll be left shocked and dumbfounded at the end, not really knowing what's going on because very little is actually explained, but enjoying every second of it nonetheless. The DLC's add even more onto that sentiment, leaving you in a state of despair and questioning yourself, why are we even here... just to suffer?
Suffering and creepy elements aside, Little Nightmares truly is a beautifully done game with detailed artwork that breathes life into the dead carcass that is the Maw... you'll definitely want to play this one with the lights off though. The soundtrack only adds onto that, raising your heartbeat the closer you get to danger was something that really made me feel all the more immersed into the story and the ambient noises make sure you're always feeling tense as you traverse the the darkness.
The gameplay itself however felt like the only shortcoming this game had, at least in my opinion. More than the unearthly local residents of the Maw, the number one thing that always got me killed was falling due to bad camera angles and choppy controls that would lead me plummeting to a premature demise. Being an Indie 3Dish puzzle-solving platformer I know I shouldn't be too demanding, but there was just something about the puzzles that didn't resonate with me... most of the time just by glancing around the room you would know exactly what to do and you could just breeze through all the chapters like there was no tomorrow, the whole game could probably be completed in about 2 hours (+1 hour w/ DLC's) so you'll definitely end up with a feeling of wanting more.
That being said, Little Nightmares is still one hell of a game and I would most definitely recommend it to anyone who's thinking of giving it a try, but because of the moderate price and short length of the game I would suggest waiting for it to go on discount and buying the Complete Edition to get the most value out of your money.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Atari

---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch video instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ I'm now deaf
☐ My ears bleeding

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Toast Machine
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich
☐ Nasa

---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second life for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ Better than your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ Infinity

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ Cyberbug 2077

---{?/10}---
☐1
☐2
☐3
☐4
☐5
☐6
☐7
☐8
☐9
☑10

After finishing the short but sweet story of both Little Nightmares and its companion DLC "Secrets of the Maw", I was extremely surprised and sad that I hadn't heard or seen this game before. What had initially put this game on my radar was seeing it suggested in my discovery queue. It sat in my wishlist for the longest time, and only recently for the Halloween sale I bought it. I saw that it was on a super deep discount and knew that I would be losing money not buying it.
Initially booting up the game, I realized I knew nothing about it. I hadn't watched any reviews, gameplay walk-through, I don't even think I even read the steam description of the game. I was purely hooked on the screenshots from the steam page. That's saying something. I was solely hooked on the aesthetics of the game, and boy was I glad that was able to solely convince me on purchasing the game. What I didn't expect was the touching story, a wide variety of puzzles, and the spine-chilling hums the music tracks had to offer.
Typical for this genre of games, there is a story and deeper meaning that you can pick up while doing the various activities in-game. Pictures on the wall of horrid human-looking faces, frozen fear-struck children under a watchful eye, or the different disturbing enemies encountered throughout the different rooms, there is always something to look and ponder at. Along with these, there are the unforgettable gnomes running around the different areas, showing you how to solve a puzzle or even being a nice companion to just hug. These gnomes serve as the main focal point and are more expanded upon in the "Secrets of the Maw" DLC. Both stories of Little Nightmares and Secrets of the Maw provide an interesting and heart-string pulling narrative that the player is sure to take heart to. Each player might get different mileage out of the different campaigns, but I thought both were of high quality. If I had to choose which one I liked the most, I would have to choose Secrets of the Maw as my favorite in terms of story. I really enjoy stories that are set within the same time period of other ones, and seeing said stories of Six and Runaway Kid intertwine and mix in creative ways really emphasizes that the player needs to experience both of them to have the full Little Nightmares experience.
Now delving into the main meat and potatoes, or meat and gnome, of the game, the different puzzles. Both base game and DLC offer complex and elaborate puzzles in different forms. Some examples of the puzzles you'll encounter: filling up a furnace with the most amount of coal, how to turn off the power to get past the electric fence that it's powering, and trying to survive and sneak past the multiple monsters you will encounter. And this is where a lot of Little Nightmares gets its heart racing sweat dribbling down your face moments. When you walking into a dark room only lit by your tiny flashlight, and you come across a monster with long arms and a blindfold standing right in front of you, Nightmares uses its great atmosphere to send the player into a panic for what to do next and find a way out. Most of the time, the player is dumped right into the room with the enemy, and is tasked with trying to get out of the room by either not being seen by them or out running them. Overall, I really enjoyed most of the puzzles. Looking in retrospect, both games structure their puzzles differently, with Nightmares having more linear point A point B objectives, and Secrets being more open with multiple puzzles in one large area. I liked both styles of puzzles, but I really enjoyed what base game Nightmares had to offer more. That's not to say what Secrets had to offer was bad, I still enjoyed them and found them challenging, but I enjoyed the more linear style of the base game.
When I was initially hooked on the game's atmosphere, I was putting a lot of trust into the game. I wasn't considering the gameplay, the music, the story, I was trusting purely on the looks and how pretty it was. I wish that I had cared or thought to look at the other aspects that make this game so compelling. The lighting, the music, the art style, and the sound are all what I would expect to see from a triple-A studio. Lighting was used to great effect, with the developers giving a small light source being a lighter or flashlight to most of the time light giant dark rooms. The way light sources bounce off of walls and are absorbed by the different objects gives the game a very realistic feeling, feeding into the glamor or cruddyness of each environment. Adding onto this with the soundtrack of the game, it sets the tone effortlessly. Just listing to the music alone brings me back to those moments from the game of walking through dark hallways and running from the different monsters. The edition that I bought sadly didn't include the soundtrack, but I totally see myself purchasing it when it goes on sale again. Finally looking at the art style, I really don't know what to say. Even with competing games out there sporting ultra-realistic graphics, Nightmares carries its own weight with it's cute but effective art style. If you like the styles of Tim Burton or movies like Caroline, you are sure to be a fan of this one and what it has to offer.
While I've been looking at the positives for most of the review, there were a few negative parts to my experience. For starters, I had a few issues trying to traverse the world with the controls for the game. I played on a standard keyboard and mouse and didn't really have a problem until it came to moving the flashlight around in certain parts of the DLC. Climbing up and down certain ladders also proved to be a little nightmare for me. The rest of the controls of the game were fine, but these are just small things that could be worked on in a sequel. Another huge impact on my experience were the crashes. Sometimes my game would crash on the pause screen, and the only way to close the game was to do a full restart of my computer. This only happened about three times, but it really negatively impacted my experience, causing me to stop playing the game altogether for the night and continue later on. A few other nitpicks I had were things like the mouse going over from the game to my other screen causing me to have to pause the game fully and then go back to play, and the occasional bug. Most of these weren't detrimental to my experience, but I thought it was important to point out.
But to sum it up and put a nice little bow on top, I don't need to restate that I enjoyed this game again. It was a short but very pleasant and fun experience that I suggest any gamer or at least one someone that enjoys an experience enriched with creativity to indulge in anytime. While I do think that the game is fantastic and high quality, without being on sale I think that the price is really steep. As others have pointed out and as I have experienced, waiting for the game to go on sale is a great time to leap and buy the game. I wouldn't mind paying full price for the package, but I guess I did what a lot of others would do and just wait for the game to go on sale. It all depends on each person. The future for Little Nightmares going forward looks bright. Tarsier Studios have showcased and revealed a release date for Little Nightmares 2, and I am excited to see how the team can expand on their initial ideas. Most of all, I'm really interested to see how Tarsier incorporates newer technologies like ray tracing and faster load times to create an even better package than they've made before. The future looks bright, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited.
I hope this review helped you determine whether or not to purchase the game, and if you have any feedback or comments please feel free to leave them in the comments or contact me through steam. Thanks for reading!

It feels like stepping into a strange, beautiful dream where everything is much bigger and much scarier than you. The world is dark but full of character, with every room telling a story without saying a word. The style is so unique (part creepy, part charming) and it pulls you in with just a glance. You never quite know what to expect, and that mystery makes every step feel special.
The gameplay is simple but clever, mixing platforming with smart little puzzles that never feel out of place. It keeps you moving, thinking, and reacting all at once. There are moments when your heart races, not because of a big fight, but because you’re trying to escape something towering and terrifying. That mix of quiet thinking and sudden adrenaline is rare and done so well here.
It’s not just another horror game, it’s an experience, built with so much love for atmosphere, detail, and emotion. It leaves you wide-eyed, a little breathless, and eager to dive back into the dark.

Little Nightmares is short, sweet and atmospheric experience, each and every chapter is unique in their own way and the difficulty is perfectly balanced. The various collectables aren't too difficult to find either. Six specifically is an amazing protagonist, while she doesn't talk, she can be very expressive at various points in the game. The other monsters in the game such as the Janitor and the Twin Chefs are unsettling yet well designed.

Overall 9/10 game, will be playing again.