Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Switch 2)
Besides finding suitably horror-themed games (and movies, and books, and graphic novels, etc.) to play for my 31 Day of Horror challenge, I've actually been trying to explore new types of games and themes to sort of branch out and find things I might find more interesting, or which are less demanding of my time, or --heck-- just more suited to my aging tastes and interests. Apparently one can play too many shooters, or too many third person games, such that the familiarity of those genres can become predictable and tedious (I'm looking at you, Atomfall!) but there are entire types of games I've avoided in the past, and one of those is the 2D style side scroller. These games come in a variety of flavors, but all have as a commonality a fixed perspective and a play pattern that has you moving, usually from left to right on the screen, experiencing something and maybe solving puzzles, surviving and unlocking story bits. Variants abound such as the roguelites (Dead Cells, Ultros) and the metroidvanias (Shadow Labyrinth, Metroid Dread) but the one subgenre of this style I have been enjoying the most is a style I am not sure has a proper name: games like Limbo, Inside and Little Nightmares all seem to fall into this special category of what I might imagine could be defined as "survival side scrollers."
Little Nightmares is in its third game and I decided now was the time to catch up on it. The Enhanced Complete Edition released on the Switch 2 at the same time as the third game, so I picked it up to start here. Interestingly they haven't released the enhanced edition of Little Nightmares II on Switch 2 yet, and the regular Switch edition looks very muddy and unpleasant on Switch 2 (it is not taking advantage of the souped up new hardware), so I am currently playing through that one on a Steam copy. But this review is about the first game.
Your character is apparently named 6 although I am not sure this information is communicated anywhere in the game that I found (I discovered my son has played all of these and is, similar to many other franchises out there I know nothing of, he by contrast is bursting with lore and esoteric details on these games). 6 appears to be a little girl in a raincoat, and the somewhat exaggerated graphical style of the game which is a 3D/2D (2.5D) format exudes a weird "hyper-real" feel to the environments and characters. They look cartoony and exaggerated (in a grotesque way) but the whole time I played it felt like I was just maneuvering my tiny person through endless dioramas of exquisite detail. It makes this game stand out amongst the rest, and I can see why a lot of people love this series as a result.
Anyway, 6 wakes up in the bowels of what you learn is a huge, monolithic and almost abyssal ocean liner. She seeks escape, but escape requires going through level upon level, looking for a way out while encountering the monstrous residents of the vessel. A custodian who seems to keep children in order to be slaughtered for food, who is blind but grasps with freakishly long arms and short legs. A pair of cooks who harvest food for the passengers, who you later meet and discover are all effectively grotesque ogres, gluttonous and mad creatures who will scramble to eat you if you are spotted. The final boss is possibly the one who runs it all, a vain woman dressed like a geisha who is the only thin creature on the ship but also possesses powers of shadow and a terrible hatred of her own image in mirrors.
Amidst all this are other captured children, many beyond saving, and tiny mushroom-capped creatures called nomes who seem hesitant about you (though in a DLC playthrough of another child trapped on the ship they prove quite helpful and even friendly). 6 must make her way through each region of the ship, doing what she can, even as she finds she is gripped by her own intense hunger. Honestly, her debilitating periodic hunger attacks had me wondering if she was basically a child version of the ogres, eventually destined to transform into one of them....until I got to the story's end (which I won't spoil) and I was like....ah. Wow. Okay then.....
If you are wondering if this game is for you, I have the following observations on my playthrough of the main game and the expansion story (about a boy who tries to escape as well, via a different route): first and most important, I managed to get through the entire main campaign without consulting an FAQ or playthrough. I can't say the same for the expansion, which I think was targeting the more hardcore players, and an FAQ was helpful toward the end. Would I have figured out the rather myriad puzzles at the end on my own? Eventually I might have, but I'd probably have spent an extra hour puzzling it out and backtracking a lot....I did that even with the guide.
The second thing to know is that the 2.5D perspective means that unlike many other side-scrollers/metroidvanias this game lets you move around within each articulate and detailed area. You sometimes have to make jumps based on where you think you are going to land, only to discover you miscalculated, or the game's queues don't quite align with what you think is the correct trajectory. This doesn't pose a problem like 90% of the time, but that 10% can be frustrating. There's a sequence where 6 is being chased by a veritable wall of ogreish flesh and you escape with a daring leap over a chasm to a hook, and I think I had to try that one twenty times before I got it right. So...patience will be necessary in certain spots.
Luckily the game is built around a save point system that is well aware you are possibly at a rough spot, so it is generous in providing plenty of close proximity save locations, where 6 will reawaken as if from a bad dream. Usually if something got you the first time, you can (usually) navigate correctly around the problem on round two. Except, of course, for those handful of spots. You'll know 'em when you get to them.
All told, I really enjoyed my playthrough, and plowed through the DLC expansion immediately after. I also enjoyed the ending, it was not at all what I expected in either case. I then immediately jumped in to Little Nightmares II as a result. Definite A! The Switch 2 edition is a solid thumbs up, but I am sure the Steam version of the Enhanced Edition is also well worth it.
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