Merry Christmas Everyone!
All Things Geekery is hosting it’s very first GIVEAWAY!! Enter to win a copy of the Little Nightmares Complete Edition for the Xbox One – Ends 1/23.
Enter Here: https://bit.ly/2EOTbxZ …
The Review
Little Nightmares is a wonderful 2D horror puzzle platformer that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
When you begin the game you will be in charge of guiding a small character called Six through The Maw (an ocean facility with a slow reveal of its awful purpose) loaded with death hazards and tons of puzzles. Being a fairly short game around five hours long, Little Nightmares feels a tad too short, as the implied scale of the game suggests there was more of the Maw to see.
Little Nightmares’ has some very similar related games like Limbo, and Inside, not just because of the child in danger, but in how cleverly it brings together puzzle design and storytelling. Every enemy, every room, every meat grinder you use to make a rope of sausages to swing from, contributes to the story of The Maw and Six’s survival.
The Maw itself is something like a death trap dollhouse. The developer Tarsier knows exactly how to bring a mix of suspense and horror and still keep you interested in the story. I don’t recall a single jump scare in the entirety of Little Nightmares’ runtime, but I know I flinched and had that uneasy feeling most of the game.
Six is thrust into a world that is lit like a haunted house, regularly forcing you to flick open Six’s only possession, a tiny cigarette lighter. This place – with its nurseries full of restlessly sleeping children, curious packages transported by hook, and some truly disgusting visitors is strangely functional as a world to bring horror. All these details and mixes bring one of the best gaming locations I’ve seen in years.
Now for some of the negatives of the games which is a shame as it’s quite a wonderful looking world, but Little Nightmares does have some issues. One of the biggest problems is the movement of an almost 3D platformer. The slightest move at the wrong angle or direction can send you plummeting into the abyss of death. Likewise, a few of its instant-death obstacles are the kind of trial-and-error puzzling that become frustrating to finish. Pair that with inconsistent checkpoints and ridiculous long load times (a trade-off presumably made to allow entire chapters of the game to be played seamlessly).
Overall those occasional issues, though, more than made up for in the constant pleasure of exploration, which is enhanced by some subtle tricks. Environments are often built just bigger than the camera’s field of view…..just urging you to look into the crevices of this game. The camera itself moves with an ever-so-slight delay and sways with The Maw’s ocean rocking, giving the impression of not being a perfect lens which makes for an interesting experience.
This game has much more to enjoy, from Six and her lighter, to the boss battles that require some thought and tactic. Little Nightmares will make you re-evaluate where all the baddies could jump out from and at what point will you pulled into the black abyss of death. It’s a well-designed game with lovely animations, impressive sound engineering, a world with breathtaking visuals, and a story that pulls you in.
Welcome to Season 2 Episode 6 of the All Things Geekery Podcast – Blaugust Reborn
A Hobbits Journey 