Review for Little Nightmares. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 28/04/2017
If you have followed the 2017 releases with medium participation, you will surely have noticed that it was a year very full of great games. So imagine what a goal it must have been for a title with indie proportions like Little Nightmares to be able to emerge among the big names that have followed one another almost every month, capturing the attention and acclaim of critics (including us, as you can read in the review original).
If you are reading this review, however, it is very likely that you have missed this little gem on the road. If a Tim Burton at the height of his creativity had decided to devote himself to creating a video game, the result would most likely have been Little Nightmares. Fortunately, the guys from Tarsier Studios to be inspired by the director's gothic style to tell a story capable of disturbing and enchanting.
The game doesn't linger in explanations, and never will. After a very brief dream vision, you immediately find yourself in the role of the little protagonist Six, who, without saying a word, will walk in the meanders of Le Fauci, a strange structure sailing towards who knows where. Continuing along the path it becomes immediately clear that Six is not a mere passenger, but a fugitive intent on escaping from what will gradually prove to be a real nightmare, but terribly real. Hunting us will not be just some strange creatures that hide in the bowels of the structure, but above all the staff of Le Fauci, individuals with grotesque and repulsive features that we will have to overcome to gain freedom. It is initially unclear why we are in that place and why its staff are hunting us, but as you progress through the game, a silent narration made of implicit images will reveal the secrets of The Maw, in an escalation of tension which will, however, leave wide interpretation regarding some interesting details of the lore underlying the setting.
Perhaps the idea of a "silent" game might not convince you at first, but one of the most successful aspects of Little Nightmares is its successful fusion between narrative and visual sector. It is not only the mimicry of the characters that tells us what is happening, but above all their appearance, their proportions and expressions, the appearance of the setting in which we are immersed. Six is a tiny little girl and seems to be escaping from a den of giants, through apparently normal rooms, but terribly scruffy, twisted and intimidating. On our path we will have to evade characters such as the Keeper, a blind individual but with very long arms, always intent on seeking and grabbing us, or the Twin Cooks, fat and with a sagging and deformed face. Living visual exasperations of adults and their unsuitable and cruel world for children.
It is these elements that draw inspiration from Burtonian visions, which often combine the macabre and physical ugliness with innocence. Little Nightmares doesn't treat us like adults by resorting to jump scare to make us jump on the chair, but it forces us to revisit the fears developed as children, and which may have always remained there: the fear of finding ourselves in an unknown place almost totally in the dark, the feeling of something looking for you and chasing you to take you.
The game will make the atmosphere heavier and heavier as we get closer to the end and the realization of what's going on. The adventure will demand a merciless but perhaps inevitable change from Six, and understanding it from us without any description will have even more impact. Don't expect, however, that all the knots come to a head: many details are left to interpretation, even for the most attentive players to every perceptible detail along the way. Evidently the authors wanted to leave us until the end with a sense of insecurity, and this could leave us confused and a little disappointed, but it is still consistent with the style and charm of the game.
At the level of gameplay, Little Nightmares presents itself as a mix between platforming and physics-based puzzles. If you have had the opportunity to play Limbo or Inside the comparison will come naturally as you find yourself pushing objects to climb on, operating mechanisms and running at the right time. Despite the basic similarities, as the title progresses, Tarsier Studios reveals a personality of its own. Environmental puzzles are not particularly difficult, but solving them will require good observation of the environment. The only drawback is that on some occasions the solution seems clear, but not the execution, since the game provides only one way to solve it and only with some objects; interacting with the environment will not always be intuitive, often we will simply have to try them all until we understand how to continue. The problem arises on some occasions when the solution is so simple, but so vague as to waste time. And, speaking of wasting time, the burdens to take with each death can be annoying.
Depending on your skill, the adventure can be very short and can be completed in about four hours. However this Complete Edition also included three extra chapters in the package ("The Depths", "Il Nascondiglio" and "La Residenza") of about an hour each, which will put us in the shoes of the Fugitive, a boy who in turn will try to escape from Le Fauci by continuing along a parallel path to that of Six, but which will involve new game dynamics that manage to keep the gameplay fresh and varied. Add to this some collectibles to collect during the two adventures to unlock bonuses such as the game's evocative concept art. The Complete version also includes the Scarecrow Sack and Upturned Teapot masks, and through the Pac-Man amiibo it is possible to unlock that of the iconic Bandai Namco mascot.
Little Nightmares is a clever blend of visual storytelling and attention-based playability. An adventure that deliberately keeps under tension by leveraging on primary dark fears, and that with the use of the grotesque of its "monsters" hides a deeper message than one would expect. If you have missed it on the original platforms and you love games with an intense and suggestive atmosphere, you cannot miss it.
► Little Nightmares is a Platform-Puzzle type game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 28/04/2017
