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Little Nightmares review thread

Melchiah

Member
Game Rant - 4/5
Ultimately, Little Nightmares strikes a fine chord between charming and creepy in a way that perhaps only a former LittleBigPlanet developer could do.

===

Oh, and it comes full circle
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/201...tle-nightmares-asset-pack-releases-next-week/
Little Nightmares in Little Big Planet
33186576183_57313dd6ba_o.png

Huh, I didn't know there were some LBP people involved. It seems kinda obvious now, given the audiovisual style.
 

overcast

Member
Might just pre order this game.

I'm trying to go spoiler free but what does this seem to offer that a game like Inside doesn't for example? Inside is one of my GOTG personally.

Cause I'm basically in.
 
Might just pre order this game.

I'm trying to go spoiler free but what does this seem to offer that a game like Inside doesn't for example? Inside is one of my GOTG personally.

Cause I'm basically in.
1) Creepy twisted surreal Tim Burton-y atmosphere (versus Inside's more muted dystopian)
2) It's not sidescrolling, but 3D, so you have another dimension for exploration, puzzles, level design, etc.
3) Seems like a larger focus on stealth

Here, check this out. It's a kind of demo, that turns a section of the game into a COYA-style adventure
http://escapekitchen.little-nightmares.com/
 
Metro - 7/10
"It has some unfortunate gameplay failings, but in terms of disturbing atmosphere and surprisingly serious subject matter this is one of the best horror games of the year"

Mechanically speaking Little Nightmare is a puzzle platformer. Despite what it may look like from the screenshots it's not a 2D game, although it does maintain a fixed side-on camera. But this creates what is the game's primary gameplay issue, in that even though most of the platform sequences appear very simple it's annoyingly hard to judge the angle you're running at. This leads to unnecessary falls, and frequently deaths. Combined with inconsistent checkpointing and long load times the greatest threats to the game's carefully curated atmosphere are disappointingly prosaic.

Tarsier Studios has previously worked on LittleBigPlanet, the platformer construction game where the actual platforming has never been particularly good.​

Looks like my frustration from playing the demo at EGX before still cropped up on final release.

gamescom_little_nightmares_1.jpg

Little Nightmares (video) - Previously called Hunger, this is just a stunner (UE4). It's a 2D perspective, but you're moving around a 3D space, which sometimes can lead to platforming awkwardness when you're trying to line up a jump but realise you're in the wrong plane. Also, separate buttons for jumping and grabbing (R2), so that threw me off when jumping for the rope where you have to press 3 buttons at once (Square for sprinting, A to jump, and R2 to grab). Love the creepy dark children fantasy tone. It ends on a very morbid note. You're in the vents, and a shoe falls down. You see more shoes later. When you come out of the vent, you come across a sea of shoes. Presumably from all previously dead children. Then this happens, which reminded me of Amnesia.

This sounds very interesting from that review:
But there's a deeper point being made too; about exploitation, not of children specifically, but of human life in general – as grist for the mill of unquestioning consumerism.

And if you think we're reading too much into it, then consider the game's willingness to use visual references to the Holocaust and what it tries to say with them. Although personally we feel that goes a step too far, as although it fits the themes of the game it doesn't sit well next to the cartoonish monster chefs and other more fantastical elements.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Mechanically speaking Little Nightmare is a puzzle platformer. Despite what it may look like from the screenshots it’s not a 2D game, although it does maintain a fixed side-on camera. But this creates what is the game’s primary gameplay issue, in that even though most of the platform sequences appear very simple it’s annoyingly hard to judge the angle you’re running at. This leads to unnecessary falls, and frequently deaths. Combined with inconsistent checkpointing and long load times the greatest threats to the game’s carefully curated atmosphere are disappointingly prosaic.

Tarsier Studios has previously worked on LittleBigPlanet, the platformer construction game where the actual platforming has never been particularly good.​

Looks like my frustration from playing the demo at EGX before still cropped up on final release.

Yeah like I said this is definitely the game's biggest issue. The game is pretty dark as well, so you can fall to your death before you know it. You get a lighter, always have it on if you can.

btw the long load times were there in a preview build I played, but gone in the final version. The reload on death is very quick.
 
Mechanically speaking Little Nightmare is a puzzle platformer. Despite what it may look like from the screenshots it’s not a 2D game, although it does maintain a fixed side-on camera. But this creates what is the game’s primary gameplay issue, in that even though most of the platform sequences appear very simple it’s annoyingly hard to judge the angle you’re running at. This leads to unnecessary falls, and frequently deaths. Combined with inconsistent checkpointing and long load times the greatest threats to the game’s carefully curated atmosphere are disappointingly prosaic.

Tarsier Studios has previously worked on LittleBigPlanet, the platformer construction game where the actual platforming has never been particularly good.​

Looks like my frustration from playing the demo at EGX before still cropped up on final release.



This sounds very interesting from that review:
But there’s a deeper point being made too; about exploitation, not of children specifically, but of human life in general – as grist for the mill of unquestioning consumerism.

And if you think we’re reading too much into it, then consider the game’s willingness to use visual references to the Holocaust and what it tries to say with them. Although personally we feel that goes a step too far, as although it fits the themes of the game it doesn’t sit well next to the cartoonish monster chefs and other more fantastical elements.
Is that any more fantastical than talking farm animals (Animal Farm) or cats and mice (Maus) or a futuristic analog (upcoming My Memory of Us)? That comment makes me feel like it's more the fact that it's presented in the form of a video game that suddenly "it's a step too far"

Dusk Golem actually already extensively explored this in a speculating post about the game. It was very interesting
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=228551969&postcount=57
 
Is that any more fantastical than talking farm animals (Animal Farm) or cats and mice (Maus) or a futuristic analog (upcoming My Memory of Us)? That comment makes me feel like it's more the fact that it's presented in the form of a video game that suddenly "it's a step too far"

Dusk Golem actually already extensively explored this in a speculating post about the game. It was very interesting
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=228551969&postcount=57

Honestly, sounds like the critic didn't feel it matched with the rest of the aesthetic of the game or something. Doesn't seem like a big deal. We'll see soon enough.
 
PC Gamer - 78/100
An okay platformer but a deeply imaginative horror game, Little Nightmares is worth playing for its array of disturbing imagery...
This is a terrific world to step into and then out of again, a rush of original and disconcerting imagery slotted into an eerie, isolated setting. I want to preserve that effect it had on me the first time, of underestimating the oddities that the developers had in store. This is a horror game that genuinely has new things to show you.
 
$20 for digital copies, but you get lots of pre-order bonuses.
$25 for physical copies, comes with a digital OST download.
$35-40 for the Six Edition, comes with cool physical goods.

Looks like Best Buy isn't offering the regular physical edition. Not interested in a $10 figurine. I'll wait for a sale I guess.
 
A good Waypoint piece on how the game uses the familiar to very creepy unsettling effect
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/home-is-where-the-horror-is-in-little-nightmares
When sneaking through someone's home, be it home to a terrifying beast or blood relatives, there is a sense that you are invading a personal space. You are an unwelcome guest outside of the boundaries of familial comfort. A home is meant to be a space to retreat, a building that represents both the everyday and the sentimental. It is intrinsically unsettling to journey through a home that you are uninvited to, or where something has gone "wrong"—whatever that may be. And no matter how often we play within these spaces, their impact is unlikely to dull.
I can't stress how effective that feeling was in This War of Mine. That was one of those rare games where I'd attempt as much as I could not to kill anyone. Even if it was a bandit outpost, but sometimes, you weren't sneaking into the home of killers, but homes of survivors just like you. And being in those places, invading that privacy and safety to steal and sneak, just felt...wrong
 
GUYS, the Six Edition has reduced in price in GAME I just got this email:

Hi Emma

We just wanted to write with some good news. The price for Little Nightmares Six Edition has dropped to £27.99. Our Pre-order Price Promise means you pay the lower price, and not the original price so there's no need to worry. Thought you should know.

Thanks again for pre-ordering with us.

The Team,

GAME.co.uk
 
Game Informer - 9/10
An amazing work in its own right, and a must-play for anyone who enjoys tightly crafted platformers and grotesque horror...
Little Nightmares isn’t a horror game in a traditional sense, but it’s filled with horrifying imagery and some of the most wretched sights I’ve seen in a long time. Even without any graphic violence or gore, it’s deeply unsettling.
 
I think this is the second time I've seen the atmosphere in this game compared to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
US Gamer
Little Nightmares, like the great skin-crawly tales of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, feels like the stories that haunt kids to their cores as kids. Where a world’s atmosphere and ghouls are a threat: and you, a kid, are just helpless, left to hide away when danger looms. If hiding is even an option, after all.

Considering how much those books terrified me as a kid, if this can come close to those, I'll be very satisfied
 
I think this is the second time I've seen the atmosphere in this game compared to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
US Gamer


Considering how much those books terrified me as a kid, if this can come to those, I'll be very satisfied

Never read those books myself but it's great to see consistency from different reviewers. However, it should be noted that the developers said their game is "100% original" and that they never took outside inspiration for source.
 
Never read those books myself but it's great to see consistency from different reviewers. However, it should be noted that the developers said their game is "100% original" and that they never took outside inspiration for source.
Oh, comparing it to those books is not saying the game took inspiration from them. But those books did have a distinctly unsettling vibe, especially in that art work, that can sometimes still creep me out today. The comparisions are saying the game feels reminiscent of that kind of horror and creepiness

Check out some of the art. It's the kind of stuff that would give kids nightmares
 

Dabanton

Member
All this talk of it being unsettling is filling me with glee.

I'm away this weekend but will make time for this game next week once the night rolls in.
 

Wanderer5

Member
I think this is the second time I've seen the atmosphere in this game compared to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
US Gamer


Considering how much those books terrified me as a kid, if this can come close to those, I'll be very satisfied

Woah, comparisons to those books make me even more intrigued for this game!
 

shmoglish

Member
Ordered the Specialedition with the Sixfigure a while ago. Really looking foward to this game. Nightmare fuel for the long Weekend, yay.
 

EdmondD

Member
I have been anticipating this game. Looks like they nailed it. Although they kind of messed up with the gameplay apparently. The creepy atmosphere looks great.


Oh, comparing it to those books is not saying the game took inspiration from them. But those books did have a distinctly unsettling vibe, especially in that art work, that can sometimes still creep me out today. The comparisions are saying the game feels reminiscent of that kind of horror and creepiness

Check out some of the art. It's the kind of stuff that would give kids nightmares

I used to be so scared of those books when I was a kid I used to actively try to avoid them when I would buy books. The artwork is terrifying. At the same time I was drawn towards them because I was always interested in the paranormal.
 

BeeDog

Member
Digitally pre-ordered this so can't wait to play it. Was contemplating if I should get the physical edition with the figure ,but decided against it.
 
I used to be so scared of those books when I was a kid I used to actively try to avoid them when I would buy books. The artwork is terrifying. At the same time I was drawn towards them because I was always interested in the paranormal.
Was terrifying

What's even more terrifying is how they ruined the art in the new editions of the books
 

EdmondD

Member
Was terrifying

What's even more terrifying is how they ruined the art in the new editions of the books

I forgot about that. Those idiots. It's actually some of the most interesting art I have ever seen and it's been stuck in my head since I was a kid. I can see the comparison to this game. There is something slightly off that makes it unsettling.
 

Melchiah

Member
Speaking of Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, I really hope the movie adaptation by Guillermo Del Toro comes to being, and turns out good.
 

Canadian

Member
I went to a gaming event in Rome called Let's Play with my girlfriend earlier this year and they had a demo of the game.

I never got a chance to play but my girlfriend did and she liked it enough to want to get it. She's excited to play it and all the positive reception is good to hear.
 

Mdk7

Member
I think this is the second time I've seen the atmosphere in this game compared to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
US Gamer


Considering how much those books terrified me as a kid, if this can come close to those, I'll be very satisfied

Now I NEED to read those books.
Too bad the new edition is terrible, without those amazingly disturbing illustrations. :(
 
IGN - 8.8
Gleefully strange, unceasingly grim, and quietly smart, Little Nightmares is a very welcome fresh take on horror.

TheSixthAxis - 8/10
Little Nightmares is something of a minor classic. Gorgeously gross and surprisingly inventive, it creates a genuine feeling of terror and tension. It’s a bit odd to say a game that involves skipping over corpses is enjoyable, but it is, just don’t blame Tarsier if you have nightmares.

PSU - 7/10
An inventive and disturbing puzzler with beautiful environments, Little Nightmares is well worth a look for fans of the genre looking for something a little different.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
This game looks great, and loving the reviews. Will probably pick this up eventually, but my backlog is so big right now already!!!

Looks like another game though without a platinum trophy.....is it REALLY that hard to add a Platinum trophy to your games when making the trophy part of the process? Not a deal breaker, but it annoys the hell out of me.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
This game looks great, and loving the reviews. Will probably pick this up eventually, but my backlog is so big right now already!!!
.

BRUH!!! Between this, What Remains of Edith Finth, and 3 other small VR games (Pyschonauts, Headmaster,Statik) that I just bought or will be buying I'm starting to get a backlog in games that a lot more weird than in the past.

All of them are games that can be played and beat in 4 hours or less, yet I can't seem to play them all.
 

Anung

Un Rama
That's why short games are great, You can finish them in a day or two, and get a complete satisfying experience

After a few months of non-stop long games I'm actually thankful for some nice shorter experiences. I'm nearing the end of Nioh now and I really need something a little less substantial.
 
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