Little Nightmares III - Switch 2 Review

It can often be disheartening when a game series changes developers midway through its anthology. One of my favourite games of all time is LucasArts’ 1993 hit Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Hardly anyone remembers it had a sequel, Ghoul Patrol, and for good reason! Most of its development was outsourced to a third party, and the ‘feel’ of the original was completely washed away as a result. Anyway, it’s not the 90s anymore, and we’re here to talk about Little Nightmares III. 

The reason for my preamble is the developer of the first two games in the series, Tarsier Studios, has stepped away and development has been taken over by Supermassive Games, those of The Quarry fame. Supermassive are obviously no chumps, and they also have experience with the series after developing Little Nightmares II: Enhanced Edition, so I’m excited to try this!

The Good

I remember when the original Little Nightmares came out and no one was quite sure what to expect. Was it a puzzle game? Or a platformer game? Or survival horror? What panned out was a completely unique experience, which Little Nightmares III largely remains faithful to. You still control small child-like characters (in this case Low and Alone), and the gameplay follows a series of puzzles which must be overcome. Whether it’s finding a key puzzle or environmental puzzles (knock over that thing to make a bridge), the formula is recognisable and still hits home. However, the biggest twist, which those who are reading closely will already have worked out, is that you no longer control one protagonist. That’s right; Low and Alone are two different characters who journey around together, and you can control both characters in co-op mode or control one and AI controls the other. It Takes Two has revolutionised the co-op landscape, and the more you think about it, it makes perfect sense to adapt this in Little Nightmares.

The co-op in Little Nightmares III works a treat and opens up the series to a whole new range of puzzles. Given this is the third entry, I feel something fresh needed to be injected into the gameplay, and the co-op mode is exactly that. I originally played a few hours single player (with the AI) and found it fun, but ultimately I could tell deep down this wasn’t the intended experience. I therefore roped in my wife, who is a fair-weather gamer to say the least (she only plays The Sims mainline entries, plus a few other reviews she’s helped me out with over the years) and we had a great time. The joy of working together to solve a puzzle or defeat some enemies feels intuitive and rewarding. 

I mentioned horror earlier in the review, and for those not familiar with the series, that is certainly a fairly prominent feature. And oh mercy, is it creepy. If you approach Little Nightmares III unguarded, then be prepared to be terrified. The characters are fairly cutesy, as are some of the bugs you need to wipe out, but the prologue (for example) ends in truly terrifying fashion, without sharing spoilers. The imagery and art style are incredibly bleak and will remain stuck in your retinas for a few days thereafter. Why is this in ‘The Good’ section, I hear you ask? Well, many will love it, and it makes Silent Hill look like Peppa Pig, which deserves some praise!

TL;DR

• Exciting new direction for the series
• Co-op mode dovetails perfectly with the game structure
• Horror fans will love it

The Bad

Well, as previously stated, playing with my wife greatly enhanced the experience in Little Nightmares III. Would I say co-op is essential? Not quite, but playing with the AI was a markedly less enjoyable experience, mainly because it removed a lot of the puzzle-solving. You normally just have to ‘call’ your AI assistant to prompt them to do something, so often I found myself just walking around pressing the ‘call’ button in a given puzzle room and eventually my AI companion did what was needed to do to move on.

Something else that blunts the Little Nightmares III experience is the gameplay cadence, in that it becomes fairly predictable after a while. The atmosphere is basically built upon its jump scares, and while the first few are indeed scary, after a while you will learn to preempt them. The gameplay beat of puzzle-puzzle-jumpscare (and similar variants to that), rinse and repeat, means you know what to expect and begin to anticipate when the jump scares will arise. Compare this to, say, a more open adventure game where jump scares can occur whenever and wherever; the linear nature of Little Nightmares III means you know one is coming at some point or another, and somehow it feels even more predictable in Little Nightmares III than its predecessors.

TL;DR

• Co-op much more enjoyable than single-player AI mode
• Jump scares are blunted by their eventual predictability

Final Score: 8/10

If you and a friend are Little Nightmares fans, then this entry will revolutionise your world. The co-op mode is superb and it fits into the series like a glove. However, if you’re likely to be playing this single player, then perhaps basking in the first two games is a better way to spend your time. 

That being said, Little Nightmares remains the best in the business at what it does, and its hardcore fans will be rewarded regardless.

Thank you for checking out our Little Nightmares III Switch review, thank you to Bandai Namco AU for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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