Little Nightmares 2:  A scary title with a mysterious story

When I was about to make a report on the Bandai Namco booth at GamesCom 2019 event, it was announced that a new title would be introduced. No one could have guessed that this game would be a new version of “Little Nightmares”.

An experience that revived the atmosphere of Inside for us in the 2017 whether Tarsier Studios will no longer be working with Bandai Namco after joining THQ Nordic; How successful has he been in their latest collaboration with this famous publisher?

The story of “Little Nightmares 2” is about a new character named Mono. Shortly after the start, Mono meets Six (the main character of the first version). Six in this title plays the complementary role of the hero of the game (Deuteragonist). If you have not experienced the previous versions, you cannot understand the storyline. This game will fill your mind with big and small questions from the very beginning.

At first you walk down a corridor and wake up as you approach a door with an eye drawn on it. There is a TV behind you. The TV turns off as soon as Mono wakes up; All you know from the surroundings is the presence of Mono and a TV off in a forest. What did the dream you had mean? or the door of the hall you dreamed? Why is Mono on top of a paper bag? What is the story of that TV? Where is this forest? And questions like these from the very first second of the game will make you curious and, of course, a little scary.

Fear, mistery and puzzles

The game stages are arranged in such a way that you feel the atmosphere of fear and atmosphere of the first version of the game as well; This makes you constantly looking for story connections between the two versions. The music of the game is completely faithful to the first version and tries to do best of its job which is storytelling.

Game puzzles also carry another part of the body of the game narrative; These puzzles are not so difficult as to slow down the storytelling process, nor are they easy enough to give you the feeling of a trouble-free puzzle. The storytelling in “Little Nightmares 2” has a framework and is not a mess; However, its complexity may give you an idea of why everything is presented in a scattered way.

The focus is on the element of fear and being mysterious, and that makes you curious about what’s going to happen while you’re afraid of progressing in the game. The 4-to-8-hour gaming experience may seem short, but it may take a few days.

Trying to understand the ambiguities and questions of the part of the game that you have left behind, on the one hand, and the different and psychological horror of the game, on the other hand, will prolong the process of finishing the game.

Little Nightmares 2 has 2 different, but interconnected, endings

“Little Nightmares 2” includes two interconnected endings. The first ending will be visible to all who finish the game. To reach the second or hidden ending of the game, you must have reached 2 collectible items during the game to be able to view it. Little Nightmares 2 may be one of the best storytelling experiences of the last 12 months, but the game’s dependence on the first version makes it difficult for those who have not experienced the first version to understand the whole story.

Speaking of gameplay, we see interesting differences compared to previous versions of this title. In “Little Nightmares 2”, in addition to using flashlights like the DLC version 1, we can use axes, sticks, kitchen spoons, and the things like these as a defensive tool and use them to hit some enemies in the game; Mono battles with puppet or severed children are a good example of this.

The presence of Six as a complementary role also allows us to see a two-person collaboration to solve some puzzles or cross obstacles. Actions like hooking and climbing obstacles and jumping off cliffs with Six are the exact examples.

Unlike the first version, the TVs are frequently seen in the second version. In “Little Nightmares 1”, it was occasionally seen and only had the role of an environmental element and in the middle of the game you realize that you can use them to teleport from one place to another or from time to time. In this regard, they are a new experience in the gameplay of this title.

The movement can, sometimes, be a problem

The chasing stages in the game, like the first version, suffer from a fundamental problem: the weakness of movement in the dimension. To better explain this, I must point out that although the title “Little Nightmares 2” has the atmosphere of a two-dimensional game, but in most of the game, it is possible to move in different dimensions of the game and depending on the location Positioning the camera is a bit difficult to correctly detect escape routes when chasing.

Puzzles get harder as the game progresses, but this issue will not affect your experience. The chasing stages in “Little Nightmares 2”, which is a kind of main body of the gameplay of this series, are wonderful in this version. These levels scare you more than any other part of the game.

One of the scariest parts happens in the hospital when you are escaping the mannequins using a flashlight; However, escaping from the hunter or the long-necked teacher and many of the game’s scary characters will bring you enough excitement and fear. Overall, “Little Nightmares 2” has significantly improved over the first version by adding new elements to the gameplay.

The story is a little different from the gameplay graphically. In the gameplay section, the clever nature of the puzzles is tried to be the same as the first version, or in general, the gameplay of the game has been created with a certain number of changes compared to the first version, which I mentioned earlier; But things are not the same when it comes to visual arts.

Improvement from the first game

We are witnessing an extraordinary leap compared to before. First of all, you will experience a variety of environments throughout the game. Forests, schools, hospitals and many different areas that you deal with in the game make the visual experience of the game very diverse. The atmosphere in the game is such that the element of fear is injected into the mind of players everywhere in the game.

The design of the environments, including the coloring, lighting, animation of the bad characters and even their face design, all play the role of the main pillar of the horror genre.

During the game experience, you will not see any drop in frame. One of the main successes of “Little Nightmares 2” happens exactly in its graphics; While most horror games try to target your fears by designing sound and scare jumps, this title understands the assignment by designing and building a scary world.

Using a teacher and the ruler in his hands, as well as drawing the teacher’s face with an inexhaustible, dry smile, subconsciously target your school and childhood fears. One of the best sequences of the game takes place at school and when you are secretly moving among the students of the school with a fake hat. Creating such an atmosphere to instill fear would not have been possible without the game’s success in graphics.

The sound design is as great as the visuals

Tarsier Studio’s creativity in creating fear is not limited to the game’s visuals. In the music department, two important tasks are actually assigned to the sounds you hear during the game.

The game’s soundtracks serve to tell a story and create a mystery in the story. On the other hand, the game’s extraordinary sound design, along with the game’s graphics, are fully creating fear and horror.

The individual sound design of the game characters as well as the ambient sound design that happens when you interact with the environment penetrates your brain in such a way that you cannot continuously experience the game.

In most chasing situations in the game, the sound of the environment around you, such as breaking a box behind which you took or breaking the windows of an abandoned shop, all increase your stress level at that moment.

Of course, I must point out that the previous version of this game also appeared in this successful part. In fact, “Little Nightmares 2” did not have a strange leap in the music section compared to the previous version, but it was able to maintain a good quality and provide a good effect for the players.

Hashem Habibian