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In the face of co-operative multiplayer, the horror game genre typically does one of two things. It can mutate— the typical parameters of scares and tension undergo a transformation that bends the genre closer to comedy or action (Chris Redfield punching a boulder isn’t really that far tonally from running a ghost hunting business with your mates). Or it can simply stop functioning, those same parameters collapsing into a sauceless mess. Little Nightmares, the puzzle-adventure-horror series created by Tarsier Studios and now helmed by genre mainstay Supermassive Games, manages to do something else entirely. Through a series of deliberate mechanical limitations and suffocatingly efficient atmosphere, these co-op journeys retain every marker of traditional horror. It’s impressive, it’s cool, and it’s a little exhausting.
At a recent preview event, we got a chance to play about two hours of the upcoming Little Nightmares III in an extended co-op demo, sneaking and solving our way through an almost complete “level” of the linear narrative adventure. Guiding our two new intrepid victims, Low and Alone, through a demonic carnival saw an extensive run of escalating puzzles, scripted chase sequences, and an almost embarrassing amount of head scratching.
Depending on your choice of protagonist, your pathway through the world of Little Nightmares III will vary somewhat. Low dons a raven-plague-doctor-esque mask and wields a flimsy bow, capable of firing off arrows to trigger far-off environmental objects and nail foes during the game’s sparing combat sequences. Meanwhile, Alone is a scrappy little roughhouser, sporting a knitted-overall combo and swinging a comically hefty wrench. While the two share a base moveset of sneaking, jumping, and clambering, they are often forced apart to solve interconnected puzzle mechanisms before reuniting to escape into the next room via tunnel, crack, or unlocked door.
So as you push and pull, thwack and shoot, dodge and weave your way through levels, the mechanical rhythm of the thing settles in quickly, your momentum halted just a bit too much by the game’s trial and error encounter design and odd array of what you could generously call quirks. Despite the lengthy demo, neither myself or my co-op partner could ever seamlessly pull out our respective weapons and attack, the same issue again rearing its head as you need to clumsily put them away to progress through passages. Likewise, the demo was littered with tightly timed escape sequences with inconsistent checkpointing to spare repeated runs at a problem. For all it’s able to achieve in terms of vibes, the horror aspect is stretched to its thinnest when you and a mate are exasperatedly wondering how to move forward or why it’s taking minutes at a time to try solutions.
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Oddities aside, Little Nightmares III certainly knows how to set a mood. The game’s lighting engine is kind of astounding, with ambient glows, cracks of lightning, and the piercing beam of your torches coming together to make for a raw graphical experience that Supermassive should be commended for. These beautific rays refract off an overall cohesive art direction that melds macabre, fantastically proportioned and animated characters with a world that simply feels absolutely fucking rank. This only really falters in its unabashed fatphobia, a mainstay of the horror genre in which larger bodies are used as visual shorthand for depravity, and its inclusion feels at odds with the otherwise decently considered array of aesthetic choices.
Are the little dolls you need to fight a little derivative? Sure. But they’re at least part and parcel with a long lineage of genre greatest hits that manage to not vilify the human body in weird ways. Having Low fire off an arrow to dislodge their heads so Alone can jump in with the wrench and smash the porcelain faces (while its body still pursues you both) was a small joy, though, one of many that can be found in Little Nightmares III’s shift to co-op. Scampering around colossal creatures in a desperate bid to escape remains tense so long as the game gets out of its own way, and taps into a guttural fear seldom felt in multiplayer environments.
At its best, Little Nightmares III holds you and a friend transfixed with horror. But at its worst, it holds you both a little ransom.
Little Nightmares III launches on PS5/PS4, Xbox One/Xbox Series X, PC and Nintendo Switch 1/2 on October 10th. The cheapest price is $59 from Amazon.
