I played some Little Nightmares 3, and it's the best horror about being lost and tiny in an unfathomable hellscape since Little Nightmares 2

GamesHorrorI played some Little Nightmares 3, and it’s the best horror about being lost and tiny in an unfathomable hellscape since Little Nightmares 2When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

I liked the first two Little Nightmares games, and while I’ve only played an hour of it, I’ll probably like Little Nightmares 3 too. It’s functionally the same. These games are cinematic platformers mixing the solemnity of Inside and Limbo with a surreal, almost Burton-esque take on horror. They’re not mechanically innovative at all; the strength of the series lies in its atmosphere and spectacle, and based on what I’ve played of Little Nightmares 3, that’s not about to change.

And yet, some fairly radical changes have occurred. Tarsier Studios isn’t developing this third instalment, with that job going unexpectedly to Supermassive Games. While Supermassive certainly trades in cinematic horror, most would agree there’s not much Until Dawn and Little Nightmares share in common. Perhaps wisely, Supermassive doesn’t seem interested in rocking the boat, except for one significant addition to Little Nightmares 3: two-player co-op.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

Whether you’re playing alone or cooperatively, Little Nightmares 3 has two protagonists: beak-faced Alone bears a wrench and clown-masked Low a bow-and-arrow. Each tool can be used in different puzzle-solving ways, though to call the obstacles I encountered in Little Nightmares 3 “puzzles” is probably overdoing it. There was a bit of box dragging and a bit of switch hitting with Alone’s wrench. In one room Low needed to trigger a switch with their bow-and-arrow to de-electrify the floor, and in another, someone had to carry a light source to clear a path through hordes of cockroaches. Of course, there was lots of hoisting our co-op partner up to higher levels too.

It’s pretty simple stuff. For solo players, a button press triggers any relevant action from your AI companion; rather than swap between characters like you would in say, Unravel or Trine, your fellow traveller takes matters into their own hands.

There is a grim matter-of-factness to Little Nightmares' horror: as small figures we move through its world with no hope of influencing anything that goes on around us. We’re not meant to be here and the idea is just toget the hell out. There’s no lack of horror games that steal away our agency and means of self-defence, but few do it with the morbid flair that Little Nightmares does. The threat isn’t always being caught so much as whatever unsettling image might lurk on the next screen.

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Image1of6(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Image1of6

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Little Nightmares 3

I’m really looking forward to Little Nightmares 3 but I am disappointed that the cooperative play is online only: like the aforementioned Unravel and Twine, these kinds of cinematic puzzle games are great fun to play in person. And while I don’t really play this series to have my brain teased, I do hope the final game offers up some more complex problem solving challenges. Those reservations aside, I’m keen to feel like a useless little gnat in an unfathomably corrupted hellscape when Little Nightmares 3 releases some time in 2025.

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