3.5/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Little Nightmares II.

Little Nightmares 2 is the follow up and prequel to the first game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco. It opens your eyes to the world outside of the Maw ship as you journey through the Nowhere, the realm where all events in the series take place within. Playing as a little boy called Mono, you will soon rescue a little girl being held captive by a hunter in the woods. Using a makeshift raft to escape, she will accompany you on your way as you wash ashore the first densely populated location, The Pale City. Teamwork is a large part of the game, and although you cannot control your new friend you can beckon them to certain places so that they can boost you onto ledges or catch you when you leap across gaps. For me this does kind of take some of the horror out of what made the first game great, as in LN1 you had a constant feeling of being alone. The AI for the girl also did bug out on me a few times and she would get stuck jittering in a corner or not initiate the sequence she is meant to help with, although usually shouting “hey” sorted it and I rarely had to restart. I do also think it would just have been fun to have control over both characters. I really loved that throughout the game you get little snippets into the psyche of the girl. When you first find her in that room she seems so fragile and innocent, but as the game goes on you can see her disturbed and morbid side shine through, as she warms her hands on the furnace that is burning someone alive, or leave her alone and you’ll find her sitting breaking the fingers of a hand monster one by one. The monster design is just as fantastic as the first game and actually has a larger selection. The most noticeable for me is the teacher, who you will have to sneak behind children’s desk during a classroom lesson to avoid her gaze. If she turns away from the chalkboard and spots you, her neck will become extremely elongated to hunt you down. The kids being taught are also really creepy, they have heads that look like porcelain Pinocchios and will swarm you if given the chance. For the first time combat is introduced when Mono takes the opportunity to swing a hammer to smash the children. This moment reminds you how small you are in this world as the hammer needs to be swung with two hands like an axe. This is fun but in one segment you have to successfully strike 5 kids in a row and if you mistimed one you will get an instadeath and have to redo the whole thing, which kind of dragged me out of the tension of the moment after failing a few times. The creepiest setting in the game for me is when you wander through a hospital and there are some disfigured mannequins that appear stiff, but will charge you and force you to use a torch as a light source weapon to freeze them in place. A huge theme for this game is in technology. As you explore the Pale City you will find faceless residents that are transfixed by television screens broadcast by “The Signal Tower”, to the point they will brainlessly follow them and even fall to their deaths. The game is more tech themed and less body horror like the first game, and what I think was really clever is the whole world has a blue hue to it to represent the power of blue screens. Mono has the ability to touch the screens and transport himself through screens elsewhere, sometimes in completely new locations. The games main protagonist is introduced as the “Thin Man”, a tall slender dark figure that will emerge from televisions and chase you down. There’s an interesting story developed through him around betrayal which is better experienced yourself. In comparison to LN1 it weaves a much more interesting story and develops what was a horrifying location in The Maw into a fascinating world with endless possibilities. I was less keen on the sci fi element, but the horrifying encounters are just as anxiety inducing as before thanks to the fantastic sound design and camera trickery.