4.5/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Little Nightmares.

7hrs Spoilers Little Nightmares is a 2.5D horror side scroller that follows a little girl called Six as she tries to escape terrible things onboard a boat called The Maw. The game begins with Six emerging from a suitcase and immediately gets you thinking. In the room with you is the visible legs of a man hung from the ceiling with a chair positioned underneath him, however, the chair is still upright and his legs do not reach it, making you question whether this was staged, and whether you were kidnapped by the man or saved by him. There isn't a lot explained by the game and much of what you see will have you creating your own theories on what is happening and why. What we do know by the end, is that The Maw acts as a vessel that entertains fat greedy guests who will gorge on food indefinitely to try and feed an insatiable hunger, something that Six struggles with throughout the game as well. What makes this so grim is that the children stuck in cages, and witnessing some of the large guests be murdered and butchered, are evidence that these meals are of a cannibalistic nature. What the guests dont know is that they serve a higher purpose and are not merely here to be fed, but to be plumped up and have their life force sacrificed to the woman that oversees the ship. Some of the games biggest strengths lie in the audio and visuals that really help to set the horrifying atmosphere. Despite the lack of dialogue, the sound is fantastic at creating tension particularly when being hunted by one of the ships crew. My favourite enemy design was definitely the chefs and they were a good example of clever sound design. The laboured breathing as they chop up the huge piles of meat and the screech they make when you alert them of your presence is enough to put you on edge. There isn't much in the way of a soundtrack, but there is one little tune that is more a childrens playground song being hummed that is unnerving and features throughout. As for the graphics I really like this style of animation as it almost gives off a 3D childrens cartoon, that when blended with the horrors of the content makes the whole thing really grim. The majority of the game takes place in very dark rooms and the lack of lighting just makes the place more unsettling. Throughout the game you are made to feel so miniscule not only in comparison to the creatures you face but also in the environment itself and the camera will constantly pan in and out as you move between areas to really emphasis the magnitude of scale. In terms of gameplay the main element is some mild platforming as you travel between rooms and try to escape and find your freedom. Theres some light puzzle solving that usually involves moving items in your environment to trigger your path into the next room. Theres also some stealth sections when you encounter enemies before delving into full on chase sequences. The lack of a health bar makes the stakes so much higher every time as you are killed the moment you are caught. Theres also some collectibles to give you something to achieve in a second playthrough but they merely consist of finding little statues and smashing them, and hugging the gnomes that you meet throughout the way, children on the ship that have managed to escape, believed to have originally been brought here to act as workers.  I really like the world of Little Nightmares and find myself continuously coming back to it. It's a really satisfying short game that has a fairly unique concept, with predecessors like Limbo and Inside the only games I could relate it to. Platformers and horror are two elements that I really enjoy individually and the combination of the two work so well together here. Now being the first in a trilogy of games, along with the Sound of Nightmares podcast and the Little Nightmares comic books adding so much lore to this world, it’s even more interesting to return to this game now.