The environments are beautifully realized the monstrous adults all look like papier-mâché projects your kids brought home from school and that you have to pretend are cute, and all the little details are spot-on, from the sound of their labored breathing to the way they jerkily animate like they just drank ten pints and are trying to remember which way's the floor and which way's the ceiling. In terms of building that experience, Little Nightmares rarely puts a foot wrong it takes everyday, mundane settings and people and soaks them in liquid grotesque until they're all sodden and bloated, like an Edvard Munch painting that was hung over a steam vent. It's all a nightmare and it doesn't have to make sense, so don't worry so much about that wiki after all. It's a nightmare even gave it away in the title. There are little nuggets of background storytelling establishing some things about the setting but raise further questions - "Why are the funny noises coming out of the TV?" "Why are all the adults hostile and look like characters from an Eastern European stop motion animated film apparently specifically designed to traumatize poorly-supervised children?" - but the thing is, the point of playing the game is not to resolve the plot, but to exist within that world for a while and drink in its atmosphere, which is, rather effectively and convincingly, like that of a nightmare. Which should more or less indicate that this isn't a game whose appeal hinges on the plot there isn't much of one besides "small child wants something that, for whatever reason, is really far off to the right somewhere". They're both extremely creepy games about a tiny child with a big head navigating a sequence of horror setpieces and blatantly unfair traps as they continually physics platform their way in a rightward direction in the classic Limbo style, all drenched in an oppressive atmosphere of thick, slimy dread where anything might leap out and bite you off at the ankles at any moment, like a shark-infested gravy boat only real difference is that II is a prequel to I, establishing the long-speculated-on backstory of the main character's raincoat.
I don't know let's say a zeppelin crashed into my house, so might as well lump them together. Little Nightmares II, I should say, which is the new one, but in general terms, the two games don't differ much, and I never reviewed the first because. I might go as far to say that it officially takes Limbo's crown as the ur-example of "small child, scary world", since Limbo's pseudo-sequel Inside kind of gave it up when it transitioned from "small child, scary world" to "GIBBER, GIBBER, NONSENSE, NONSENSE, WEETABIX WITH LEGS!" It uses all the tropes, even the really on-the-nose ones like "main character wears a hooded coat" and "soundtrack featuring sad children singing like the evil landlord just sold all their gruel vouchers". In the past, I've occasionally stretched the criteria for "small child, scary world" to include indie games like Bastion, Braid, and Ori and the Blind Forest in order to continue claiming to be right in my adorably small-minded way, but absolutely no stretching is necessary for this week's subject oh, dear me, no! Little Nightmares wears "small child, scary world" like a set of custom-fit pajamas, throws a big, comfortable duvet of oppressive atmosphere over itself, and goes to sleep. Which also explains why the games are usually highly unsubtle metaphors for something from the standard list of tech nerd mental health issues: anxiety, depression, isolation, the fact that nice girls don't want to touch them.
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Longtime viewers will know we've had a lot of fun here at the Zero Punctuation Combination Waterslide Park/Sewage Treatment Facility with the running gag that virtually every arty indie game is basically about a small child being lost in a scary world, probably because they're frequently made by tech nerds new to the industry, having to face the fact that it might finally be time to get a real job and figure out how to do their own laundry. Thanks in advance for your continued support! Guilt, guilt, bat eyelashes, bat eyelashes, etc. Plus, you get a bunch of perks like ad-free viewing via The Escapist+ on our main website, early access on YouTube via YouTube Memberships, and bonus content like our monthly Ask the Creators video series, where we answer your burning questions. Your support allows us to continue making the content we want instead of chasing algorithms or the latest trends. This month, we're asking for your support through our premium programs via The Escapist+ and YouTube Memberships. This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Little Nightmares II.
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