In Little Nightmares 2, and this is the magic, the confrontations are only part of the puzzle, a situation you run into, a monstrous and grotesque being that chases you and an exit that this time does not involve running because someone has left an ax stuck in the door. And who says the weapons says the combat in general, although it goes ahead that the game could not be further from the survivals of zombies and chainsaws. It is a complicated line to travel, although we will talk about astonishment later Let me stop first in that atmosphere of oppression and constant threat, and in a concrete example: his way of managing weapons. If it had to be placed on a map, it would be exactly on the border between amazement and disgust. Little Nightmares 2 wants us to enjoy, but above all he wants to make us suffer, and even in control he is willing to make concessions. It makes sense: at the end of the day we handle a child, an innocent and lonely creature trying to survive a bad dream. Little Nightmares 2 is not a typical platformer, and it certainly isn’t, nor does it pretend to be, a Super Mario game, but sometimes it’s hard to come to terms with a gameplay that is more physics-based than states with shelves that we will be able to reach or not according to the timing of our grasp, with rebellious items that refuse to fall into their rightful place for the puzzle to take its course, and with that uncomfortable feeling that everything is slow and heavy, of that everything costs us too much work. I admit to having doubted at times, because many of the things that this sequel does with its animations, with its mechanics and with its way of handling weights and inertia could well be confused with simple and plain clumsiness.
Moreover, I would say that they do not care completely.Īnd it is precisely that isolated moment, that reboot that could have been streamlined but has knowingly remained leaden, which makes me opt for intentionality. Having to wait every time you get killed is overwhelming, annoying, and extremely frustrating, and I’d say Tarsier Studios knows that.
Two seconds sounds like little, but it is a small eternity when a pair of prosthetic hands have broken your thin little neck again for the ninth time in a row and you still can’t find your way out of the room. I also know that it is too long: in Little Nightmares 2 we are going to die a lot, something that I doubt will surprise anyone, least of all a studio that, what things are, will already publicize its superb first installment with what in essence it was a compilation of infanticides. His body seems to weigh him down, his knees are shaking, and the excellent animation work has managed to capture that moment of doubt, of panic, that need to gather strength to face horror again. I haven’t stopped to time it, but I would say that fully sitting up takes a couple of seconds tenth more or tenth less, I know it is a heavy and tortuous process, uncomfortable. Little Nightmares 2 Review – Don’t Get CaughtĪ visual marvel that bets everything on its setting, even if it sometimes means being uncomfortable.Įvery time we die and are reborn, the little protagonist of Little Nightmares 2 begins sitting on the ground.