Little Nightmares II Review

• Platform: Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X

• Release date: Feb 11 2021

• Publisher: Bandai Namco, Bandai Namco Entertainment

• Development team: Tarsier Studios

• Genre: Action Adventure, Platformer

• Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Little Nightmares II already stands out in the introductory part, where a maniac chases you with a shotgun, stands out as a game with much greater dynamics, and better-designed (scarier and creepier) opponents. The gameplay has been refreshed by adding a new character so that you can spend a good part of the nightmarish adventure as a duo. He will throw a thief at you, deter opponents, activate various mechanisms, and you will pull him out of the worst possible situations. In moments of uncertainty, you will hold hands and pray to God that some lunatic will not discover you and swallow you.

 

The journey of these two is not at all pleasant - apart from grotesque and twisted characters, dark and scary facial features, the environment is not hospitable either. Dilapidated buildings, depressive tones and decorations, madhouses full of corpses and garbage, quiet and depressing fields and forests, are in themselves enough to instill fear in the bones of the players. 

Compared to 2017, everything is much better graphically, with much better animations and more interesting scenes and situations. The gameplay is enriched with new tools that you can use, such as a flashlight and remote control (yes, you read that right, a TV remote control), which refreshes the game in certain chapters, and puzzles and riddles take on another dimension.

Unfortunately, a good part of the things that bothered me in the first part was not corrected in the second. Sometimes, playing on the controller, I lose my sense of space, which usually results in a fall from a great height. I think that platformers should not require excessive precision from players, and many popular titles have shown that in practice. 

In a shorter segment, the fights were also presented, which was not the case in the first part, but unfortunately, I did not like the way they work. I think that a short tutorial is missing, where the player would get acquainted with the basic controls since they are quite different for 2.5D platformers. 

Overall, I've had a really exciting experience playing Little Nightmares II, and I've made solid progress over my predecessor. The only real pity is that they didn’t implement a local co-op, which would be just the icing on the cake. 

Positive:

• Opponents look much better, the difference between the two parts is obvious
• Great visual/musical presentation
• I liked that the duo was put into the game
• Significantly longer duration compared to the first part

 

Negative:

• Bad sense of space
• Controls sometimes require excessive precision
• There is no nice tutorial, where the basic controls would be better explained