Unfortunately, almost everything else added to Little Nightmares II is a flop. It’s basically a small-scale version of the Joel and Ellie relationship from The Last of Us and works well enough. Little Nightmares II may appear to be a co-op game at first, but Six is actually AI-controlled and only helps out during certain key moments. Little Nightmares II is still a scary-good time when it sticks to these fundamentals, but developer Tarsier Studios muddles things with an array of new mechanics. Basic platforming, puzzle-solving, and stealth sections where you had to avoid the game’s weird Muppet-ey abominations were the order of the day. Six could jump, duck, illuminate the environment with a lighter, grab stuff, and…that was about it. Speaking of less is more, the original Little Nightmares was about as simple as it gets. Sometimes less is more when it comes to horror, and this game’s more detailed world doesn’t provide as many shadowy blanks for your mind to fill with terrors. And yet, despite many improvements, I didn’t feel like Little Nightmares II delivered as much atmosphere as the first game. From the rubber-necked schoolteacher to the wobbling ceiling-clinging grub-man, to a genuinely-terrifying late game baddie I won’t spoil, enemy designs are as unique and off-putting as ever. While the game is still largely played on a 2D plane, levels feel larger and more intricate, with some impressive lighting and weather effects. Little Nightmares II is a major visual leap forward for the series, at least on a technical level. This game’s story got me to drop an audible “Oh, damn” or two. Little Nightmares II once again takes a wordless, ambiguous approach to storytelling, although this time around we actually get some rather surprising twists and turns toward the end. Mono is inexorably drawn to a giant transmission tower that might just be the source of the darkness afflicting the world, while Six follows along with him for self-preservation, and perhaps other reasons that aren’t quite as clear. Turns out all the horrors Six faced in The Maw were just the beginning – the entire world is just as messed up. Little Nightmares II casts players as a new character named Mono, although he quickly stumbles upon and rescues Six. Six managed to escape her fate, but it was hinted along the way that she had a rather dark side of her own. For those just joining us, the first Little Nightmares starred Six, a yellow-raincoat-wearing little girl lost within The Maw, a surreal floating underworld filled with grotesque cannibalistic creatures.
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