Following a recent announcement that a sequel to the popular horror game, Little Nightmares, is in production, I thought I’d look back at the original. Tarsier Studios, the developers of the game, is most well known for their work on the LittleBigPlanet games, so Little Nightmares was their first venture into the horror genre. Although a quite short game, it is a remarkable experience that focuses on telling a compelling story that will draw you in with intrigue and then terrify you a moment later. Although the actual gameplay is a bit clunky in places and can be a tad frustrating, the artistic storytelling and powerful imagery are well worth dealing with those little annoyances. If you’ve not had the chance to play the game and it’s DLC’s, I’d highly recommend doing so – preferably in a dark room with a friend to throw the controller at when you get too startled.
The game kicks off with the main character, Six, waking up in a dark room in her signature yellow raincoat. It quickly becomes obvious that she is on a ship of some kind, made clear by the floors rocking and the various cargo boxes sliding around. As you attempt to escape this strange location, you come across other children, who have clearly imprisoned in this place. They curl in their beds, terrified of what stalks the hallways and stare longingly at you through the bars, wishing they could be free like you. Soon, you meet their jailor – a long-armed creature called the Janitor, who captures the children and drags them away or traps them in cages.
Once you escape the Janitor (by crushing his arms in an elevator door), you come across the Chefs. This duo seems to be cooking up an elaborate feast, containing some… interesting ingredients. Any time you enter their line of sight, they try to kill you on the spot – chasing after you and adding you to their menu if you are too slow. From there, you come across a series of guests attending a feast. This feast is overseen by the Lady – the leader of this place you have found yourself trapped in. She seems to have some form of mystical powers, forcing you to use a mirror to reflect her abilities back at her, until she is weakened. However, once weakened, Six bites into the Lady’s neck and seemingly absorbs her powers – able to kill the guests at the feast as she walks past them, ominous black particles hovering around her.
One of the main themes of the game is hunger. From the crippling starvation that Six battles throughout the game, to the huge feast the guests are tucking into, the game really delves into the impact of greed and consumption on the world around us. The game was originally supposed to be called Greed before they settled on Little Nightmares. Throughout history, greed has been a blight on humanity. Both greed and gluttony are included in the nine circles of hell as outlined by Dante’s inferno, considered to be a great sin that we all must overcome in our lifetimes. The enemies that Six faces throughout her journey are embodiments of this concept, where the greed has consumed them and transformed them into monsters beyond our comprehension.
Six, too, becomes a monster. We are forced to witness this throughout the course of the game. Her hunger forces her to desperate measures, such as scavenging for food from the kidnapped child and eating a live rat. However, it doesn’t end there. The temptation only grows, each step taking her closer and closer to the abyss. We all fall victim to this. We’ve all faced down the devil that is a temptation, sometimes managing to fight him off and other times being forced to give into it. You can’t always win. Mental health is the same. It’s a war, not a battle. Each time you step onto that battleground, you know that victory is not guaranteed. However, victory is not the objective we seek. It’s survival.
Alien Isolation and Little Nightmares share two common features – the feelings of claustrophobia and isolation. Against the monsters and the darkness, we are alone. The game designers portray this perfectly. Six is a small, terrified girl stuck in a horrific world and the world makes you feel that. From creaking pipes to haunting shadows and the distant screams of some distant horror, you constantly feel on edge but there’s nobody to turn to. The music, the ambiance and the design of each of the monsters you come across, are continually lingering at the back of your mind. You genuinely feel horrified, especially when you realize what Six is becoming.
Near the end of the game, Six staggers into a room and nearly collapses from starvation. A little Nome, one of the few creatures that aren’t trying to kill you in the world of Little Nightmares, offers you a sausage. Basically, every player will, at this moment, feel grateful and thankful to the cute little creature and walk towards it. However, Six doesn’t go for the sausage. She takes the Nome, that cute little creature we’ve all grown to love, and eats him. It’s a horrific event, that genuinely stuns you. I had to put the controller down for a moment and process what I had just witnessed. The thing is though, you understand why she did it. That desperation, hunger, greed, and isolation has been building up inside her all this time.
Little Nightmares is very much a game that you should experience by yourself in a dark room. So, I hope you’ll give it a go. After all, we’ve all had our own nightmares. Whether they were big or little, they stay with us all. Till next time,
CaitlinRC