Tag: horror

A review by Colton Sylvester

Introduction

Little Nightmares (2017) came at a time in which horror was absolutely dominating the gaming scene with recent hits such as Bendy and the Ink Machine, Hello Neighbor, and of course, Five Nights at Freddy’s. Such games were especially popular on numerous social media platforms, mainly YouTube. But the biggest issues with these other games (now commonly dubbed as “mascot horror” games) was that they were very surface level. They were simple games with intriguing lore that kept people invested and created some of the largest fanbases on the internet. Most fans of these properties weren’t fans because of the actual gameplay. And years later, most of these games have fizzled out of popularity because of later game releases. The only one that’s really still kicking is Five Nights at Freddy’s, mainly because of it having one of the most dedicated fanbases of any video game series. So, with how well videos on these games were doing, many YouTubers were desperate to find another game that would scratch that same itch for viewers. There were many “games of the week” where every YouTuber would cover a random indie horror game before said horror game faded into irrelevance right after (some that I can remember from this time are Tattletail and Among the Sleep). So, when Little Nightmares jumped onto the scene, it was perceived to be another one of these “games of the week” that would quickly be forgotten about. But there was something different about Little Nightmares that set it apart from all of the other games I’ve mentioned. It was actually good. Like REALLY good. It had all of the successful aspects of the other games; specifically the cryptic and intriguing lore as well as unique enemies. But what made the game stand out was that it didn’t rely on jumpscares. Something I neglected to mention earlier was that the thing that made the “mascot horror” genre so popular, even to this day, was the jumpscares. Clips of popular YouTubers screaming and jumping to the games went viral everywhere. But Little Nightmares doesn’t have any. Instead, Little Nightmares focused on creating unnerving environments and situations. In my opinion, keeping players creeped out for prolonged periods of time is much more impressive than a one-second jumpscare that players will get over in a few seconds. And of course, there’s the thing that Little Nightmares is most famous for, it’s twists.

Nowadays, Little Nightmares is considered by many gamers to be up there in terms of the best horror games ever made. But as of recently, it’s no longer just a game, it’s a full-blown franchise. Little Nightmares II released in 2021 and managed to not only capture the magic of the original game once again, but actually innovate upon it and succeed in creating a new beloved protagonist, as well as new twists, one of which easily being the best in the series. But after the second game, Tarsier studios, the studio behind Little Nightmares I & II announced that they would be leaving the series behind and the rights remained with Bandai Namco. Just last week, Bandai Namco announced: a third game releasing in October, an enhanced edition of the original game, a comic series, a book, a second season of the Little Nightmares podcast series, and a stop-motion project. The series is expanding fast and so it seems as if it is the perfect time to take a look back at where it all started.

If you haven’t played Little Nightmares before, I recommend the game, even if you’re not a fan of horror. As someone who doesn’t enjoy single-player horror games myself, I adored this game. It is also a very short game so you won’t have to stay in the depths of the Maw for too long. I say this because today we will take a look at the entirety of the game in detail. This means, yes, there are spoilers ahead. I will also be reviewing the game’s 3 DLC chapters next week, so stay tuned! (I was going to include them in this review but it was getting too long and I want to get this review out ASAP!)

Chapter 1: The Prison

The main game is split into 5 chapters, so I figured it’d be best to go over them one by one. Chapter 1: The Prison is easily the most basic chapter in the series, which makes sense. In fact, it’s the only chapter in the series without one main antagonist. Every other chapter in the game has a main enemy you must survive. All this chapter does is introduce the main antagonist of the following chapter. Instead of worrying about major enemies just yet, the whole goal of this chapter is to introduce you to the mechanics of the game, which it does expertly. There are a plethora of memorable puzzles, specifically one involving having to find a lever hidden behind an open door as well as one that requires you to get through a door before it closes.

One of the most memorable moments of the chapter which immediately showcases the game’s dark humor requires you to use the chair that a man used to hang himself in order to escape a room. The game also almost immediately throws you into stressful situations, such as having you fall into a dark room surrounded by giant leeches (or rather regular sized leeches, considering you are the small one).

The “prison” in the title of this chapter is actually one for children. Over the course of the game, as you make your way up this absolutely massive ship, you start to understand how it works. Here, children are under a literal watchful eye that will turn them to stone if it catches them. If they escape, they are caught by The Janitor, the game’s first major antagonist. He isn’t of much importance to this chapter so I will cover him in the next one. Despite his lack of importance, he is introduced perfectly by having him walking around in the background as you make your way up the ship.

I think it’s time we discuss our main character, Six. Six has become a horror gaming icon, and I’d be shocked if a gamer has never seen her iconic yellow rain jacket before. Six doesn’t ever speak in the game. I mean, who’d she even speak to? Yet, right off the bat you sympathize with her. She’s just this scared tiny girl in a world of giant things that intend to kill her. But, in a genius execution, she may very well be the scariest entity in the Maw by the end of the game. The chapter fittingly begins with Six having a nightmare. She hears a woman faintly humming, and we get our first look at The Lady. She’ll be important later in the game. One last thing that this chapter establishes is that Six needs to eat. Once per chapter, her stomach starts to rumble and she searches desperately for food. In this chapter, a kid is sitting alone in the prison’s cafeteria and hands her some food through some bars. It will be much more difficult for her to find food later on in the game.

Overall, this chapter doesn’t do much that is noteworthy when compared to the rest of the game however, it doesn’t need to be. It introduces us to the atmosphere and gameplay of the game in a near perfect attempt and sets a baseline as to what chapters in the game will look like. Things will only get crazier from here.

Chapter 2: The Lair

Chapter 2: The Lair is all about escaping The Janitor. The “lair” in the title comes from the fact that you have entered The Janitor’s domain. You get to learn a bit more about him as you watch him do his work while also exploring his “home”. Before we go any further, I should probably explain who The Janitor is.

The Janitor is the first major antagonist in the Little Nightmares series, and he is a perfect introduction to how the series crafts its antagonists. A lot of Little Nightmares gameplay involves stealth. So in order to get that across to the player, the very first antagonist you face is completely blind. The Janitor’s design is absolutely terrifying. This is a “man” with incredibly short legs and incredibly long arms. He also has his eyes covered by a bandage, to signify to the player that he cannot see. He looks just human enough that he appears incredibly uncanny, as with every villain in the series. Monster design in one of Little Nightmares’ strong suits; every single one you encounter is incredibly memorable. You quickly learn throughout the chapter that The Janitor’s job is to prepare the children to be shipped further up in the ship. The reason is unknown but you will quickly learn why later in the game.

Chapter 2 is full to the brim with puzzles, mainly involving escaping The Janitor. You’ll quickly learn what does and doesn’t alert him as you make your way through The Lair, with him hot on your tail the entire time. There are some great scares in some sections, mainly involving his long arms. One of the most genius and memorable moments of the entire game occurs when you land on a suitcase in a giant pile of shoes. You immediately are suspicious that something is hiding in the shoes, and you are quickly proven right as you have to navigate through them. This is one of the most tense areas in the game, which is why it makes sense that they revisit this concept for one of the DLC chapters. Six’s hunger returns once again, and this time it is shown how it can be potentially detrimental to her survival. This is because she finds food inside of a cage that is quickly shut by The Janitor’s long arms. The trope of a horror game enemy being blind and only relying on sound has been overdone at this point, but Little Nightmares executes it masterfully. Every single noise you make sends a shiver down your spine. At one point in the game, you have to crank a lever that makes a loud noise in order to open a hatch. This makes me cringe every time I replay the game, which is enhanced by the fact that we know The Janitor is nearby.

At the end of the chapter, Little Nightmares gives us its first “boss fight”. But Little Nightmares handles its boss fights differently than most games. In Little Nightmares, the player is always at a disadvantage in these fights. The “fights” are less about fighting and more about running for your life. At a certain point in the game, you will be walking through a vent that The Janitor will reach his hand through, attempting to grab you. Upon escaping the vent, you will quickly find yourself in a chase, which will result in you being trapped in a room with a door that is being held up by a cage. The Janitor will stick his arms in the room, attempting to grab you. It is up to you to avoid his grasp while also pulling on the cage to lower the door. In the end, the door cuts off the Janitor’s arms, causing him to scream in pain. This is yet another example of how dark Little Nightmares can get. This is a cruel fate for The Janitor, regardless of what he’s done. He’s just doing his job and he will likely die soon after this. 

This chapter does a great job of ramping up the difficulty and intensity to prepare players for what’s to come. Aesthetic-wise this is probably my favorite chapter in the game. It’s by-far the darkest and the environments are so creepy in comparison to the more colorful and lively environments of the later chapters. Not to say that the later chapters are bad, they’re not even close to bad. In fact, most are more fun to play anyways. It’s just that the darker atmosphere of the first 2 chapters is so eerie, which enhances the helplessness that the player feels. Little Nightmares II ends up going all in on the vibes and colors of chapter 1 and 2, so it’s clear that the developers were aware of how great these first 2 chapters were in terms of creating scares and unnerving situations. The rest of the game is less “scary”, opting for increased intensity instead (which isn’t necessarily a bad choice). But chapter 2 does a perfect job of creating a natural blend of both scares and intense moments.

Chapter 3: The Kitchen

Chapter 3: The Kitchen is easily the most difficult chapter of the game. It requires avoiding 2 different antagonists that aren’t blind, meaning that you can’t make noise OR be in their line of sight. First, let’s discuss these 2 antagonists.

The antagonists of Chapter 3 are the Chefs. The Chefs are large and have distorted faces. They are once again very uncanny to look at, which makes sense considering they aren’t even human. Though we never learn what they are, at times you can notice that they are actually wearing masks. Their size makes them very slow, however, they aren’t dumb and won’t be oblivious when you hide under something in front of them. While not the scariest, these are the most difficult antagonists to escape in the game.

Six’s hunger hits you right at the start of the chapter. After walking around for a bit, you’ll find a rat stuck in a trap. This is the first hint at something being seriously up with Six, as she eats the live rat without hesitation (this is foreshadowing). At first, Six enters the kitchen to find a lone chef preparing meals. It quickly becomes clear that the key ingredient in the meals are the children being kept in the prison, as Six used one of the hooks that brings the children up to the kitchen, with them being prepared to be sent up by The Janitor. Getting through the kitchen while avoiding the first Chef can be pretty annoying. Little Nightmares has an infamous achievement called “Hard to the Core” where you have to beat the game in less than an hour without dying. This part is where many runs end (I know from experience). It’s very difficult to not get spotted by the Chef’s AI and he is also very difficult to escape once in his sight, without being caught.

Once you make it out of The Kitchen, you end up in a sleeping quarters where you discover somebody sleeping in a bed. You need a key that is above them and so you have to make your way up without waking them. Eventually, you knock the key down but it also wakes the sleeping figure up, revealing a second Chef. This highlights Tarsier Studios’ continued skill in creating incredibly tense scenarios for its players.

After avoiding the Chefs and making your way through a couple more kitchens, you reach what is probably my favorite part of the chapter. The game leads you to an elevator that you must call down. You’ve called it down at other points in the game, so you don’t think much of it. That is until it arrives down with one of the chefs in it and you must find a hiding place. Keen-eyed players would’ve noticed the hiding spot in the previous room (which is why I had a feeling that one of the chefs would come down on my first playthrough) but otherwise, many people playing for the first time are likely to be caught here.

After more kitchens and chef-related shenanigans, you reach this chapter’s climax. You hold onto a hook that leads out of the kitchen as the Chefs follow below, eventually you make it into another room that one of the Chefs bursts through as you make a run for it. Something I love about the Little Nightmares chase scenes is that they often make your character complete certain actions slowly, which makes them even more tense. Here, you have to slowly climb up this box until you reach a hook and barely escape their grasp. This is made more intense as the second Chef shows up here as well and nearly catches you. You keep holding on to the hook as they throw things at you, until you eventually make your way onto a pipe. Though you feel lucky to have escaped the Chefs, in reality, the Chefs are lucky to have escaped you.

This chapter is my personal least favorite in the base Little Nightmares I. It’s the longest chapter in the game and by-far the most tedious. Though it has cool moments, the Chefs are more annoying antagonists than anything. They are also a little too goofy to be truly intimidating, which no other Little Nightmares antagonists really suffer from. They seem more like annoying obstacles than real threats. I found myself being more annoyed by their presence than scared of it. Despite this, there are still some fun puzzles and tense moments in this game. I just feel as though this chapter is weaker when it comes to horror than the others.

Chapter 4: The Guest Area

With Chapter 4: The Guest Area, the story really picks up the pace. Chapter 4 is much shorter than the others, with Chapter 5 being the shortest in the game. Despite this, Chapter 4 remains just as, if not more engaging than the other chapters. Because it is pretty much all action.

The beginning of this chapter is intriguing, yet terrifying. You have finally reached the top levels of this massive ship and you find yourself climbing along the outside of it. As you climb up, you can see hundreds of these large figures entering the ship. These are the Guests.

The Guests are huge, human-looking figures with distorted features. Nothing seems to be on their mind aside from eating. They scarf down anything in sight, including children. Once you reach this chapter, it becomes clear what the purpose of this ship is. They hold children prisoner near the bottom of the ship, they’re prepared in the lair to be sent up to the kitchen where they are cooked (presumably alive, like lobsters), and then are fed to the Guests. The Guests aren’t scary, but they are incredibly formidable (despite many of them barely even being able to walk).

Six continues to walk above the seemingly endless line of Guests entering the Maw. Eventually you will start to climb higher up into the ship, where you will notice The Lady from your nightmare at the start of the game, looking down upon all of the entering Guests.

You continue running around above and below the Guests until you reach a slightly open door that you squeeze through. This is where you learn just how ruthless the Guests are. As you enter through the door, a bottle tips over, alerting a guest that’s eating in the room. He instantly flops onto the floor, flinging the table where he was eating into where you were just standing and you have to make a run for it. For the rest of this chapter, you find yourself narrowly dodging many different Guests.

There are many memorable moments involving the Guests. There’s one point where you have to run across a table where many of them are eating, requiring you to dodge all of their hands that are lunging at you. This is considered to be the hardest bit in the game, as the hitboxes on the hands feel somewhat unfair and their movement is often sporadic. It will likely take a few tries to get this one completely right.

Another memorable part is when a Guest spots you as you’re walking through a dining hall, and you have to run in the direction from which you came, resulting in him being underneath a shelf you can climb on. You then have to jump on his back and then run past him to enter a hole in the wall.

After a brief reunion with one of the Chefs that doesn’t really amount to anything, you’ll find yourself in the sleeping quarters of the Guests. As you’re walking past all of the rooms of the Guests, one will notice you and suddenly, all of them will be chasing you. This will create a sort of wall of Guests that is quickly approaching you. This is easily the most intense moment in the entire game. The giant horde looking to crush you if you mess up just one thing is absolutely terrifying. Eventually, you will reach another table with Guests attempting to grab you. You have to make it across the table and jump to grab this lantern and swing away, watching some guests fall down to lower levels of the ship.

After all of that running, it is understandable that Six is pretty hungry. Before we get into her hunger however, I need to discuss the Nomes. The Nomes are even tinier than Six, and are friendly entities that you can find trying to survive the Maw, just like Six. You can even find a couple hidden ones and give them a hug. So, when Six shows up into a room of Nomes hungry, one of them understandably decides to hand her a sausage that’s lying on the ground. The player approaches the Nome in an attempt to grab the sausage. But Six has other plans.

In my experience, as well as the experiences of everyone I’ve seen play this portion of the game, it’s common that players will express their gratitude to the Nome and find this interaction very cute. These feelings are very quickly replaced with pure shock and horror. Instead of eating the sausage, Six opts to eat the Nome instead. I found myself in pure shock and I think I just sat there for 5 minutes contemplating what just happened. I was so upset I almost felt like turning the game off. And that’s why I love this twist. There have been hints of Six’s darker tendencies, and here it reaches a climax. Little do we know, this last chapter is only going to get crazier.

This is my favorite chapter in Little Nightmares. Escaping the Guests is exhilarating, traveling through these environments is a ton of fun, and that final twist is probably one of the most memorable twists I’ve seen in any media ever. I genuinely have no criticisms of this chapter. It is the only chapter of the game that is straight up perfect from start to finish.

Chapter 5: The Lady’s Quarters

Chapter 5: The Lady’s Quarters is pretty much entirely one boss fight, and it’s the closest to a traditional boss fight that the series ever gets. This chapter focuses on The Lady, whose real name is Geisha. We don’t really know anything about Geisha aside from the fact that she has supernatural abilities of some kind and that she is seemingly in charge of the Maw’s entire operations.

Before the fight, Little Nightmares once again escapes the common tropes in horror games. You enter Geisha’s quarters and hear her humming the same tune that she was humming at the beginning of the game. You have to sneak past her, as she does her hair in front of a cracked mirror, which is a hint to her weakness. As you enter her bedroom, you are required to break a vase on her bedside table. The game has taught you that making any noise will result in your death or in a chase scene so understandably, you start to sweat as you push the vase off the table. But, what happens next, is almost more terrifying than a chase would have been. Geisha’s humming abruptly stops and she is suddenly no longer at her mirror. You are left in silence.

You use a key you found in the vase on a door and enter into a dark room. Here, you find yourself in a chase with Geisha, as you run past an insane amount of mannequins. Eventually, you find yourself in a boarded off room that has a small mirror within it. You need to take this mirror and enter one of the mannequin-infested rooms once again. Here, you face Geisha one-on-one. It quickly becomes clear that she cannot look at the mirror, so you must point it at her in order to ward her off. Eventually, the lights all go dark as she circles you. It’s up to you to turn and face her wherever she shows herself and fast. If you’re too slow, then she can get close enough to grab you as the mirror takes a few seconds to work its magic.

Eventually, the mirror will shatter from one of the blasts, resulting in you being left in complete darkness. After a couple seconds, just enough light is shone into the room for you to see Geisha laying on the floor. And then the game hits you with another twist.

Six’s hunger returns. The player knows exactly what’s about to happen as you lead Six over to her body. Once Six reaches Geisha, she will instantly start eating her neck. The entire game has been leading up to this moment, showcasing Six’s growing corruption. And it’s paid off incredibly effectively.

After eating Geisha, Six is seen absorbing Geisha’s powers. Now, as Six, you walk through a hallway of Guests, who get their souls sucked out after approaching Six.

Eventually, Six reaches a set of stairs that lead towards the light. Six climbs up these stairs as a few Nomes look up at her from the bottom of the stairs. The credits roll.

What an effective finale for this phenomenal game. It is incredibly satisfying, while intriguing. I found myself wondering what Six was going to do after escaping the ship. It is likely we’ll never know, as Little Nightmares II doesn’t tell us. And frankly, a game focused on an unkillable Six would defeat the entire purpose of the series. The only thing I wish this chapter did was tell us more about Geisha. For being the main antagonistic threat that the entire game led up to, we barely get to interact with her, let alone learn anything about her. Luckily, the DLC works to teach us more about her, as well as answer more unanswered questions surrounding the Maw.

Conclusion

It is debated by many as to what the true meaning of Little Nightmares is, as it’s very clear that there is a greater message here. One that I and many other people have settled on is that it is a metaphor for growing up. Six finds herself powerless in a world of much bigger and stronger entities, as do children. Children are hindered by the authority in their lives and often punished for their actions, as The Janitor represents. The Janitor is also blind, potentially representing how forces of authority can be blind to the harm they cause children. The Prison can be a metaphor for how school ships children off to have their dreams, quite literally in the case of Little Nightmares, eaten away. By the end of the game, Six inherits Geisha’s powers. This can be theorized to represent a potential cycle where Six becomes the very monster that once abused her. Six loses her innocence by the end of the game, as the things she eats throughout the game indicate. In fact, hunger may be the biggest consistent theme throughout the game. Her insatiable hunger represents not only her desperation, but also her loss of morality. As she “grows up”, she loses her empathy and humanity.

There’s just something so perfect about Little Nightmares I. Its deeper meanings and intriguing world-building is magical to play through. For being a “horror game”, it actually has something to say, rather than just scare the player for a few hours. That’s why I’m a little worried about the future of the franchise. Tarsier Studios clearly had a vision for this series, that I think they concluded expertly in Little Nightmares II. Though there were still many unanswered questions after both games, they didn’t feel necessary to understand what the games were truly going for. Now, ever since Tarsier Studios left, Bandai Namco immediately took the series in a direction that feels like it strays a little too far from the original games. Not to say that the newer lore that they’ve introduced is necessarily bad, but it doesn’t feel very consistent with Little Nightmares I & II. In the end, I could care less about the new lore as no matter what happens, it can’t ruin my enjoyment of the first two games. I just hope that Supermassive Games, the new development studio for Little Nightmares, delivers something great with Little Nightmares III. I’m just a little hesitant to get excited as Little Nightmares wasn’t their vision and I’m nervous that they’re gonna screw it up and kill the franchise.

Final Note

Before I conclude this review, I want to discuss the future of Frame Rate. I uploaded a review of A Minecraft Movie back in April, where I stated that I would be doing weekly reviews, going back and forth between films and games. Obviously, I did not stick to that. I was finishing up my junior year in high school and things got really hectic, to the point where I just kind-of put off doing the blog until summer. I wanted this blog to be something fun for myself, not something I had to push myself to do. Now that I’m free for summer, I want to begin uploading consistently. I still hope to complete a review every week, alternating between games and films. However, I also want my reviews to be thorough and frankly, good. My review of A Minecraft Movie isn’t even close to my proudest work. I threw it together in about 2 hours and it shows. I want to put actual effort into my reviews and allow my genuine passion for films and games to be evident from my reviews. Thus, I put a TON of effort into this review. I am super proud of it and I hope you enjoyed reading it. As for my future reviews, I want to cover the DLC for Little Nightmares next week. It was initially going to be part of this review but it was getting way too long and I want to get this thing out by Friday (This obviously didn’t happen and 4th of July festivities are to blame. Expect future reviews to drop on Fridays, though!). I also didn’t want to rush the DLC portion of the review, as I have a lot to say about it as well. So next Friday, expect Game Review #1.5: Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw. The following week, I’m actually going to cover a show, rather than a film. I want to cover Squid Game 3, because I find its existence and controversial ending to be incredibly interesting. After that, I think I’m going to come back and finish what I’ve started with a review of Little Nightmares II. From there, we will see what I feel like talking about. Seriously, if you sat through this review and enjoyed it at all, I truly thank you. See you next week!