Little Nightmares II (2021) - Review
- Sam Bateson
- Mar 17, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2023
Unsettling, atmospheric and deeply creepy, Little Nightmares II (2021) is a masterclass in horror; featuring terrifying new enemies, and some that are just a little annoying, it's a worthy successor to the original game. Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Following on from last week's review of Little Nightmares, it seems only natural to take a look at the successor, Little Nightmares II. Released at the beginning of February, Little Nightmares II is something of an oddity; related only vaguely to the initial instalment, it expands the world by pushing outwards, not just ahead, going in directions I never would have expected.
From a gameplay perspective, nothing has changed here; the controls, mechanics and design remains the same. From the moment your character awakens, this is unmistakably the world we last saw with the silent Six back in 2017. Here, however, you play as a new, male character, Mono, who finds himself in the same monochrome, clay-like world of horrors as the first game. You play alongside Little Nightmares alumna Six, who is computer-controlled in this instalment. It's a little jarring and somewhat dissonant being unable to play the character we grew to love the first time around, but as the game and story expands, it becomes clear that this is the only way the game can work. As Mono, you team up with Six to explore the outside environs only hinted at in the previous game. We're reintroduced to the mechanics of the game with a brief tutorial that also served as the demo before release; it delights in your inevitable failure, serving up no clues as to where you went wrong. The previous game used this same hit-and-miss formula, but here it's particularly noticeable as post-release rough edges manifest as technical foibles that impede progress through no fault of your own. Press the 'grab' button just a hair too soon? Guess who's falling into a bear trap.
The outside world of Little Nightmares II is a great change from the claustrophobic interiors of the Maw from the first game, and it gives rise to some interesting new techniques. In the Forest, for instance, where you're pitted against the fearsome Hunter, a menacing, shotgun wielding murderer, there's tall grasses for you to hide in; caves to flee into; water to conceal in. The Hunter is another great villain in a series that's unafraid to go all out on superhuman abilities. He's not necessarily creepy, and doesn't hide in the shadows; rather, the peril of his encounters comes from whether or not you'll make it to the next box or overturned table to shelter from his shotgun spray before falling prey to it. But where the forest is just a prelude, the environments you'll explore next are a vast expansion on what worked so well in the first game.
With Six, you head next into the School, where you'll experience one of the best - and unfortunately, some of the worst - enemies I've ever encountered in either game. We'll start with the bad side.
The Bullies...
The only other children you'll encounter in the game, the Bullies are as pesky as they sound; porcelain-headed with stick-thin bodies and eerily perfect uniforms, they chase you and pin you down faster than you can escape. Your only protection from these gits is the new ability to use objects as weapons; hammers, axes and clubs can be wielded to your advantage, but beware; these kids suffer from a case of being seriously annoying, in that they're easy enough to dispatch as long as you've got perfect timing - there's an all-too narrow space of time in between their approach and their deadly attack in which to clout their heads, but timing your strike must take into account the good one or two second swing time. I found that the instant they stand still is the time to press the attack button, but a fraction of a second too early or too late and you'll miss. Facing off against two of them in a corridor took me upwards of an hour to break both heads open like a teapot. But dammit, I felt good once I'd done it. There's an interesting sequence in the game where you don one of their heads to pass through a huge group of them, which serves as a welcome respite from the constant, nerve-jangling and headache-inducing experiences you've had with them before. The Bullies aren't frightening; they're just plain annoying.
The teacher is a more traditional enemy; creepy, supernatural and nightmarish, she appears normal at first; her permanent smile and oversized head, married with her Victorian-era dress sense seem unsettling at first, and the Teacher is not someone you misbehave in front of. Make a noise, and she reveals her trick; like a Rokurokubi, she cranes her neck, snake like, across huge spaces to find you, her head and face unchanged, unearthly squeals warning you to run away - otherwise, it's detention for you.
One of the games only forgettable enemies is the Doctor, an ape-like hulk who clambers across the ceilings of the Hospital area for little reason other than because nobody in this world is really 'normal':
He's much too large and ungainly to be truly scary, but his creations, the prosthetics-laden mannequins are nightmarish visions straight from a haunted Punch and Judy show. Halted by the light, you must use your torch to freeze them in position, giving you a fighting chance to escape. To be captured is to be clenched by frozen hands forever.
Finally, there's the Living Hands, and holy shit, the Living Hands... the Living Hands aren't a 70's punk band, they're dismembered hands - and nothing more. But they lurk in the darkness, and crawl on animated fingers across the floor, facehugger style, faster than you can move; only a well-timed strike from a weapon will delay these things, but you're best getting to high ground. You're not completely safe there, but they climb slower than they crawl...
Overall, the enemies of Little Nightmares II are more varied, challenging and in most cases even scarier than those of the original game. There were few moments where I felt frustrated by the main enemies (less so than the intermittent villains, such as the damn Bullies...) and in most cases, I was genuinely scared to enter a new location for fear that I would be suffocated by possessed fingers. Fortunately, there's one more character to meet, but more on him later.
Much like its predecessor, there's little in the way of a story going on here, but there is more of a quest; as you pass by various TV sets that seem to broadcast just static (still better than most of the crap on TV at the minute), Mono finds himself strangely drawn to them, eventually being pulled inside, where a mysterious hallway with a door at the far end waits to be explored. Good old Sidekick Six pulls you to safety before you see what's on the other side of the door... the broadcasts appear to come from The Signal Tower, a looming monolith in the heart of Pale City, whose inhabitants have become brainless, faceless things as a result of their constant exposure.
Drawing closer to the Signal Tower sees the appearance of a new villain, seemingly the mastermind of the entire, macabre affair; The Thin Man. The Thin Man is, like the Governess, a supernatural being (or so it seems), who glitches in and out of television sets and gives slow, terrifying chase to our heroes, his trilby perched expertly on his shadowed head. He brings a touch of the science fiction to the otherwise straight horror game and it's a welcome addition; infiltrating his Signal Tower lair creates a dream-like, purple-hued atmosphere that's completely different to the rest of the monochromatic art-style. Once again, though, your encounters with the Thin Man, as with the Governess, are marred by a by-the-numbers encounter that is all about pressing the right buttons as opposed to wit and skill.
Where Little Nightmares II excels its forebear is the stunning ending. Little Nightmares featured what I would call a stock ending; predictable and a little anti-climactic. But II builds up to the ending throughout the story, planting seeds and letting them grow into a narrative, until the shocking twist gut punches you and flips your entire perception of the game on its head. It's a criminal act to pull the rug out from under you in the closing minutes, but it's exactly what happens and even if you're expecting a twist (hell, I knew the ending before I played it and I was still stunned), you'll never see this coming. It's brave, it's bold and it's heartbreaking. But damn, is it awesome. Where it transcends simply being an ending is the way it creates the possibility of the game being a circular narrative, a sequel or a prequel all at once. It's difficult to get your head around, but playing the game makes the entire thing perfectly understandable.
Where Little Nightmares was a masterclass in horror, Little Nightmares II blows the whole premise, quite literally, out of the water, expanding into new genres, throwing in welcome new mechanics and ironing out some of the issues that plagued the first game. Pair this with a matured narrative that pushes the boundaries of the world, with some damn good scares and unsettling characters, it's a vast improvement of a game that was near perfect to begin with, and that won't offend fans of the original.
Sam's Score: 7
Little Nightmares II is available PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia. PS5, Xbox Series X/S versions available later this year.
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