Little Nightmares II test: a gloomy tale, but unbalanced

Media Molecule's second knife on the LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway trilogy, the Swedish studio Tarsier took off in 2017. Emancipation in the form of a cinematic-platformer called Little Nightmares, of which we discover the sequel today.

Four years, and a takeover by the ogre Embracer Group later, the studio that takes its name from a Southeast Asian primate does not seem to be doing much better. Not that his situation is alarming, no. Rather, one worries about the obviously tortured psyche of his creative forces.

Little Nightmares II is no brighter than its ancestor. Nor is it more original. In this, it is one of those games that offer precisely what was expected of them. Leaving the audience alone to judge whether that makes it a success or a disappointment.

At Clubic, we finally decided for enthusiasm. And we explain to you why Little Nightmares II deserves all your attention.

Little Nightmares II test: a gloomy tale, but unbalanced See PriceRead ConclusionLittle Nightmares 2

A game overflowing with visual ideas
Still deliciously cryptic
A chilling artistic direction
The horror that never falls into gore

The fights, we would have done well without them
(Slightly) more reassuring than the first
An inexplicable spike in difficulty halfway through

The case that is Mono

Opting for a formula copied from the first opus, Little Nightmares II nevertheless redistributes the cards. This time, we no longer play Six (the little girl in the yellow raincoat from Little Nightmares), but a young boy called Mono. With his crappy Little Prince look and his craft bag screwed on his head, our new hero is tone on tone with the color chart of depression spreading in the background.

But as evidenced by the cover of the title, the heroine despite herself of the first part will quickly cross paths with Mono. To the point of transforming Little Nightmares II into a collaborative game. A missed opportunity for Tarsier to make his title playable for two, but above all a way of – literally – reaching out to the player or the player. Indeed we must already express a reservation: whoever says two characters on the screen, says trouillometer in calm waters.

Little Nightmares was never terrifying. Preferring a disturbing aesthetic to low-fronted horror, the game still stands out when it comes to character design. But it must be recognized that by being accompanied for a large part of the adventure, one is already more reassured at the idea of venturing into an obscure conduit or a failing boarding school.

Little nightmares that send dreams

This four-handed gameplay is also an opportunity for Tarsier to diversify (a little) the puzzles of his game. Where Little Nightmares was limited to a series of chases and platforming phases, his successor brings a little nuance to the recipe. Nothing that we have never seen elsewhere; we think in particular of heavy objects to be moved together, or of summits that can only be reached by leaning on Six. Still, on this point, Little Nightmares II is more varied than the inaugural episode.

Too bad that this palette of possibilities does not yet allow the studio to escape the recycling of certain ideas. Iconic, the famous kitchen scene from the first part is replicated almost identically in a chemistry classroom. It must also be said that the gameplay based on hide and seek (the developers rejecting the term infiltration) quickly reaches its limits. Especially since no element allows us to go against the march of the scripts. Impossible to attract an enemy by making noise, for example. From the moment you cross a certain threshold in the level, the machine sets in motion and you have no choice but to go in its direction.

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The kitchen scene from the first game is almost identical here.

This aspect of Little Nightmares II gives rise to a little go-as-I-push-you side which is a bit unfortunate in a game with such dazzling visual finds. Sometimes, we would like to dwell more on certain sets, as if to try to unlock all their secrets. Masterfully managing the depth of field to add to the anguish of a too dark hallway or a rainy alley, Tarsier sometimes pushes us hastily towards the exit. As if, proud of it (rightly!) the studio was eager for us to discover the next painting.

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Children of TV

What is Little Nightmares II about? Impossible to answer the question without getting embarrassed. Just like Playdead's games (Limbo and Inside are two watermark figures), Tarsier productions cultivate a certain mystery. Units of place and time are not only fuzzy, they are incidental to the audience's involvement in the adventures of Mono and Six.

Like the first opus, Little Nightmares II could be summed up as a headlong rush. A pretext allowing Tarsier Studios to deploy a wide variety of environments – especially since the aesthetics of the game brew interesting surrealist influences. So don't be surprised to wander around a deserted town where the inhabitants have disappeared, leaving only their clothes piled up on the ground or on a bench waiting for a bus that will never pass again. Worry no more, when you cross an old school where the residents (they are alive) wear a porcelain helmet as a skull. We also recommend that you avoid panicking when this dear schoolteacher chases after you, stretching her neck to infinity.

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Only the clothes of the inhabitants remain, as if they had evaporated.

Too bad that this creative richness is rarely combined with more audacity, gameplay side. Despite the inflections authorized by your partner, we remain on a game loop sewn with white thread. In each chapter (there are 5 for about 6 hours of play) a new environment and a new alpha opponent. The first rooms having vocation to wet your neck before the big dive, we quickly identify that the patterns are repeated most of the game.

But Little Nightmares II occasionally manages to let go. With more or less success, however. Among the beautiful ideas, we will mention this level where, helping us with televisions placed here and there, we have to navigate through a dilapidated building bar by creating Portal-style passages. Other puzzles work much less well. Impossible, as such, not to speak of the level known as "dummies", with which it will be necessary to play 1,2,3, sun to progress. Equipped with a flashlight, you have to illuminate the charming face of your opponents to freeze them and be able to move forward. Problem, they are in excess, and it is extremely difficult to control your character while keeping the beam of light directed in the right direction. A real hell, which represents an absolutely inconceivable peak of difficulty in a game that we otherwise go through very quietly.

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Each chapter brings a particular gameplay element. Here, the flashlight that can immobilize his pursuers.

The fighting youth

Among the great novelties of this opus, we almost forget to mention the fights. It is that this functionality does not leave us with an imperishable memory, and most often appears as frustrating and dysfunctional.

Mono can indeed grab (painfully) hammers, axes, pipes and other blunt weapons lying around in order to get rid of his attackers. Weapons that, being the same size as our hero, are unwieldy for a penny. The absence of a sighting system also means that we regularly hit the target. Too bad, because at the slightest blow suffered by an opponent, it's game over and we start the whole sequence again. Irritant.

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We can use weapons (but it's very badly done)

Fortunately, this novelty of Little Nightmares II is also illustrated regularly when solving puzzles. It is not uncommon to have to grab an object to press a switch too high for us, or to trigger – at the start of the game – one of the many traps left there by an unfriendly hunter.

Little Nightmares II : l’avis de Clubic

Little Nightmare II is a worthy heir. Tortured as hell, the new game from Tarsier Studios would almost make its eldest child look too good. Visually overflowing with genius, Little Nightmares II does not tell us cracks: it makes us live a real nightmare. With all that entails of surreal visions and grotesque monsters.

Without mistaking the goods, however, it omits certain parts of its history. We expected it: Little Nightmares II is very similar to the first part. Or let's say rather that the sum of its novelties does not frankly breathe exoticism.

In reality, and at the time of taking stock, we would even be tempted to say that it is specifically the novelties of this episode that remain in our throats. The assistantship in which the collaboration with Six plunges us, and which in fact reduces the overall degree of anxiety. The combat sequences as useless as they are badly dosed. Some failed attempts to vary the formula (again those damn models that I won't soon forget)...

But impossible to punish too severely a title as overflowing with ideas as Little Nightmares II. Its peculiarities may not integrate perfectly with the pre-existing cogs, but it remains one of the most sordid and deeply fascinating cinematic platformers of recent years. And just for that, Little Nightmares II made us dream.

Little Nightmares 2

A sequel that rarely comes out of the nails without going off the rails, but whose horrifying common thread never ceases to amaze. Little Nightmares II is an aesthetic slap in the face for those who know how to appreciate the indelicacy of a morbid and deeply depressing universe. A game that lives up to its title, in short.