Little Nightmares 3 Review

In the third installment of the Little Nightmares franchise, we meet Low and Alone in a whole new world. Using mirrors to teleport across various locations, Low confronts past traumas. Alone tags along as a support system and a playable character should you choose to co-op with a friend.

The Cooperative Breakdown

The gameplay doesn’t improve for the third game, it actually downgrades a bit with the co-op mechanic. There were a few times I had to reset a section or repeat a puzzle because the computer for Alone didn’t register the next step. In one instance I needed Alone to boost me up and they never even came to the box I was supposed to climb. I tried to go back to Alone and encourage them to follow me, I tried the "hey" mechanic they use to help summon your partner. I had to restart the whole game. This instantly ruins the immersion to the game and might have added to the issues with the overall narrative. I did not co-op the game so this might be a mechanic resolved by playing with another person. However, it was inconsistent and inconvenient in some situations.

A Beautiful Sight With Nowhere to Go

The music and art style hold up to its predecessors, however the story falls short. This is a completely separate game from the first two. The overall themes of fear and thriller horror are present, yet it never develops into that feeling of dread that Little Nightmare fans might be used to. There were a few creepy moments for those who are afraid of puppets or dolls and you might be weirded out by the giant baby, but nothing really pins down the “need to escape” feeling from the first two games. It feels like the game never really evolves into becoming a nightmare. There seemed to be this disconnect between the narrative and the emotions it was hoping to pull from me. Nothing ever fully landed in a storytelling sense. There is this huge lack of urgency to want to escape.

Puzzles Built on Filler

The puzzles feel less impactful than previous puzzles. They help you get from point A to point B, but they don't add to the storyline or build on the overall mechanics. Little Nightmares has a history of no dialogue, which continues in this game, however the puzzles seem unnecessarily difficult in order to make up for their lack of relation to the story. I often found myself just wanting to solve it to move on, instead of wanting to understand why this puzzle was even relevant. There is a situation where you have to jump from platforms, on a balance scale type of machine, to get to the next level. The way they line up makes no sense visually, they don't add to the story or why we are going that particular way. It just feels like a filler puzzle and borderline annoying.

The Verdict

Overall the game is fun to play and visually nice. I would say if you’ve played the previous two then you’re going to have to leave those comparisons behind in order to enjoy this one. Having just come off from binging the first two games this was a difficult feat for me. It is obvious this was developed by a different team. My overall score would be a 6.0/10.