Little Nightmares
| Little Nightmares | |||
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| Little Nightmares logo | |||
| Original title | Little Nightmares | ||
| Studio |
 Tarsier Studios |
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| Publisher |
 Bandai Namco Entertainment
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 28, 2017
Nintendo Switch: May 18, 2018 |
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| platform | Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Nintendo Switch , Google Stadia | ||
| Game engine | Unreal Engine 4 | ||
| genre | Puzzle , jump 'n' run , skill | ||
| Subject | horror | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Gamepad or mouse and keyboard | ||
| medium | digital distribution , download, optical disc | ||
| language | multilingual, u. a. German | ||
| Age rating |
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Little Nightmares is a puzzle platformers Run - Adventure and was designed by Tarsier Studios developed. Bandai Namco Entertainment released the game in April 2017 for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . A version for the Nintendo Switch followed in May 2018, and the version for Google Stadia in June 2020 .
In the game, the player controls the girl Six , who is wrapped in a yellow raincoat with a hood , in order to escape a nightmarish sea station known as the “Gorge”. The game received mostly positive reviews after its release. Special attention was paid to the atmosphere, the graphics, the sound and the storytelling . However, the saving by the checkpoint system, the long loading times and the shortness of the game were criticized.
content
Main storyline
The main character in Little Nightmares is a little girl / little boy named Six , who is being held captive in the so-called "throat". After waking up in a lower part of the throat, she tries to escape. Six is affected by her small size, and common objects like chairs or doors appear larger and heavier in relation to her. In addition, she gets insatiable hunger irregularly.
During their ascent, Six encounters the Maw caretaker, a monstrous humanoid with supernaturally long arms. He keeps catching fleeing children and sends them to the kitchen on a hook conveyor belt. After being lured with food and caught by the caretaker, it breaks out again a little later. The caretaker is blind, but he has ears like a lynx, so Six is not allowed to make any loud noises. She can sever the caretaker's arms through a steel trapdoor and thus escape him. She follows a belt up and arrives in the large kitchen, which is run by grotesque twin cooks. The cooks are preparing a big feast and try to catch Six at all times as soon as she walks within their sight. After she manages to escape from the kitchen, Six discovers that the Maw drifts like a ship on a vast ocean .
The girl then observes a passenger ship that has just docked and brought large, obese guests. These are led into the Schlunds ballroom, which is filled with food. The guests are watched and looked after by a slim lady in a geisha outfit, who is the mistress of the throat. After Six has struggled through the ballroom, she becomes extremely hungry again. When one of the gnomes , the returning inhabitants of the Maw, offers her a sausage, Six decides to eat the gnome instead of the sausage. Every time Six kills and eats a living being, a kind of shadowy doppelganger of hers appears nearby, possibly as a sign of the increasing corruption of her heart (or soul).
Six continues upstairs and enters the lady's private room. She lives in an elegant residence decorated with lots of mannequins , porcelain dolls and broken mirrors. Soon after, the lady begins to pursue the girl, revealing magical powers in the process. Six finally finds the only still intact mirror, which she holds in front of the lady's face during the fight, throwing her demonic gaze back on her. After the lady is defeated, Six begins to eat her and thereby gains her supernatural powers.
Then Six goes into the dining room, during which she is swarmed by strange, black particles. When the guests notice them, they try to eat the child. However, they collapse and die while Six walks leisurely through the hall, robbing the guests of their souls one after the other. Six reaches a large, one-eye-locked door that leads to the outside world. As she climbs the exit stairs, some gnomes approach the door.
After the credits, the player sees Six sitting in the entrance area of the throat, presumably waiting for rescue, while the foghorn of another passenger ship can be heard in the background .
Subplot
The three game episodes The Depth ("The Depths") , The Hideaway ("The Hiding Place" / "The Shelter") and The Residence ("The Residence") tell important frameworks that occur chronologically parallel to the main story. In all three episodes, the player takes on the role of a boy who also wants to escape from the abyss. When the boy has successfully passed various quarters and machine rooms, he himself arrives at the lady's private residence. After solving various puzzles, he surprises the lady as she stands in front of an intact mirror and regrets her true countenance (she is old and unattractive). The lady angrily chases after the boy, catches him and turns him into a gnome. In this way, the boy wanders through the dining room and finally arrives in the room where a sausage is on the floor. Now it becomes apparent that the boy has become the gnome who will later be eaten by Six.
Characters
- Six
Six is the real protagonist. The developers can't tell what gender Six is. Usually Six is titled as a girl. She is 9 years old, wears a quince yellow raincoat with a large hood and always walks around barefoot. Since her face is largely covered by the hood, a more precise description of her appearance is difficult. It is not known where it comes from, why it woke up in the throat, or what purpose its stay serves. Due to the fact that she is trying to escape from the Maw, it can be assumed that she is not there of her own free will. Rather, hints can be found in the course of the game, according to which children who grow up without parents are kidnapped by child catchers to the throat. Six's dwarfed size is explained by the game developers in such a way that in the world in which “Little Nightmares” is set, children shrink with persistent malnutrition. Six is also repeatedly plagued by raging hunger attacks. These seem to have an effect on her psyche and soul, because with every ravenous hunger attack she loses more and more of morality and conscience: first she eats a piece of meat that has been thrown down, then a rat that is still alive, and finally the unsuspecting gnome who offers her a sausage wanted, and in the end she consumes the lady. What exactly drives Six to such acts is not explained in detail.
- The outlier
Another nine-year-old child who has so far remained nameless and is simply called “the runaway” or “the runaway child” among players. Fans like to call him "Seven" based on Six's name. He is a boy with a blue jacket and pants, an ankle cuff on his right leg and, like Six, always barefoot. As with Six, his face cannot be seen, although here it is due to his long black hair, which is cut like a pot cut. He should be about the same age as Six . He too wakes up in the throat and tries to flee. And almost nothing is known about the boy either. If the child catcher theory about Six is true, then the same fate may have befallen the boys. His shocking end is closely linked to Six's experiences.
- The Lady
She is the main antagonist of the game. The lady is the owner and also the main administrator of the gullet. She also has no proper name, so she is simply called "the lady" or "the geisha" in the game itself and among players. The latter goes back to her appearance: the lady is dressed in an anthracite-colored kimono , her hair is tied into a large bun according to Japanese tradition and her face is hidden under a snow-white mask. In the game episode The Residence it is revealed that her real face appears to be drawn and unattractive with age. Maybe she robs children of their souls and / or turns them into gnomes in order to preserve their own beauty and youth with the help of the stolen life energy. Alternatively, she may have been cursed when she acquired her magical powers and now every mirror shows her disfigured face. When the lady has turned a child into a gnome, she lets them do heavy work and / or servicing in the throat. Most of the time, however, she spends standing in front of (mostly broken) mirrors in her rooms, combing her hair and pitying her face. She hums an eerie melody almost incessantly. The lady has black magic powers: she can turn children into gnomes, levitate herself and children , teleport and dissolve in black smoke / fog. Her only weakness seems to be a certain mirror that throws her demonic gaze back. When the mirror breaks, her mask is destroyed.
- The twin chefs
They are also antagonists and almost always together as twins. It's obese, puffy-looking humanoids who actually wear waxy masks. What is hidden under them is unknown, and it remains a mystery why they are masked at all. The twins are the chefs of the throat and are busy non-stop preparing meals and / or washing dishes in the kitchen. In doing so, they are conspicuously disoriented. In Six they apparently see a living food ingredient: As soon as they get hold of the girl, she is cooked alive or stuffed into a roast.
- The janitor
Another antagonist in the game. The caretaker is a grotesquely deformed humanoid with noticeably short legs and supernaturally long, skinny arms. He's wearing a dingy coat and a slouch hat that looks much too small. He also has a blindfold. The caretaker is blind, but he has ears like a lynx. Its job is to catch stray children and send them to the kitchen by hook conveyor. Otherwise he is busy repairing and collecting children's toys (which seems nonsensical, since there are no children living with him and he delivers every child to the kitchen). He seems to have a fascination for spoons. The caretaker's sensitive hearing can be used to the advantage of the player: to distract him, all you have to do is activate a device nearby that makes a loud noise. While the caretaker locates and eliminates the source of the noise, the player has the opportunity to steal objects (primarily keys) and / or to flee.
- The grandmother
She lives in the flooded basement rooms of the Maw. She seems to be some kind of mermaid . She is very good at swimming and diving and stays under the surface most of the time. The player has to swim through the rooms and repeatedly pull himself on objects floating in the water (e.g. suitcases and boards) in order not to be caught. In one corner of the last room is a large, wooden platform with an old tube television on it. When the grandmother tries to destroy the platform by tearing away the supporting pillars, the boy pushes the television into the water, whereupon a huge electric shock runs through the water and kills the grandmother.
- leech
The leeches are recurring monsters that are relatively easy to circumvent as long as the character stays in motion. The leeches can be found crawling on the ground as well as hanging from low ceilings and pipes. You will also be attracted by Six's lighter when it is lit.
- The guests
They too are opponents. They are indescribably obese and obsessed with overeating. Many of them wear masks, the reason for this is unknown. The guests are usually completely absorbed in their gluttony , but if they notice Six they have to flee because the guests really devour everything. The greed for human flesh is so advanced that they literally seal after the girl (they are already too obese to walk). However , Six escapes by jumping off a balustrade . There are clear indications in certain sections of the game, after which the guests are lured into the gullet in order to fatten them and, when the opportunity arises, to kill them and process them into sausages and pies. Your shoes and clothes are collected in the basement and used to heat the kiln.
- Shadow children
The shadow children appear so far only in the episode The Residence . One can only speculate about their origins, possibly they were one day children who were captured and transformed by the lady. The shadow children are made of a blackish, ink-like substance and wear expressionless white porcelain masks. If they are illuminated with the flashlight, they dissolve until their mask falls to the ground and breaks. However, if they get hold of the boy, they kill him instantly.
- Gnomes
The gnomes live and work in the throat. They are even smaller than the two protagonists, have beige-colored skin and wear large pointed hats. Most of the time, they bustle back and forth and like to hide in joints and cracks in the wall or in drawers and even cleaning buckets. If they are hugged and fondled by the player, they follow the character for a certain period of time. In the game episode The Hideaway , their willingness to help comes to the fore: every gnome the boy has hugged helps him push away difficult obstacles and operates switches and levers that the boy would not be able to reach without the gnome. The game episodes The Residence and The Hideaway together reveal that the gnomes are really children who have been captured and transformed by the lady.
Gameplay
The plot of the game is divided into five chapters. Each chapter tells its own section. The main character Six can walk, run, jump and climb through the different chapters. The game character is tiny compared to the game environment, which makes everyday objects appear abnormally large. In addition, the character has a lighter available, which can be used to illuminate the gloomy atmosphere. In addition, small objects can be used to perform certain actions. In contrast to 2D platformer games, the character can also be moved in the depths of the room.
The player has to solve different complex puzzles in the different rooms of the "throat" in order to unlock the next area. The game character has to hide mainly from the oversized creatures like the two cooks or the caretaker. If it is discovered, the character dies a virtual death and the game section starts again. There is no so-called life point display or display for a secondary resource in Little Nightmares. Likewise, no tutorial with which the control can be explained is offered before the actual action .
development
The game was first presented in May 2014 by the Swedish developer Tarsier Studios under the name "Hunger". At this point it was not yet known who would publish the game, which was initially intended for the PlayStation 4. Except for a teaser trailer in February 2015, no further information about the game was published until August 2016. At that time, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that Tarsier Studios and Bandai Namco had agreed on a worldwide release. The project has been called Little Nightmares ever since .
publication
The game was released on April 28, 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The first release trailer for the game was released on August 11, 2016. In addition to the download version of the game, a retail version and a collector's version were released. In addition to the actual game, this contained a 10 cm high six collectible figure, the soundtrack, a poster and a sticker board.
reception
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Little Nightmares received mostly positive reviews. According to the website Metacritic , which calculates an average value from collected reviews, the game received an average score of 81 points from 17 reviews for the Windows version, 79 points from 37 reviews for the PlayStation 4 version and 84 points from 14 reviews for the Xbox One version.
Cory Arnold from Destructoid concluded a positive conclusion for the game, which would be "worth the money and time of most players" and gave 8.5 out of a total of 10 points as a final rating.
Ray Carsillo, who rated the game 4 out of 10 for Electronic Gaming Monthly , criticized the lack of any challenge in the game. In addition, the start of the plot appears to be too rash, which means that there is no connection to the player character. Like Jonathan Leack from Game Revolution, he rated the atmosphere of the game positively, which could not cancel out the negative points strongly enough. The soundscape of the game was also received positively. Together with the gloomy atmosphere in the game itself, this creates a good overall impression. The gameplay itself sometimes seems like a nightmare and the player needs a lot of patience to move forward.
The sometimes imprecise controls and the sometimes unimaginative levels were also negative. In many cases, the controls do not behave as expected by the player. Likewise, some deaths of the game character remain too imprecise, so that the player has to wonder what he actually did wrong in the situation. The proportion of sneaking actions appears to be too high compared to the short game of around four hours and could have used more variety. Nevertheless, the trial-and-error system creates its own charm and encourages experimentation. The loading times that occur after a virtual death on the PlayStation and last an average of 30 seconds are negative.
In general, the game could convince with the atmosphere on the screen and in the sound. Above all, the mix of childhood fears with the gloomy atmosphere creates a unique feeling for the game. The horror puzzle platformer offers a solid atmosphere, but falls short of expectations and is good for "pleasantly oppressive hours" in a somewhat different horror game.
Sales figures
The game debuted at number four on the UK sales charts. However, only retail sales were considered.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wesley Copeland: Creepy platformer Little Nightmares Gets a Release Date . IGN. January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
- ↑ Little Nightmares: Complete Edition finds its way to the Nintendo Switch in May - ntower . In: ntower . ( ntower.de [accessed on July 24, 2018]).
- ↑ Even More This Week on Stadia: Five new games in Stadia Pro. May 28, 2020, accessed June 4, 2020 .
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Little Nightmares alluded to: Escape from the cook of horror - Golem.de . August 19, 2016 ( golem.de [accessed May 3, 2017]).
- ↑ Secrets Of The Maw: Your Questions Answered! | Bandai Namco Entertainment. Retrieved August 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Felix Schütz: Little Nightmares in the test: childhood fears to replay . Ed .: PC GAMES. April 21, 2017 ( pcgames.de [accessed May 4, 2017]).
- ↑ a b Benjamin Braun: Little Nightmares Test - Without instructions in the game, escape passages, jump and run | GamersGlobal.de. April 21, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017 .
- ↑ Jeffrey Matulef: Bandai Namco picks up evocative horror game Hunger, rebrands it Little Nightmares . Eurogamer . August 11, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ↑ Michael Bonke: Little Nightmares: Release date and new trailer for the puzzle adventure . Ed .: PC GAMES. January 18, 2017 ( pcgames.de [accessed May 4, 2017]).
- ↑ a b Little Nightmares for PC Reviews . Metacritic . Retrieved April 28, 2017.
- ↑ a b Little Nightmares for PlayStation 4 Reviews . Metacritic . April 28, 2017.
- ↑ a b Little Nightmares for Xbox One Reviews . Metacritic . Retrieved April 28, 2017.
- ^ A b Cory Arnold: Review: Little Nightmares . Destructoid . April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
- ↑ a b Ray Carsillo: Little Nightmares review . Electronic Gaming Monthly . April 28, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
- ↑ Jeff Cork: A Grotesque Tale That Plays Off The Familiar - Little Nightmares - PC . Game Informer . April 25, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
- ↑ a b Jonathan Leack: Little Nightmares Review . Game revolution . April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ↑ Matt Espineli: Little Nightmares Review . GameSpot . April 28, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
- ↑ a b Sam Prell: Little Nightmares review: 'Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, if Spirited Away was grotesque and horrifying.' . GamesRadar . April 27, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ↑ Joe Skrebels: Little Nightmares Review . IGN Entertainment . April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ^ Samuel Robert: Little Nightmares review . PC gamer . April 24, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
- ^ Whitney Reynolds: Little Nightmares review . Polygon . April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
- ↑ Alice Bell: Little Nightmares Review . VideoGamer.com . April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
- ↑ Felix Schütz: Little Nightmares in the test: childhood fears to replay . Ed .: PC GAMES. April 21, 2017 ( pcgames.de [accessed May 4, 2017]).
- ↑ Push Square: UK Sales Charts: Little Nightmares Makes Dream Debut in Fourth . In: Push Square . April 30, 2017 ( pushsquare.com [accessed May 4, 2017]).