Little Nightmares EGX Preview

While at EGX, everyone kept mentioning a great game that Bandai-Namco were exhibiting. I tend to take what people say with a pinch of salt at the best of times, but the sheer amount of people chatting about it had me intrigued. It’s developed by Tarsier Studios, a team known for its work with Media Molecule on the Little Big Planet Series and Tearaway Unfolded. In an effort to move away from well established IPs, Tarsier Studios have created what could be the next big indie hit.

Little Nightmares is a 3D horror platformer that plays on the childhood fears we all know (and hate). Much like the indie gem, Limbo, the game sees you traversing through the world, avoiding all the pitfalls and dangers targeted at the protagonist. It’s a game that plays on building tension, over cheap scare tactics. What makes it so impressive is how it ends up building tension through environment based storytelling, this makes traversal both incredibly daunting whilst adding a sense of intrigue.

The demo I played had the protagonist (a little girl called Six) starting in a larger than life house, furniture becomes the environment for you to traverse. You must climb and move objects in order to open door handles and pull down switches. The use of a familiar environments is an intelligent choice as it means you often solve puzzles through association with the objects presented. This results in smooth gameplay that rarely stumbles or stops. While the house is definitely a harsh environment, it’s the inhabitants that are the most frightening aspect.

The inhabitants are gruesome, disfigured people? I’m not entirely sure what they are to be honest, but they are not nice to look at. Get in one’s line of vision and it will chase you, picking you up before the screen fades to black. They are somewhere between the vastly overweight people in Wall-E and Kuato from Total Recall. Beyond their ghastly appearance is their overall demeanour, they fill the room with all kinds of burping and slurping noises; whilst screeching at the first sight of you. The developers give you every reason to avoid them, and so you should.

The environment design is excellent, knocking things over or bumping into things causes the monsters to rush to the source of the noise. I found myself faintly reminded of Alien: Isolation, and although the AI isn’t quite as intelligent, it is surprisingly responsive, sometimes to even the tiniest of environmental changes.

My favourite part of the short demo I played was actually right at the end, after traversing some ventilation shafts Six finds herself in a room filled with what appears to be children's shoes. This paints an incredibly vivid picture of just how dark this game is likely going to be, as I previously mentioned, the developers have done a stellar job of environmental storytelling. I genuinely can’t wait to immerse myself in the incredible world Tarsier Studios have created.

As it stands, the build is still a little bit buggy; sometimes the AI can be a bit stupid and objects often end up clipping. The puzzles could also do with a little more work as the correct way to solve them can sometimes be a little bit vague. The game isn’t due until next year though so there is plenty of time to polish minor imperfections.

Little Nightmares was by far my highlight of EGX 2016, whatever scepticism I originally held has vanished, replaced by an unhealthy amount of excitement. It’s amazing that a show filled with AAA titles and corporate sponsorship can be dominated by a studio with only a few games and a handful of ports under it’s name. Watch this space.