Little Nightmares 3 Review – Adorable Atrocities

Little Nightmares 3 Review

The world of Little Nightmares has always been a solitary one. It’s a franchise built on the profound dread of being small, helpless, and utterly alone in a world of grotesque, oversized monsters. From the water-logged prison of The Maw to the static-ridden Pale City, Little Nightmares has perfected the art of a very specific kind of horror—one that’s less about the jump scare and more about that half-remembered fever dream of childhood.. In this sense, Supermassive Games (a developer renowned for its cinematic horror in titles like Until Dawn and The Quarry), now having taken total control of the franchise, has chosen to continue leaning into what makes the first two games great.

Only this time, Little Nightmares 3 dares to challenge the series’ foundational principle of isolation by introducing a new core mechanic: co-op play.

A New You

First, let’s meet our new set of protagonists: Low and Alone. Adiós, yellow raincoat and paper bag. Low wears a plague doctor bird mask and wields a trusty bow and arrow. Pigtailed Alone totes an enormous wrench to manipulate the environment. They are lost children, just like Six and Mono before them, but are instantly different in terms of their bond. They are a team, trapped together in a desolate new location called The Spiral—a cluster of disturbed places, with the first revealed area being the sun-scorched, sand-swept Necropolis. This dead desert city, with its crumbling ruins and industrial decay, feels both familiar in its oppressive scale and pleasantly new in its presentation.

The introduction of two-player co-op is, without a doubt, Little Nightmares 3’s biggest gamble. Thankfully, it pays off in spades. While Little Nightmares 2 featured an AI companion in Mono, this third entry is built from the ground up with symbiotic gameplay in mind. Little Nightmares 3 is stuffed to the brim with enjoyable, accessible puzzles that are impossible to solve solo. Low, for example, uses his bow to fire an arrow with a rope wrapped around it, creating a zipline for Alone to cross a large gap. Alone uses her wrench to pry open a jammed gear, allowing Low to pass through a closing gate.

Be Cooperative

Little Nightmares 3 consistently evokes an engaging and rewarding sense of cooperation, akin to games like It Takes Two and Split Fiction. While puzzles never reach the noodle-scratching heights of something like Baba Is You, there are plenty of them that aren’t obvious at first glance. Players will consistently be bouncing ideas back and forth with their partner. Some may find this to be an excessive departure from previous entries, but I found it both refreshing and necessary to avoid a “been there, done that” kind of feeling.

Though I couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu when it came to the environments. The visual artists at Supermassive have crafted a world full of dread and mystery. But one that also feels incredibly familiar. There’s a clear theme throughout Little Nightmares 3 of loss and insignificance. One that’s hammered home with colossal, decaying structures that make our protagonists look like ants in comparison. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that I feel as if Supermassive might have played it a bit too safe with Little Nightmares 3’s environments.

Depth Despair

There is also an issue with navigating these environments. Little Nightmares 3 suffers the most from its inability to dictate depth perception. Many times, I found myself missing a jump or running into obstacles. It’s something I got used to, but wasn’t particularly happy about having to learn. A game about getting from point A to B shouldn’t have an inherent traversal problem, but in this regard, Little Nightmares 3 swings and misses.

Supermassive, does, however, hit a homerun with Little Nightmares 3’s audio design. If the visuals are the body of its horror, then the audio is its nervous system—a complex network of subtle cues and jarring shocks that wonderfully dictate emotion. The series has always excelled in its use of silence, making every sound that breaks it feel significant and often terrifying. Little Nightmares 3 is no different. There are a handful of genuine scares within the campaign that are expertly delivered due to the excellent sound direction. Turn the lights off and crank up the volume. Little Nightmares 3 tries its damndest to terrify you.

Perfect for Spooky Season

Little Nightmares 3 is a worthy successor to the first two games. It may play things a little too safe, but it clearly respects the foundation upon which it’s built. The addition of co-op fits like a glove and should be standard for all future Little Nightmares games. The puzzles are clever and approachable. The audio design is stellar. Fans of the series will find a lot to love within this latest iteration. It’s a perfect game to kick off the spooky season. Don’t miss it.

***A PS5 code was provided for this review***