Gamescom 2024: Little Nightmares 3 Impressions

Bandai Namco unveiled the third installment of its horror adventure series Little Nightmares at Gamescom this year. But while the first two were developed by Swedish studio Tarsier, the third was taken over by British developers Supermassive Games, who you may know as the creators of horror titles like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology. But how did they handle a slightly different horror film?

From the very first moments of the playable demo, it was clear that the new creators would not stray too far from the beaten path. You are immediately given a dark atmosphere, created by pleasant, highly stylized visuals, which stand out mainly for the shape of the environment, but of course also for the very high-quality sound.

As in the duet, there are two main characters, namely Low and Lonely. In the third part, however, the developers are already introducing small innovations, and the gameplay is still a little more extensive than in the previous, almost exclusively walking parts. While Odin has a wrench with which he can break a wall or move a wheel that sets the elevator in motion, Low has a bow and arrow with which he can hit more distant targets. Towards the end of the demo, they both get umbrellas with which they can rise up or slow down a fall, which is also a nice addition.

Cooperation between the two heroes is key, and while the puzzles weren’t particularly exploratory, I enjoyed solving them throughout, whether it was moving and knocking down objects that help you get upstairs, making the elevator work, or finding the key in a locked door. The assistant AI worked very well, but the online co-op mode might make the game even more enjoyable.

But while the mechanics themselves and their animations were great, the controls felt a little clunky at times, and I had a hard time getting where I needed to go. It’s hard to say, though, if this was just a habit or if the issues will continue later on. If it’s the latter, hopefully the developers will fix the shortcomings.

But there’s one other thing that bothered me a little: the demo felt pretty empty most of the time. Sure, there are the aforementioned puzzles, but other than that, “virtually nothing happened” until the very end. In any case, the ending was already very strong and definitely beckoned to the full game.

Overall, I liked Little Nightmares 3 from the playable demo. Supermassive is sticking more to the principles laid out by Tarsier, but considering that they still work very well, that’s not a bad thing. They also added some interesting gameplay mechanics that freshen up the very simple gameplay. I’m looking forward to the full version and I’m curious if it can finally match the quality of the previous two parts, as the Gamescom demo shows.

Little Nightmares 3 is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. It’s coming next year.