shovelwithasprout

UPDATE: the third game let me down

if you weren't aware, little nightmares 1 & 2 recently (at the time of originally writing this) each had their 7th and 4th anniversary's, respectively. i've played both of the games and i love them to bits, especially the first game since i remember when i first got to play the game.

i would replay it over and over while sitting in the back room of my dad's work, an insurance agency, on an xbox. the first time i (spoiler alert) witnessed the death of the lady, all i could do is watch with a running heart. the slow realization i had when six made her brutal march outside of the maw made this game all too memorable to me.

and i can't forget the dlc. the boy has the perfect tie-in to the main game, one of the scariest enemies to face (from the first game) in my opinion, and a captivating ending that left me speechless as i experienced it for myself. i wish i could have witnessed it blind, but if you haven't yet then please do check it out for yourself.

the second game is another treasure to me. it keeps the spirit of the first game, but expanding upon the delivery with a larger budget, story, and ending. The lore surrounding this game is wonderful as it stands as a surprise prequel when it could so easily have been some trashy continuation of six's story post-maw. what we get is a completely new character, mono, who is essentially 'the boy' deluxe. cutesy character design (i'm talking about the return of the hats btw), personality is shown a lot more in comparison, and such a gut-wrenching ending that always fills my stomach with dread.

ughhhh i could go on and on for hours just yapping about every little detail in these two games. six's raincoat is such a genius way to bring a recognizable character sillhouette alike those seen in cartoons or animations to an art style that wouldn't naturally allow it. i love the subtle stylization of everything, it did what 'hello neighbor' failed to.

i've come to appreciate (i hated it when i played it) the scp-esque section of little nightmares 2, when mono is left in a room with mannequins that only move when a flashlight is shined upon. it does remind me of the first game's lady's quarters section, specifically the shadow children. the slow burn reveal that mono is (HUGE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE SECOND GAME) the thin man through the final cutscene of the game fills me with dread alike when the boy is left to be murdered by six. it is easy to draw the conclusion that both the boy and mono have been hugely negatively impacted by six, which conflicts with the fact that you naturally want to empathize with her. i mean, you literally controlled her in the first game.

when the third game releases, i will be playing it with a friend of course, and i will rant about it here for probably a while. i'm just praying (not really haha) and hoping that the third game lives up to its expectations. ahh!!!!

it is with a heavy heart that i tell you the third game did not, indeed, live up to its expectations. if you want a detailed explanation as to why the third game felt as if it felt flat, i'd look at the many videos already up on youtube. as for my reasons, i'll list them out below.

1. change in studio, games are an art form

it's pretty obvious, but because supermassive games developed this game, it was bound to feel at least a little bit different. everything looked like it was from a little nightmares game, but it had a distinctly different feeling overall. i can't quite put my finger on it, but i'd consider the animation style and the character design to be one of those things you could compare / contrast. personally, during my playthrough the whole ordeal felt like i was playing a fangame, not just another entry in the franchise.

just like with any other artform, the artist is just as important as the idea. if i were to follow a bob ross tutorial exactly to his instructions, would i end up with the exact same painting as him? no! of course not! my painting would look a bit different, perhaps it'd lend itself more towards my style or just look amateur. and i think that's exactly what happened here.

2. enemy design

the enemies in this game are straight up less scary. while not all of them are bad, theres a good majority who seem to fall flat in nearly every area. for example, the giant baby seen in the first chapter, while very visually interesting, does not allow for interesting gameplay or high-tension moments. it felt like a scripted game of hide-and-seek, but one wrong move by you or the friendly ai (if you played solo) would cause you to lose progress. in the previous two games, it was always assumed that the consequences of being caught were probably very extreme or lethal. But in this game, that feeling is just not shown. you have to get caught not just once, but twice, and both times you are either left in a cage or simply looked at before being dropped.

3. the fnaf-ication of the ip

i actually didn't really know who the third game's final boss was until i watched a video afterwards that clarified it. if you didn't know, there is a little nightmares audiobook, called "the sounds of nightmares," that released a while ago. it was a neat little audition to the little nightmares universe, and confirmed a lot of things within the world. however, if you never listened to the audiobook, you wouldn't realise that the final boss of the third game was actually a character from exclusively the audiobook. they just show up, and without context they feel like just another enemy, until, well, the game ends.

the direction this ip is going is one in which you have to consume a variety of types of media in order to understand the fundamental plotline, a lot like fnaf (/neg). players shouldn't be paywalled from story elements because they couldn't afford to buy the upcoming litle nightmares movie because they've already spent 40 whole dollars on a game that explains nothing.

4. the sound design

the music in little nightmares is, aside from the artstyle, the most recognizable part of the franchise. i still listen to the soundtrack from the first two games, years later, and each track invokes a different feeling. but when i played through ln3, i realized just how quiet everything is. there is no longer music, only ambience - spare for two sections. one of them is a reused track, for a short nome puzzle sequence that is honestly quite short. the other is during the carnival chapter, when you are trying to find a radio station to open a secret door. that's it. everything else is mellow and out of the way, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it just isn't little nightmares.

5. the (lack of) puzzles

i'm not kidding when i say that there was probably 2 puzzles in the whole 4 hours of gameplay that i enjoyed figuring out. the vast, and i mean vast majority of the puzzles are: "go over here! pull a lever. okay! now crawl through a vent. how do you get to that ledge? well obviously you have to pull the rolling table hidden in the corner right up to it! what do you mean that's the only table in the game that isn't locked to only one axis? you should have known this specific table was going to work normally, and everything else has invisible rails on it!"

if you play this game, which i don't recommend unless it goes on sale or you have the money to spare, you'll understand what i mean. i wish i was exaggerating, but that's really how it felt looking up walkthroughs only to find (both times) that the solution was right in front of me. not even in the "aha!" way, but the "how was i supposed to see that" way.

in general, this game felt rushed and supermassive majorly dropped the ball. i'm really disappointed, and i don't think i will be buying the dlc when it comes out (yes, they really planned a dlc before the game even released) nor will i be replaying this game for a very, very long while.