The Little Nightmares series is a highly acclaimed indie horror puzzle platformer series. In both the first Little Nightmares game and the second the player controls a young protagonist attempting to escape a nightmarish land called The Nowhere.
Developed by indie studio Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco, both Little Nightmares I and II have become known as indie darlings, receiving both critical acclaim and commercial success. After Tarsier was acquired by Embracer Group in 2019, Bandai Namco kept the intellectual property rights to the Little Nightmares series, and the third game is being developed by Supermassive Games, famous for the Dark Pictures Anthology. Supermassive is also behind the Little Nightmares II: Enhanced Edition.
Excitement is high for the third installation in the series. Here’s everything we know so far.
Originally slated for a 2024 release, Supermassive announced in May of this year that in order to give the game “the love and care it deserves” it will be delayed until 2025. It is unclear whether the delay is due to redundancies in February which saw Supermassive lose nearly 100 staff members.
They haven’t given a specific date yet, or even a timeframe for us to look to, but after a delay, it seems safe to expect a date later in the year – during the fall around Halloween is the perfect time to release a highly-anticipated horror game after all.
Little Nightmares 3 has been announced for the PC, the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 4 and 5, and the Xbox One and Series X|S. Fans will be delighted that the series continues to release on the last generation of consoles, something increasingly uncommon as we get further through the next-gen lifecycle.
In the first game, players helped Six escape from The Maw; in the second, Six aided Mono in their escape from the Pale City; in Little Nightmares 3, players will help Low and Alone escape from The Spiral and face their childhood fears.
Bandai Namco has revealed a number of locations so far. The Necropolis is a haunting desert described as “a peculiar place raised from the desert sands and powered by gusting winds,” which contains a city described as “a city of eternal energy and certain death.”
As well as The Necropolis, which is the site of the nearly 18-minute gameplay trailer, two other locations have been mentioned, with no details being provided. “An unsettling funfair” and a “gloomy factory” are both places through which players can expect to guide Low and Alone.
As for Low and Alone, they are best friends. Low has been in The Spiral for a long time but still hopes one day to find his way home. Alone is a curious tinkerer and is always on the hunt for secrets.
Little Nightmares 3 has been designed to be multiplayer from the ground up and will feature it from launch. However, it will be online co-op only, with no plans for a local co-op mode.
This was a deliberate decision, according to game director Wayne Garland, who said in an interview with Games Radar “Couch is something that we considered, but again when you come back to the atmosphere and the immersion that we’re trying to elicit through Little Nightmares, I think it was important for us that we stuck to our online co-op only rather than traditional more party aspects.”
While Little Nightmares III centered around having two protagonists, the third installment is leaning into this model even further by being the first game in the franchise to introduce online multiplayer. Bandai Namco has confirmed that only one person would need to own the game to play it multiplayer through the use of Friends Pass.
If you are a solo gamer, however, worry not, because you can have an AI player-two take control of your companion, enabling a single-player experience.
Bandi Namco have released an 18-minute extended gameplay trailer that players can watch to get a handle on the kind of puzzle platforming which can be expected from Little Nightmares 3.
Following its predecessors, Little Nightmares 3 is a puzzle platformer set in a 2.5D world. Taking cues from Little Nightmares 2, the two protagonists will have to work together to overcome their environments and find their way through The Spiral.
The gameplay will look familiar to fans of the first two games in the series and will likely feature ideas that build on the same theme, enhancing the iconic style, rather than changing things too far away from what players have come to expect from the series.
In terms of combat, Low possesses a bow and arrow to pick off enemies from afar, whereas Alone favors a wrench as a melee weapon. Low’s bow might also come in handy outside of combat, too. As always, stealth will also feature as you guide the protagonists through each area.
Each area will feature its own antagonists, with a distinct feel. Garland, in the Games Radar interview, said “There will be antagonists for each level, each kind of twisted and focussed on their own delusions in their own way.”
Featured image credit: Bandai Namco
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