Little Nightmares

though I'm not sure it works on windows 11 since I have not been able to get it to work anymore

I have this game on Steam but really want to rebuy it from GoG. Anyway, this is a pretty dark story with very disturbing images. You enemies are very grotesque to emphasize they guild. When you start it appears to be a nice puzzle game as you go along but the deeper you go in the darker it becomes. You die a lot but you also don't get a penalty because of it. I think there could have been some penalties to challenge the player. Overall, the tone, score and vibe is right. It draws you in and leaves you with questions. The game itself is rather short but its worth playing if you like compelling stories of the dark and the be questions about yourself as the MC. You probably want to replay it again to get all the things you missed. I like that you can move the camera around to get a better glimpse of your surroundings. It gives lets you take in the environment where you are at. The horror lurks within and maybe within yourself.

This is hard to stomach if you can't disassociate the main character from a child. If you can, the game is a tumultuous spiral into the incomprehensible prison from which you are desperately seeking refuge. The foes become more terrifying along the way and the challenges become more harrowing. You continue to search for the light at the end of the tunnel, but will it ever come?

Concept, art, level design, etc. all good, but I really really hate the godawful angles and controls. No rebind - OK, I'll learn. But I push "run" and it either results in running, or it is delayed 1-2 seconds. You can imagine the consequences - especially when I need to cross a room where I have to alternate running and stopping - retry is over 9000 - and I try not to smash my otherwise perfectly working controller, shouting "But I pushed "run!" (insert preferred swearword here depending on how many times this had already happened)" Or how directing e.g. north-east either means north-east, or not at all - this is especially sadistic when jumping towards sg at an angle while hanging from somewhere - the character might just fly off oddly to their demise. Checking the controller before pushing jump, "am I pointing to the one true north-east in that sweet 45 degree angle? yes? OK, let's go! ... oh f***. And be prepared to get stuck on objects you thought you gave enough berth to. Or to hold "grab" permanently - in fact designate a holy finger to it - otherwise progress goes downward and fast. If I try to grab sg mid-jump or just reaching it, it will either work or not. All this makes controls unintuitive. Have lots of fun. Despite of this I'm still making progress somehow. I'm not at the part where there's much timed scamperng in panic, but I'm anticipating playing this game less and less by the minute. ... Actually I already quit. A lot pf people really seem to like this game, so I suppose it must be working better for them, maybe. There must be a reson. As for me, I feel like a sucker having bought the sequel as well in one fell swoop, dreaming of untold cute little horrors. Poor little yellow raincoat... will I ever free you from that hellpit? I don't know.

Video review: https://youtu.be/EibcbeyRUts Puzzle platformers are not usually my jam but 2010's Limbo by Playdead woke something in me. But no puzzle platformer since has struck a chord with me, at least not until the Little Nightmares series by Tarsier Studios. 2.5D horror games with physics based puzzles is a weird genre subset, but it's MY genre subset and I'm here to stay. It took awhile for Little Nightmares to get to me though, as I dabbled with it, and didn't run into it again until 2023 when @Deadforge suggested reviewing its soundtrack. But the hooks were in and it was only a matter of time before I played one of the best sets of games I've played in recent memory. So how did Little Nightmares win me over? Let's get stuck in and find out, hopefully enduring my dodgy audio and creative mispronunciation of Tarsier because the internet can't give me a straight answer!