Little Nightmares II review friv game - Scary, scary tale

Spooky platformer Little Nightmares II is as atmospheric as the original online game from the developer Friv2Online, but it leaves even more questions behind. Let's share our impressions of the sequel in the review.

Released in 2015, Little Nightmares is without exaggeration a masterpiece, an excellent platformer with puzzle and horror elements.
Following the adventures of a little girl named Sixth in a huge worm ship, players were shocked by unpredictable turns of events and memorable denouement. The supplements shed light on the mysteries of the Worm, but didn't answer all questions regarding the lore and story of the friv game.
Well, the sequel adheres to a similar tactic, offering to independently finalize the details of the story. This is not a bad thing, and earlier this approach was repeatedly used in successful, even cult, projects - for example, Inside from Playdead studio. Nevertheless, the narrative part of Little Nightmares II disappointed me a bit. However, let's talk about everything in order.

So, the main character is a boy Mono, who comes to his senses somewhere in the middle of the forest near the TV set. Having set off, he quickly gets to the house, where he meets the Sixth and, having united with her, goes further - to the city, the inhabitants of which are zombified by a strange Transmission coming from the TV tower.
In the course of the adventure the characters will overcome a number of characteristic locations, in each of which there will be a lot of reasons for fears. In the wilderness, the partners will be pursued by a vicious hunter with a gun, at school they will encounter inadequate children and a long-necked teacher, in the hospital they are waiting for animated mannequins, and so on. The city itself has a depressing effect, leaving no bright spot to cling to for hope. I don't know what has happened to this world, but I can clearly see that it can't be saved.

The developers skillfully play with images, and surprisingly aptly strike the most sensitive strings of the soul. What you can't take away from Little Nightmares II is its spectacular and mesmerizingly disgusting monster design: at least a couple of them will definitely appear in your dreams after the game. What are you afraid of? Dolls? Mannequins? Severed limbs? Hospitals? Maybe finding unnatural features in familiar things? Rest assured, Tarsier Studios has nightmares for every taste.
Of course, many scenes, scenery and monsters are borrowed by the authors from other horror works - most likely, intentionally: we are facing a kind of a collection of "horror stories", in which creepy stories and references to cult movies and games are compiled. It is not difficult to draw parallels with Resident Evil VII, the first game of Silent Hill series, The Shining, Ghost of the House on the Hill; some of them are presented directly "in the forehead", others are hidden more elegantly. And this is perhaps the strongest aspect of the project - an atmosphere comparable to the best horror games, providing the deepest possible immersion into the friv game world.

Unfortunately, the developers decided to stop at vivid images and not to reveal the mythology of the Little Nightmares universe. This is a collection of "horror stories" in good and bad senses: if you hoped to learn more about the fate of the Sixth or to find out Mono's motivation - moderate your expectations.
Players have overdone the mystery: the ending of the adventure left me in mild frustration, and there are even more questions. Again, this approach has a right to life, but to intrigue with a dark, frightening and mesmerizing story, and then not explain exactly nothing, in my opinion, is not very fair to the player. There is a secret ending in the game, which requires finding all the ghostly figures, and it gives even more room for theories.

As for gameplay, Little Nightmares II has minimal changes compared to the previous part. Despite the appearance of a second character, you should not count on co-op: the Sixth is controlled by AI, and even if you have a second gamepad and a strong desire to play for her, you won't be able to.
However, the artificial intelligence itself does a good job with the role of a partner.
The girl stays close to Mono, acts independently, and when necessary provides assistance: she will put her shoulder to plant Mono on a high step, distract the enemy, while the hero sneaks up to him with a hammer in his hands, grasp the improvised elevator to get over the abyss, and then stretches out her palm to meet the jumped comrade. The heroine can be beckoned to you and take your hand, but these mechanics have no practical meaning and are not used in gameplay situations - just a nice feature of the friv game, nothing more.

I didn't have any problems with Six hanging up, and perhaps a second player would only get in the way in tense episodes - for example, when you have to run away from a monster.
In front of us is again a 2.5D platformer, but there is more freedom. Locations gained additional depth, and often they can be explored in all directions: for example, the corridor leading deep into the scene will contain two or three rooms, in each of which there will be something interesting - a key item or a stash with a new hat for Mono.

Alas, sometimes this pseudo three-dimensionality gets in the way: several times I "managed" to get stuck in doorways during a chase. For the same reason, it is not always possible to accurately determine the direction and distance of the jump. Although checkpoints are placed quite close, no one will want to die because of flaws in gameplay design.
Not everything is smooth with the combat system. In the first part of the Sixth was helpless; Little Nightmares II gives you the opportunity to fight back. With a pipe, a hammer, or a ladle, Mono can put the offender to good use. To do this, you need to get into the timing at the exact moment when the enemy is about to attack, and it's literally a split second. In some places I failed to react in time, and sometimes the hero missed hitting the attacker, which led to dire consequences - the friv game doesn't give you a second chance.

However, these problems do not occur very often, and do not really affect the impressions of the gameplay. However, the puzzles and challenges are pleasing: they are inventive, interesting and moderately difficult, almost never repeated and unique for each location.
For example, in the forest Mono and Sixth have to hide and run away from the hunter, hide, holding their breath, in the swamp and hide behind crates to avoid being shot. At school you have to sneak past the teacher, carefully inspect your surroundings for traps prepared by hooligans, and once - even infiltrate the camp of the enemy, disguised as one of them.
There are reaction tests, logical tasks, stealth episodes, and so on; thanks to frequently changing scenery and activities, the gameplay doesn't get boring until the very end. Except that bossfights are not enough - I would have liked more.
Little Nightmares II can be forgiven a lot of things. After all, so atmospheric and skillfully using horror stamps friv games can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Especially in the platformer genre. On the other hand, the narrative vector chosen by the developers may cause not the most pleasant emotions. Be prepared for this - and then you will not be disappointed.