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From the moment you start up Little Nightmares, you will be uneasy. The haunting visuals of it’s world will pull you in, the background noises The Maw will put you on edge and the sense of scale will keep you feeling off balance. There is a lot to be said for gameplay over story telling, and Little Nightmares embraces this idea wholeheartedly, even if it does stumble occasionally.
You play as Six, a little girl that must escape The Maw, a strange underwater resort filled with twisted inhabitants and nightmarish locations. You are never told that you must escape, or even why but the game communicates the message clearly without traditional story telling devices. There is no explicitly delivered narrative in Little Nightmares, instead you are left to intuit vague narrative snippits from locations, events and individuals that you encounter. Who is Six? What is happening in the Maw? These questions will follow you through the somewhat brief campaign, and you will probably be left with even more questions after the game’s thought provoking ending.
In terms of gameplay, Little Nightmares is a puzzle platformer at heart. Indeed, many of it’s ideas are nothing new. Instead, it’s the visual style and the ever shifting sense of scale in the game that make it special. Early on you will encounter the Janitor, a twisted creature with tiny legs but incredibly long arms who hunts you via sound and smell. Encounters with him take on a stealth element as you carefully creep around, then toss a cymbal banging toy bear to distract him as you make a mad dash for safety. Later on, you will have to run for your life in escape platforming sequences as you try to get away from The Twins – hideous chefs who wear the skin of other people’s faces as masks.
The macabre, unsettling setting of Little Nightmares is on of it’s strongest points, and I was constantly impressed at how well it ran. I rarely ever experienced any slowdown or graphical issues. The sound design is truly wonderful, with bangs and clanks from the background activities of The Maw keeping you always uneasy. The grunts and squeals that pass for voice acting are nowhere near as overbearing as the much maligned Yooka Laylee gibberish speak, and do an admirable job of conveying emotion into the few scenes where they are present. The anguishes cry of one of the Twins as you dash through a small hole and out of it’s reach is satisfying and simultaneously terrifying.
I enjoyed my time with Little Nightmares immensely. While it doesn’t set any new standards for innovation in gameplay, and it does occasionally punish you in a trial and error sort of way; the game is incredibly striking visually and will have you saying “What in the f**** is going on?!” from the start to finish of it’s story. Just be warned, the game is quite short, easily being beaten in one or two sittings. Still, it’s worth the experience if you have a PC or PS4.
It’s time for a look into Kickstarter and what looks interesting in the gaming section of it.
Catching up as we always do with our previously covered campaigns, we start off again with the bad news. A number of campaigns have unfortunately concluded unsuccessfully; these are Forged of Blood, Organism8, The Watchmaker – Time’s Collapse and War of Velana. Forged of Blood’s developers have said that they still feel able to make their game and get it out for the 2018 estimated release date, while the developers of Organism8 are going to rethink their strategies before trying again. The people behind The Watchmaker also remain committed, although they say that development may take a little more time now; and the ones behind War of Velana are also pressing ahead with their game’s development. One other note for the downside news this week – The Unique Adventure has 52 hours to go at time of writing is is far short of its goal still.
However on the good news side of things, a number of our previously looked at campaigns have either finished successfully or have made their goals with time to spare. Those that have finished are Super Plexis, OUTBUDDIES and Maximum Apocalypse. Those yet to finish but doing well are Hellpoint (which I noted last week was struggling but could still make up ground, and it seems it has!), OtterBash!, Ashes of Creation and Forsaken Castle.
First up we have ‘hand-painted’ creepy game about seeking one character’s will to live.
A ‘soul’s light’ is what keeps all of us going, keeps us wanting to live. It’s also what the horror Mr Grinny seeks to steal from people to enter our world and drag people into his own. Each person’s light is hidden in items that have special meaning to them, and enough of those will keep him at bay. The creature is based off the nightmares of the developer themselves, and gameplay sees you using your soul’s light to keep at bay shadowy creatures while still maintaining it long enough to reach an end and take a stand against Mr Grinny.
Soul’s Light has $25,000 goal of which it has raised $5,670 with 18 more days to run.
Next up we have a game set in space in which you control a three-man squad.
A space dungeon crawler-type game, Sons of the Void sees you taking control of the squad in their mission to save the universe from near destruction. Exploration, shooting and looting are all a big part of the game, and since it also lists itself as a roguelite you can expect some roguelike elements to the gameplay. Your squad are part of a group called the Sons of the Void Society, given the task to travel the universe and unite the pieces of the Void to save everything.
Sons of the Void has 30 days to go, and has made €2,212of its €45,000 goal.
This one is a game from a studio formed of ex-Lionhead employees. Nice to see them still in the game… excuse the pun.
Kynseed is described as a “quirky 2D sandbox RPG” and sees you living your life and building a life… and then passing on your ‘kynseed’ to the next generation of your family to continue on with. Farming, blacksmithing, running a tavern and raising a family – it’s all here and it’s up to you how you choose to spend your life and those beyond it.
Kynseed has made £9,146 of its £30,000 goal and has 25 days to go.
PipPow has been made to be “the next big action platformer” and the developers say that they are “creating the adventure game everyone wants, with the combat that feels satisfying.” You play as Victor, our protagonist captured and forced to endure the hostile wildlife of the planet he’s on for the entertainment of his captors, watching through television show PipPow. You must escape without the producers of the show realising what you are doing, so you need to get good at playing to the camera too.
PipPow has a goal of $35,000 of which it has made $150 so far. It has a further 34 days to run.
