Little Nightmares 2 delivers a great atmospheric gaming environment filled with spooky ambience and thrilling environments. Much like the first instalment, this game delivers a cold and unforgiving environment. And underneath the surface of the gothic art style, there is a layer of mysterious backstory.
The story is a simple tale of a young boy named Mono, accompanied by Six (the first game's protagonist) trying to survive the brutal world they live in and find a safe place.
The gameplay is still quite clunky in places, especially with the pretty clumsy combat feature. However the physical limitations of the game and your characters only make you feel more vulnerable and in danger within the world. So in a sense it ads to the experience when you know surviving is harder.
The new environments are just as creepy as ever with 6 unique locations in the game. Each monster has a pretty spooky, creative design and fits the mood of the game. And the sheer size and scope is a step up from the first game.
The music is on par with the first soundtrack. It's haunting yet beautiful. Simple and effective. Best of all it compliments the game, adding mystique and builds the story with atmosphere. The simplicity in the music brings a child like sense of wonder that accompanies the characters through the story. And then some tracks just fill your heart with dread. Some songs just make the adrenaline flow in the more dire points of the game.
Not only is the game beautiful, it's also incredibly fun. Containing many hidden collectables, humorous achievement trophies, and some callbacks to the previous game. The game never feels stale and offers us a lot in a short amount of time. Each level progresses brilliantly.
Some of the downsides are the games short length and again the stiff controls at points. With a game as captivating as LN2, it's easy to indulge in the experience. But with the game's run time only between 5-6 hours, the time it can seem a bit brief. Less is indeed more but for me 5 hours isn't long enough. I think it could of had another level. But it's better to have 5 great chapters rather than anything that can be perceived as filler. In this case the game leaves us wanting more rather than waiting for it to end. The game is also very replay-able if not for the fun trophies and the cool hat collection.
Some further minor upgrades from the first Little Nightmares are the better checkpoint loading, nicer camera work, more challenging gameplay and fewer AI issues. So overall the experience is a lot more polished.
I love this game a lot. I've played to 100% completion but still want to play it some more so it's definitely worth an extra play through.
