The first time I played *Little Nightmares*, I fell in love almost instantly. Although I’m a total wuss when it comes to horror games, the Coraline-esque aesthetic quickly sunk its hooks into me. Before long, I found myself eagerly waiting for the release of the second game in 2021. In the meantime, I stayed up late trying to learn as much as I possibly could about the characters and setting.

When *Little Nightmares 2* launched, it took me just a single day to get through. You literally couldn’t have peeled me away from it if you tried. So, when the third game was announced in 2023, the excitement started all over again.

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*Little Nightmares 3* is the first game in the series developed by Supermassive Games rather than Tarsier Studios. Despite this change, it certainly looks just like the other two games. When you begin the adventure, you awaken in a strange environment overwhelmed by a feeling of dread. Everything around you looks gigantic, emphasizing just how small you are as a child.

The same goes for the various humanlike creatures you encounter, alongside the main villains, all of which tower over you. In previous games, one of the things that made the villains so scary was how close they were to being human, yet there was something unusual and off-putting about them—like having an excessive amount of skin, one too many limbs, or the ability to elongate parts of their body like a neck or an arm, which definitely isn’t possible. They really felt like costumes for an entity that’s never quite explained.

This, however, isn’t the case with *Little Nightmares 3*. The villains and creatures are still unsettling, but they aren’t as uncomfortable to look at. You don’t find yourself fixated, trying to figure out exactly what they are. Unfortunately, you also don’t encounter a huge number of them, which is a shame.

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There are only four areas in the game, each featuring one or two enemy types—including what would be considered a “boss.” The less bloodstained design isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’ve decided to play through it with someone who isn’t as good with gore.

There are still moments in *Little Nightmares 3* that make you grimace away from your screen—like when one enemy is carving up a body and feeding the insides to his sentient hand puppet. But for the most part, you won’t spend much time wandering between hanging bodies or wading through entrails like before. Instead, it’s mushrooms and various lollipops in this game.

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With all that said, you do have to come closer than ever to most of the enemies you meet. Combat was never a huge part of *Little Nightmares*, so I was skeptical when I saw it as a pretty significant feature in the newest game.

Aside from swinging the odd pipe to smash clay children, much of your experience with enemies in previous games was about running and hiding. In *Little Nightmares 3*, there are several instances where your progression is blocked by what I can only describe as “monster rooms”—small, confined spaces where you and your partner have to work together to take down enemies that keep piling in.

This includes Low shooting them with an arrow, before Alone runs in and smashes them with a wrench. When you finally take down the last one, your path conveniently opens up so you can keep exploring.

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I can’t say I’m crazy about these mechanics—they feel clumsy, much like in the rare occasions when you had to use them in previous games. My depth perception failed me more times than I care to admit, and since there’s no way to lock on to your target, you just have to hope you’ve lined up your shot correctly.

Also, if you’re not playing with a friend, relying on the AI companion can be frustrating. The number of times I had to retrace sections because my robot friend decided to jump off a ledge or missed an enemy definitely took away from the experience. Then again, this isn’t much different from the AI companion in the second game, which often refused to be much help with puzzles unless I pushed them around manually.

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Fortunately, puzzle-solving in the third game is incredibly straightforward. The environments aren’t challenging to explore, and most of the puzzles involve pulling blocks around to reach different levels and grab items. Although each environment is completely different, they aren’t particularly engaging to explore—another reason the game feels like it could’ve used a bit more development time.

Most of the time, you just travel between holes in walls or vents in the foreground rather than having to use the entire depth of an area. This changes slightly toward the end of the game, but by the time you start getting used to it, you’ve already finished.

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There are collectibles to find in backrooms, but that’s really the only reason to explore those areas—and quite often, I skipped them just to progress to the next part. If I had known that the story would take only about four hours to get through, I definitely would’ve spent more time scouring the corners of every area.

Even a little bit of lore—whether through an illustration or a clue plastered on the wall—would’ve been enough to push me to explore more.

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With only four “chapters” and a story that’s only just being set up by the time the credits roll, it’s hard to see *Little Nightmares 3* as a finished game. It feels like you just get to a point where you settle into a rhythm, and suddenly everything comes to an abrupt end.

What story you do get feels rushed to a close, and there isn’t enough content to really justify its price tag.

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Besides the clumsy combat, the character and world design still feel like a *Little Nightmares* game—but it lacks in many other areas. I would’ve liked to see more enemies, more environment variety, and to get to know the main characters a little better.

I wouldn’t be surprised if more content comes in future DLC, but I don’t feel like I’ll be waiting with bated breath this time.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/i-wouldnt-say-little-nightmares-3-is-a-bad-game-but-it-certainly-doesnt-feel-like-a-finished-one/