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Ending in Little Nightmares. Review of Little Nightmares. Big Harvest The plot of the game little nightmares

At the beginning of the game, it seems that you are in some kind of strange fairy tale, where there can be no bloody cruelty. In gloomy rooms there are toys and a heroine called Six I need to find a way out of this terrible place. Moving from location to location Six facing different monsters. This and two twin brothers "butchers" with huge cleavers, who are clearly not going to make friends. And the long-armed "hatter" who constantly intends to grab Six and turn him into a cocoon. And the main enemy in Little Nightmares is mysterious "geisha", who controls the Womb and secretly monitors everything that happens.

In a strange way, the little heroine ended up in a terrible place, something like a submarine called " womb“where no one heard anything about goodness and pity. Here reigns only cruelty, hunger, gluttony and death. She got to the lowest levels and gradually she has to get to the top in order to stay alive. Getting to the feast of pig-like monsters that gobble up everything that can be eaten, the girl must quietly make her way to the exit from this terrible place. The player will not immediately notice that in a dimly lit room, near the monsters, everything is full of food, and the food is on a huge table, along which the girl in the yellow hoodie has to make her way. Later it becomes clear that the monsters can easily confuse Six with the food on the table and, noticing the girl, they will chase her. The storyline in the game never ceases to amaze throughout the game. For example, at the beginning, the main character appears before us as a little defenseless girl in a yellow raincoat, she is afraid of everything, small “mushroom” creatures run around her and need to be hugged. But then Six, feeling hungry, begins to eat dead rats, and then in general - eats a small "mushroom", which trusted her and offered her normal food. As they progress, Six encounters children who are also in the Womb. Later it turns out that the children are in terrible danger, they are being used as food. And the terrible long-armed "hatter" catches them and wraps them in cocoons.

Throughout the review of the game Little Nightmares (Little Nightmares) the developers hint that the life of a little girl in a yellow hood is constantly in danger and the chances of salvation are less and less, but she obviously did not get to the Womb by accident. Therefore, it is up to the player whether Six will survive in the terrible environment of the nightmare and defeat the "geisha" or be eaten. The developers came up with the ending of the game is clearly not standard, it makes you completely rethink the whole plot.

Although the game at the beginning looks like a scary fairy tale, later it turns into a nightmare and by no means Little Nightmares not intended for children. Therefore, lovers of “something new” from dark horror films are recommended.

Video for the game (official trailer):

Recently, it has become fashionable again to make horror platformers with an oppressive atmosphere and unusual visual style. Recall at least the same one that fell in love with gamers and critics. The developers had a rather difficult task - to make a game that does not copy other puzzle platformers, and at the same time give gamers an unforgettable experience.

Horror without explanation

Before we start talking about the game itself, I would like to tell a little about the background of this project. The fact is that initially Little Nightmares was called and did not have an official publisher. But after some lull, the game changed its name and received financial support from Bandai Namco, which saw a great future in the project.

The game itself is made in such a style that we have to find out everything ourselves - where you need to think out a story, turn on your imagination and pretty much train your imagination. From the very beginning, no one explains anything to us. Before us is the main character named Sixth and a gloomy unexplored world, which is the Womb - an underwater vessel that is fraught with many secrets and hides dangerous monsters. There are no screensavers, notes or other materials that can explain the essence of what is happening in Little Nightmares, which is amazing, because no scenario or spectacular cinematic can compare with the raging imagination that simply boils from everything seen in the game.

The main character of the game is a little girl who is literally "little". Everything around is very huge, and the Sixth can easily fit even in a small suitcase. The inhabitants of the in-game world are also mostly of impressive size, which is why it is easy to guess that as soon as we catch the eye of our enemy, he can easily crush us. Apparently this part of the game migrated from the LittleBigPlanet series, to which Tarsier Studios once had a hand.

However, the atmosphere in Little Nightmares is not at all as fun and friendly as in the Sackboy games. Here, from the very first minutes of the passage, we understand that the world of the game is saturated with evil and suffering, and we are just a small dessert in it, which will be easily swallowed if no action is taken.

Hide or die

It is impossible to fight enemies in the game, instead, most of the time we have to either run away from them or move covertly, hiding behind various objects so as not to catch our eyes. In this, the game is very similar to the one already mentioned above Inside, where the meeting with the enemy almost always ended badly for the main character. Speaking of enemies, one cannot fail to mention their appearance - the monsters are diverse and drawn in a very unconventional way. At the sight of opponents, it immediately seems as if we are sleeping and seeing some kind of nightmare that does not make any sense, but causes great anxiety.

The artists of Little Nightmares did their best, because in addition to memorable opponents, the game also has interesting locations where you can move around in three-dimensional mode, but with a side view. From this, of course, it is sometimes difficult to pass some points, given that from time to time you can inadvertently perform a false action.

There is a lot of stealth in the game, but besides it, there are also puzzles. They are made quite simply and cause more disappointment than positive impressions. You practically don’t have to turn on the brain, since basically puzzles imply the search for a specific object or some kind of illogical interaction with it. In general, there is nothing interesting in puzzles, unfortunately.

You should not expect variability from Little Nightmares, it simply does not exist in the game. The passage is straightforward, except perhaps for the behavior of opponents. Enemies will always behave differently, which forces us to adapt to the situation. For example, if we previously hid in a certain place, and then we climb there again, the enemy will no longer fall for this trick twice and will easily find us.

Musical accompaniment in Little Nightmares, as such, is absent, but instead we often hear the chants of the characters, which only enhances the overall atmosphere. With ambient sounds, everything is in perfect order, both in terms of sounds emitted by enemies, and when interacting with objects.

New gaming experience

A serious minus in the game is the management. Very often the heroine does not obey us when we want to perform a certain action. Considering that sometimes you need to react as quickly as possible in order not to fall into the hands of the enemy, poor communication with the character causes a fair amount of irritation. When playing on a gamepad, there are much fewer such shortcomings, but there is also no complete absence of them.

Picture-wise, Little Nightmares is something amazing. It's not even about the technical side of the graphics, but about the visual style in which everything is done as well as possible. The game world is so carefully and thoughtfully created that immersion in the gameplay occurs immediately. The game seems to know what can really surprise us, and constantly does it throughout the passage.

Unfortunately, the passage does not last long - 3-4 hours, depending on the desire to explore the locations. However, the hours we spend in the game are stored in the memory and allow for a completely new experience. This is not to say that the game is completely devoid of flaws. These include, first of all, a short duration, weak puzzles and sometimes inconvenient controls. However, you turn a blind eye to all this when you are imbued with the strongest atmosphere of the game.

Little Nightmares seems to fence us off from the outside world for several hours and plunges us into a children's nightmare, the way out of which depends only on our ability to overcome obstacles. The game is not completely scary, but it is certainly unsettling, as traveling around the world is always accompanied by live skirmishes with enemies and new unforgettable experiences.

In recent years, tiny video game developers have experienced an extraordinary creative upsurge. With enviable constancy, they create incredible depth and beauty of games like Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch and . Recently released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Little Nightmares continues this great tradition and takes players into an atmospheric dark world full of nightmarish creatures, dangers and adventures.

The independent Swedish studio Tarsier Studios began by developing DLC ​​for the LittleBigPlanet series of platform games from the Japanese publisher Sony. The quality of their work impressed the Japanese so much that the Swedish developers were entrusted with the creation of the LittleBigPlanet 3 game, as well as the porting of the Tearaway platformer from the PS Vita handheld console to the PlayStation 4. Of course, talented artists and programmers from Tarsier Studios dreamed of creating their own project in which they would were able to bring to life unique ideas, instead of bringing someone else's ideas to mind. The beginning of the development of the Hunger project (“Hunger” - English) became known in February 2015. The game was supposed to be a dark adventure in a world full of grotesque creatures. For some time, the developers were looking for a worthy publisher for their game, which eventually became the famous Japanese company Bandai Namco. As a result, the game was decided to be renamed Little Nightmares (“Little Nightmares” - English), and the release date was set for the spring of 2017.

The game takes place inside the giant submarine The Maw ("Womb" - English). The main character of the game is a nine-year-old girl named "Sixth", dressed in a bright yellow raincoat. The child has only a gasoline lighter with her, with which she can light her way in especially dark corners of the ship. Her path leads from the lower decks of the Womb to the upper ones, where, as she assumes, there is an exit from this nightmare to sunlight. Moving forward, the Sixth gradually discovers the terrible secrets of the ship and gets acquainted with its inhabitants in the face of the mysterious creatures of the "Nomes" (that's right, without the letter "G"), the guests of the ship and the terrible attendants.

The mechanics of Little Nightmares will seem familiar to many, as it partially copies the work of the Danish studio Playdead, famous throughout the world for adventure platformers Limbo and INSIDE. Before us is a three-dimensional platformer interspersed with puzzles based on physical interaction with objects, and stealth elements. A painful death awaits the main character literally at every step: you can fall off the stairs into the abyss, be devoured by giant leeches, be caught by a terrible giant chef, and so on. Our character can walk, run, duck, sneak, jump and grab various objects. Small objects can be picked up and thrown, such as buttons that are out of reach. Large objects can be slowly moved around the location, used as a ladder or for other purposes. We should not forget that the same button is responsible for grabbing a ledge or climbing a ladder.

Puzzles are simple, and their solutions are subject to logic and common sense. If you have already completed Limbo or INSIDE, then Little Nightmares will not be a big deal for you. A couple of times, Six has to hide from the giant eye-shaped scanners by hiding in the shadows of the scenery. This one-on-one scene reminded me of a similar puzzle from INSIDE. For such a brazen copying of some of the ideas of the developers from Tarsier, one can scold, but for the most part the game is still quite original. The only, in my opinion, its serious disadvantage is the fact that sometimes it is extremely difficult to feel the depth of a three-dimensional scene. It seems to you that you are stepping on a bridge over an abyss, but in fact your foot is walking a little to the left, as a result of which the character flies into the abyss and dies. And you have to replay the location from the very beginning. Fortunately, gradually you begin to get used to such inconveniences and you make fewer and fewer mistakes. From time to time there are small bugs, and once the game even crashed (I played the PS4 version), but in general, these errors are unlikely to seriously spoil your impression of a creepy Swedish fairy tale.

As for the horror component, the game has everything in perfect order with this. A gloomy, oppressive atmosphere, a frightening unknown and an alarming misunderstanding of what is happening around a little frightened girl, is gradually transferred to the player. Among other things, the game offers us stealth mechanics when you have to hide from the eyes of opponents and behave extremely quietly. He stepped on a broken plate, crunched and that's it ... Write wasted. But such opponents are easy to distract by loudly throwing various objects on the floor. Now imagine that some inhabitants of the Womb not only see and hear you, but also smell you. This is where the main character will have a particularly hard time. When you're close to a threat, Six's heart rate rises through the game controller's feedback into your sweaty palms. There are several scenes in Little Nightmares where you have to run away from the monstrous creatures that are chasing you - and it's fucking really scary. I pulled myself into a string, fighting for the life of the main character. In general, the tension the game creates is simply magnificent, which is required from a quality horror movie.

Visually, Little Nightmares looks wonderful. Excellent work with light, realistic textures and special effects. The graphics engine and talented artists have given their best in this game. The last time I saw such thoroughness in the study of game locations was perhaps in the magical platformer Unravel, produced by another Swedish studio, Coldwood Interactive. What is happening on the screen, although it looks like a scary cartoon for adults, makes the player believe in the reality of what he sees. You will worry about the girl as if you have known her all your life. The creepy things that she will have to see during her journey through the giant ship will remain in your memory for a long time. In one of the rooms, you will see the legs of a hanged man hanging from the ceiling, and you will need to use his chair to reach the doorknob. In another room, you will be horrified to find that it is filled with tiny children's shoes, and terrible creatures swim in this “shoe sea”, ready to grab and tear you apart.

For lovers of gathering, the developers offer to find ten hidden ceramic figurines in the game, which must be broken if you want to complete the game by 100%. As I said above, in the game you will meet tiny nomes. Unlike the other inhabitants of the Womb, the nomes are very cowardly and run away only when they see you from afar. Sooner or later, the nome will be cornered by you, and then do not forget to give him a good hug. If you hug all these tiny creatures in Little Nightmares, then you will receive a rare achievement for your kindness. Along the way, also do not forget to set fire to the lamps placed here and there. Completing these simple tasks will give you access to concept art by Tarsier Studios artists. You can view them in a special section of the main menu.

Special praise deserves work with sound. In any self-respecting horror game, sound should take center stage. And in the case of Little Nightmares, the sound is just great! But I would categorically not advise you to output it through the TV speakers. The ideal option would be if you stay alone at night with yourself, turn off the lights, put on your favorite headphones and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a surreal fairy tale. Then the sea of ​​emotions will be guaranteed to you.

Pros:

  • Great atmosphere of a dark horror fairy tale for adults.
  • An intriguing story that gradually unfolds before the player.
  • Simple, but no less exciting puzzles.
  • Great visuals and cool character designs.
  • Game locations worked out to the smallest detail.
  • Wonderful sound complements the already creepy atmosphere.
  • Simple and intuitive controls.

Minuses:

  • Some ideas were brazenly stolen from the games of the Playdead studio.
  • Situations associated with incorrect depth perception.
  • Sometimes there are annoying bugs and even crashes from the game.
  • The game is indecently short. I want supplements.

Little Nightmares invites players to immerse themselves in a creepy world of childhood nightmares filled with mysterious creatures and deadly dangers. The game is incredibly short. You can walk through it in just three hours. Nevertheless, the emotions received during this short gloomy adventure will repeatedly recoup the money spent on the purchase of the game. Even despite the disadvantages I have listed, the game deserves solid 8 points out of 10. The ending hints to us that the story of a girl named Six may have a continuation. Well, in the future, I will not mind once again briefly returning to this fantasy world.

Six is ​​a vulnerable creature, like a kitten from. She doesn’t know how to do anything and she won’t learn anything - you know, she jumps, grabs ledges, hides in corners on her haunches and inquisitively feels objects. lovingly scattered cubes around the rooms, dolls and even a toy train did not forget. No less frequent are toilet paper rolls, stained refrigerators, neat framed photographs of toilet bowls, and rust-streaked tiles - grotesque signs of the cult of consumerism.

The game relies solely on visual language, the plot and ending are open - you can't get away from the trend sung by . True, if you forgive the abruptness (the creation of the Danes gives answers to at least some questions), then it’s a carnival of half-revelations and dirty tricks, similar to those that the creators of the Walking Dead series delay the intrigue with.

Six must overcome five zones, snooping through the guts of ventilation, bumping into shy gnomes in caps and rats, and reviving kerosene lamps and candles with a lighter. On the lower tiers, the Guardian, who looks after the child prisoners, does not need light - this long-armed monster with a grin from ear to ear blindly and reacts to the rustling and creaking of the floorboards. It frightens with guttural howls and monstrous limbs dragging across the floor - the only time the Swedes guessed right with the fears from my childhood. Surely there is something original for you.

The actions of the “inch” are simple: they ran to the switch if the grate-door was energized, they found the key if they saw the lock. Sometimes you have to throw an object in order to reach the button, - the TV, which was turned on by throwing a can, caused particular bewilderment. Don't repeat this at home.

The only "puzzle with a twist" worthy of showing off on the same pedestal with riddles from and will meet you in the kitchen. It is run by two grubby cooks who shun hygiene. The sedentary lifestyle of giants comes down to scratching three chins, sluggish washing of industrial mountains of plates (although boar guests generally prefer to put everything into their mouths with their bare hands right from the unwashed countertop) and crumbling meat, sometimes alive - mummy bags arrive here on a hooked conveyor from the previous location, where the unsightly Guardian is watching the children. If the cooks catch the girl, they will immediately inflict reprisals - for example, they will throw a pot into the seething muzzle.

Despite being 4-5 hours long (even without the arcade hardening that table runs from gentlemen with weak muscles and fat wallets will require), it doesn't feel compact. In my opinion, the ultimate adventure. You’re unlikely to go through the second time, and even help such a heroine ... I personally won’t raise my hands, because the finale is more discouraging than in. Let's play as gnomes!

* * *

It was announced in the spring of 2014, even before, so you can’t call it a Swedish clone of the Danish hit. To some extent, an original "platformer" with puzzles, not without flaws and charm - it will be more accurate.

A little boy goes through strange factories, prisons, laboratories. It is unknown how and for the sake of an obscure goal, and scary-looking people and carnivorous monsters are chasing it on its heels. Yes, you just read a retelling of the game Inside, which came out in the middle of last year. Swap a boy for a girl and you get a description of Little Nightmares, and an exhaustive one at that. Playdead - the developer-publisher of Inside and Limbo - could well have negotiated with Tarsier Studios to pitch Little Nightmares as the third part of a "nightmare trilogy". The same strange world where nothing is clear, the plot that no one wants to explain or reveal, almost identical gameplay with escaping from the rays of light and moving objects, switching levers and jumping on platforms, searching for secrets and a lot of puzzle casual so that the buyer, what good, did not demand a refund, having stumbled upon a difficult task.

The first and main difficulty that the player faces is not even planned by the authors. It has nothing to do with puzzles or villains who crave girlish flesh. The fact is that as soon as you die (at least fall somewhere, at least fall into someone's clutches), the game helpfully begins to load the checkpoint. You will definitely start to hate, start to despise these downloads. They are likely to be the reason why you want to burn Little Nightmares along with the Xbox One (on other systems, the problem is much less drastic). The shortest downloads last a minute, the longest - three, but sometimes thirty seconds pass between the recovery at the checkpoint and the next loss and you admire the black loading screen more than you play.

Add your own save points. Either the authors will throw the character three or four rooms before the place of death and have to run through them again, completing tasks that have already been completed and not too original, or they will load the game right before they try to grab the heroine. Pain in all anatomically interesting places will be provided to you.

The visual style redeems such a dubious achievement. Beautiful gloomy scenery with distorted proportions and shapes, hypertrophied enemies, eerie sound and frisky, dynamic switching of locations - the game flies by quickly, much faster than it manages to get bored or pissed off with shortcomings. In addition, it is even more convenient to admire her than Inside: the heroine moves in three dimensions and can explore amazing rooms with a free camera.

In this three-dimensionality lies another complexity of the gameplay. The path along which the main character walks wide may suddenly become narrower and be devoid of convenient railings - and now the heroine flies into the abyss, not quite understanding how she was hurt. Do not expect a fun and easy walk - the game will not affect your, no doubt, high intelligence, but it will definitely make you sweat and get nervous.

And even more so, do not expect a sweet and kind story about the victory of a small good over evil. This is not a children's horror story for you, but a completely philosophical drama that evil can only defeat even more powerful, terrible and cruel evil. The adventures of the heroine are a descent into hell, not in order to be cleansed, but in order to take advantage of it and get back. If you can accept this, you will be delighted with Little Nightmares. For everyone else, there are games that are lighter and kinder. And here, excuse me, we have death, guts, cannibalism. And we love it.