Review: Little Nightmares III (Switch 2) -op That Plays It A Little Too Safe

When the initial Little Nightmares debuted in 2017, it garnered acclaim for its innovative approach to puzzle platform horror. Its follow-up amplified the fear factor even more, receiving critical praise while enriching the series’ lore. With a fresh developer steering its third installment, the question lingering in everyone’s thoughts is whether the franchise’s latest entry succeeds.

The response is, ‘Yeah, somewhat…’ but not without significant reservations. Little Nightmares III essentially serves as a gentle reboot for the franchise with a completely new narrative and main characters, yet it remains true to the established gameplay mechanics and level structure of Tarsier Studios’ earlier works, resulting in an experience that perhaps leans too heavily on repetition instead of innovation.

Although competently crafted under the supervision of Supermassive Games, the third installment did not elevate my stress levels or unsettle my nerves like Little Nightmares II managed to do. The series’ trial-and-error gameplay is present, along with its oppressive atmospheres and grisly scenes, yet it all felt more expedient, milder, and less adrenaline-pumping than its praised predecessors.

Featuring multiplayer for the first time in the series’ existence, the execution of this fan-requested element falls noticeably short. Although the game revolves around variations of clever interdependent puzzles requiring two players to resolve, co-op mode is restricted to online play to maintain “atmosphere and immersion,” as stated by the developer.

While I comprehend the reasoning behind not wanting Little Nightmares to resemble a party game, it strikes me as a case of the developers overcomplicating matters. At the start of my review, a friend who had completed the first two titles was eager to participate, and the inability to simply hand them a Joy-Con felt contrary to the game’s multiplayer promotion.

It’s a positive addition that a Friend’s Pass will be available at launch, enabling you to play alongside a friend without requiring them to own the game, meaning only a single copy needs to be purchased. However, both users will need their individual consoles. While cross-generation play between Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 is supported, cross-platform play remains unavailable.

Due to these constraints (only one Switch code was available to us during the review period), I finished my playthrough in single-player mode, assisted by an AI companion, which made it feel reminiscent of Little Nightmares II, which combined its single-player experience with a bot, but even more streamlined since in this iteration, your CPU partner effectively resolves half the puzzles for you, owing to its two-player cooperative design.

You take control of one of two new protagonists: Low, a boy wielding a bow and arrow while sporting a plague doctor mask, and Alone, a girl with pigtails and an aviator helmet equipped with a wrench used for melee encounters and puzzling. However, what’s truly perplexing is the lack of a character swap mechanic specifically tailored for single-player mode.

While your AI-controlled companion generally performs adequately, there were a couple of instances where it stood idle or failed to execute crucial actions, creating soft-lock situations that necessitated checkpoint reloads. Those occurrences disrupted immersion and underscored how the puzzles, evidently designed for teamwork, lose some of their intended satisfaction when played alone.

Puzzles require coordinating an action with the wrench alongside timed arrow shots to manipulate the surroundings, acquire keys, and navigate obstacles, introducing a new twist to otherwise standard fare for the series. Combat scenarios arose less frequently than I anticipated, but similarly necessitated a bow and wrench combination to defeat foes.

Much like It Takes Two or Split Fiction, you can replay chapters, or the entire game, as either of the two characters, witnessing how each character’s unique toolkit modifies puzzle-solving and exploration. As in previous Little Nightmares titles, collectible items return, cleverly concealed throughout each level to encourage curiosity and thorough exploration.

What Little Nightmares III excels at, however, is its atmosphere, featuring tension-raising and evocative sound design as well as intricately crafted biomes that transport the series to previously uncharted locations, from a haunting barren desolate landscape with swirling mills and updrafts that can be navigated with umbrellas to an abandoned institution on a subtropical island rife with perilous flora.

You will traverse decaying amusement park structures at a surreal nightmare carnival, evade grotesque foes in deliberately slow, nerve-wracking stealth sequences, and be pursued by monstrous beings inspired by fears regarding authority and youthful vulnerability. In other words, it still looks and feels akin to prior Little Nightmares installments.

Nevertheless, this installment seems distinctly more ‘by the numbers’ than its forerunners, working comfortably within established parameters marked by a few modest innovations in gameplay mechanics. Its narrative unfolds in a similar style but concludes in a manner that felt like the forthcoming chapters of paid DLC — planned for release in 2026 — are essential to fully understand.

I concluded my playthrough in about four to five hours, which aligns with past titles, despite containing only four chapters, in comparison to five in both earlier entries. Performance on Switch 2 left much to be desired, essentially resembling a base Switch version targeting 30fps with soft, grainy visuals and frequent stutters whenever the action escalated.

The final boss, in particular, moved in a distracting, almost stop-motion manner during particular sequences. Although the game’s performance falters — at least during launch — it remains playable despite being a considerable departure from a ‘next-gen’ third-party encounter. Players sensitive to performance issues might want to consider acquiring this on another platform.

I faced a frustrating problem in the final chapter where a key item required for progress repeatedly disappeared before it finally showed up in its correct location, allowing me to move on. While the overall gameplay experience was otherwise smooth, this incident indicates that a few lingering bugs and optimization challenges may still be present.

Conclusion

Little Nightmares III faithfully maintains the oppressive atmosphere, clever environmental puzzles, and visceral discomfort associated with the series, yet feels like a reflection of what preceded it. While its dark allure remains potent, the puzzling absence of local co-op undermines the game’s most ambitious feature. Even though its multiplayer concept shines in theory, the lack of a character-swap mechanism to enrich single-player mode feels like yet another missed opportunity.