Little Nightmares II

Warning.

Major spoilers.

Summary

New kid on the block Mono teams up with Six to survive a new twisted world and ultimately uncover Pale City's sinister secret.

Tour guide

Adventure begins in the Wilderness and not long after rescuing Six, we nervously creep past first antagonist.

The Hunter

Does marksman keep missing the target?

That's up to you.

School

Bullies don't need a second invitation to swarm all over you.

The Teacher uses serpentine neck to investigate suspicious activity.

Come here my pretty, I skipped dinner.

Hospital

Without a shadow of any doubt - the standout section.

Makeshift mannequins (dubbed Patients) are exquisitely creepy and only flashlight ('inherited' from the Runaway Kid in original's DLC) can halt awkward gallop.

Bulbous Doctor can either be left trapped inside furnace or incinerated.

Pale City

TV-addicted Viewers are controlled by the Tower's transmission.

In his pursuit of Six, Mono disintegrates the Thin Man in a psychic battle.

Signal Tower

After negotiating a series of rooms set to repeat, Six has since transformed into a disfigured behemoth and very protective of music box.

Just when we think dynamic duo will escape together, raincoat 'betrays' Mono by dropping him into a chasm.

Totally unexpected.

Endings

Resigned to his fate, Mono sits in a chair and over time, becomes the Thin Man.

However, if all eighteen glitched children are found, a secret post-credits scene rolls.

Six emerges from a television and another version of herself gestures to a pamphlet appearing to advertise the Maw.
Her stomach growls with hunger.

This all but confirms that sequel is actually a prequel, and game is set in a time loop.

With that said, where does this leave Very Little Nightmares?

(Shrugs shoulders).

Big frustrations

Issues caused by 2.5D perspective remain.

Unless starting position is extremely precise, jumping over gaps will largely fail, and the slightest mistake made during chase sequences will almost certainly result in death.

Another design flaw is getting killed by something you could never see coming.

It's like game is saying "FUCK YOU!"

Generous restart points compensate, but even so.

Mono can 'call' and hold Six's hand.

Ico anybody?

Notably, we can now fight back against lesser enemies, but wielding melee weapons is clumsier than a stoned elephant dancing the Bolero.

Mercifully, combat is fairly sparse.

Bleakly brilliant

Gorgeous art style and grimly lit environments simply ooze menace.

Foreboding music and a spectacular assortment of natural sounds (from rainfall to flies buzzing around corpses) expertly captures macabre atmosphere.

Oh, shrieks of perverse hysteria from demented bestiary lingers long.

Some puzzles may stump you more than a stranded cricketer, but solutions are always satisfying.

At fixed intervals, Six gives Mono boosts, literally lends a hand, reacts to your endeavours and waits patiently until ass returns with a key.

Most importantly, she has personality.

Original was notoriously brief, so over 3 hours felt like an epic.

Despite its problems (which are tolerable), Tarsier Studios have done us proud and hopefully DLC won't be too far away.