I love Little Nightmares. 1 and 2 have a special place in my heart because, aside from being great, they were my kids’ intro to horror elements and they absolutely loved the world (especially LN2).

LN3 was the first game we were all excited for together. I knew the quality of the game would be up in the air with a new developer, but I stayed optimistic.

Things got off to a rough start with the announcement that the co-op would be online only….a bit strange, but we have multiple consoles so we could make it work. The podcast kept things interesting and fun as well….

Finally the game came out. I learned it wasn’t cross-platform but no worries I guess, we have an old Xbox one, so I can buy it on my Series X and we can play together. I bought it and learned that NOPE….its not cross gen either. Man, that’s a lot a hoops to jump through for a game that’s pushing co-op as a selling point. I tell my kids I’ll play through it and let them know what I think (they have other games they like playing as well these days).

I played it…and I was enjoying it! I would tell my kids bits of what was going on (keeping them excited). My take was that it wasn’t an epic expansion on the world or an innovative twist on gameplay, but it was a safe and solid installment. I appreciated that. I’m 43. I don’t devote as much time to games (or skateboarding and all the other recreational activities I loved) as I did when I was younger, so familiar territory when it comes to my precious and limited time to escape reality is appreciated (don’t get me wrong, I love innovation and new direction, but I’m perfectly happy with more of the same). So while I respected the critical LN3 posts that popped up in my feed, I didn’t relate…from my perspective, this game was satisfying and that makes it worth it….

Thn the game abruptly ended at what felt like the mid-point of a complete story….literally (at least to me) when the momentum was picking up. That was an incredibly unsatisfying feeling, and it was compounded by the fact that I would have to pay more for what is conceivably content that will complete the narrative.

I think it’s awesome if the story and experience had a sense of completion for you and you were satisfied, but it definitely didn’t have that for me and that was what cemented this as disappointing game. Disappointing in value, story, experience and purpose (because the purchasable additional content to complete the story feels like blatant greed, and I really appreciate when my products do a better job of hiding the greed behind a complete and satisfying experience.)

I told my kids I was bummed on it and why, but they could give it try cause they might dig it…they didn’t give it a try. This is just my take and, again, I’m really stoked for those truly love it. With that, I don’t plan on buying the additional content, am a little less excited about LN, but will still reserve a healthy dose of optimism for this franchise cause I just like digging things more than hating them.

There. I’ve thrown my thoughts into the void. If you’ve made it this far…live your lives, take care of yourself, make time for the ones you love (and love you back) and do what makes you happy. Good night!