The original Little Nightmares was very memorable. It was a frightening piece of work that placed very tiny kids in a world much bigger than them against creatures and adults that looked hideous. It presented players with exaggerated versions of childhood fears, and it worked in providing players with oppressive atmospheres and doling out genuine scares. The sequel did a good job of providing more of the same while weaving a cohesive thread throughout the games, albeit with a story that you had to interpret for yourself. Developer Tarsier Games departed the series and went off to do a new horror game in that same vein. Bandai Namco owned the rights to the Little Nightmares series, so it tasked Supermassive to deliver a third game in Tarsier's stead. Little Nightmares III is that game, and while it has some neat ideas, it doesn't do enough to get away from Tarsier's shadow.

Much like the previous games, there is a story, but it's open to interpretation, since the game doesn't explicitly tell you much. You play as both Low and Alone, two kids who wake up near the remains of a broken mirror. You have no idea where you are or how you got there, but the oppressive atmosphere gives you the feeling that you shouldn't be there. The only thing you know for sure is that you need to escape.

Even with the change in developers, the core gameplay remains the same. The game spends a good amount of time having you try to find a way to the next room in your never-ending quest to move forward. Sometimes that means just finding the door so you can push or pull it. Sometimes that means ducking into a pipe or trying to solve a puzzle to reveal a platform or pull down a ladder. There are moments when you'll use stealth to escape the watchful eye of giants, and there are moments when you'll just make a run for it. One thing you won't do much of is fighting, and while you will need to kill some enemies, Little Nightmares III emphasizes platforming and light puzzle-solving instead.

The main addition to the gameplay mechanics is co-op mode, which fans have wanted since the sequel. Just about every door requires two people to interact with it before it can open, and the same applies to most crates that you need to push or pull. Your heroes come with their own abilities. Alone has a wrench, and Low has a bow and arrow, and you'll need some coordination to make proper use of those tools. For example, one fight has Low shooting down bugs with their arrow before Alone has to rush in to bash them with a wrench.

One thing that will disappoint players about co-op is that it is online only. There is no option for local co-op play, which is strange considering that this type of game is well suited for two players sitting next to one another and constantly communicating about what to do. The game tries to compensate by having a free Friend Pass, so only one person needs to own a copy to play co-op, but keep in mind that this is also not a cross-play title. That's not a deal breaker, but it is something to keep in mind. What is a dealbreaker is the fact that this isn't a drop-in/drop-out kind of co-op game, so if you're in the middle of a level and your online partner needs to split, prepare to replay the whole level instead of continuing where you'd left off.

If you're playing solo, you'll realize that the game is explicitly built with co-op in mind, so the computer always controls the character you didn't select. For the most part, you can leave your partner alone, and they'll do a good job of following you and preventing anyone from getting killed. You can also direct them to perform their special task via a button press. For example, if you're controlling Alone, you can ask Low to use their bow and arrow, and they'll automatically shoot at what needs to be hit. The same thing occurs if you're Low and you need Alone to bash in someone with their wrench or turn a gear with that tool. That part is great, but it feels like the ability to issue simple commands is available because the game refuses to let you switch characters.

Having the AI be smart enough to do things without you babysitting them is welcome in any game. However, the AI in Little Nightmares III tends to go too far in the competence department. Having them sneak around successfully is awesome, but they'll also have the tendency to make a beeline for the correct path. They also want to get toward anything that requires pushing or pulling, sometimes blocking your path and forcing you to find awkward ways to get into position to actually perform a task. Their exuberance means that the game feels like it's playing itself at times, and that starts to rob the game of some challenge.

It also doesn't help that the game doesn't do much to challenge the player. Most of the puzzles are light on challenge, as you can easily see if you need to pull a board to gain passage or push a box to reach higher ground. Areas where tools need to be used are fairly obvious, and other tools don't have any platforming challenges. Only the sneaking portions can to be difficult if you to lack patience and want to rush through things, further fueling the notion that the game wants you to experience it rather than actually play it.

The biggest sin this game commits is that it isn't scary. You can sense that Little Nightmares III is trying to capture the vibe of the first two games, but it does so by recycling some of the scares. You've seen the giant malformed hands appear from the background and the creepy creatures chasing after you, so seeing them appear in almost the same ways over and over again greatly reduces that fear factor. It also doesn't help that the first half of the game is set in general scary areas versus those that seem more geared toward what the two youths would fear. Being stuck in a desert town and an office building feels out of place, even if they are oppressive places. The dark carnival area is more in line with expectations. If you invested in the DLC, the puppet area feels like a rehash of that, while the beach feels like a retread of the desert town. For a horror game, none of this can be considered horrific.

Graphically, Little Nightmares III is mostly fine. The dilapidated environments bring out the horror vibes, even if the gameplay doesn't necessarily nail the execution. The character models look gross enough, while your heroes take on the same non-distinct flavor as the protagonists in the previous games. All of this moves along at a great frame rate, but the lighting is perhaps the big problem. If you adjust the brightness levels according to the instructions, the game can feel too dark at times. You'll strain to see any of the spots you need to interact with, and trying to fix that by bringing the brightness back up only washes out the picture instead.

The sound is also good overall. The lack of voices (aside from some grunts) contributes to the eerie atmosphere. The sound effects are nice and booming when needed, while the music does a great job of keeping the atmosphere filled with dread even if the game doesn't execute on that part.

Linux users will have no issues running this game on their system. The same goes for Steam Deck users, but the results are fascinating. The game runs at a native 1280x800, and while the graphical preset is set to Low, the game looks great on the device's screen without the sense that you're looking at Low settings. You'll need a keen eye to discern a difference if you put up these settings from a Steam Deck against a more powerful PC with everything set to their highest. The game defaults to a 30fps cap, but you can turn that off and see that the game actually averages between 70-80fps. You wouldn't want to do that, though, since the battery life only hits about 90 minutes this way. Implement that 30fps cap, and you can squeeze about three hours of gameplay out of a full charge. Since the game doesn't require any fast reflexes to play, that console-like frame rate is perfectly fine.

Little Nightmares III has some bright spots to it. The co-op works well even though it would've been nice to have the option for local co-op play. The presentation is also decidedly creepy, but it can sometimes be too dark to see where you're going or what you're meant to interact with. However, the game plays things too safely, as the puzzles are fairly repetitive and the game wants to give you the solution almost immediately if you're playing solo. The game also fails to be scary while giving players situations that move far away from the childhood trauma of the first two games, and even the DLC doesn't rectify this. It's a decent enough game for newcomers, but series veterans will be disappointed in this outing.

Score: 6.0/10