Little Nightmares III
7/13/25, 9:00 PM
Author: Taylor Crisostomo
Little Nightmares 3 Looks Creepy As Ever, But Co-Op Might Be Killing The Mood
The Little Nightmares series has always thrived on one thing: making you feel small, alone, and deeply uncomfortable. Not terrified, exactly. These aren’t jump scares, but there’s something unnerving about the way the world creaks and groans, its claymation people lurch just a little too slowly, and its storytelling lets you sit with your dread instead of shoving it in your face.
So, when Little Nightmares 3 showed up without Tarsier Studios (the team behind the first two games), I had questions. Could Supermassive Games, the studio better known for teenagers screaming in cabins (Until Dawn, The Quarry), really get the vibe right?
After watching an extended demo, I can say this: it looks like Little Nightmares. It sounds like Little Nightmares. But the new co-op focus? That could either make it fresh… or kill the oppressive loneliness that made the first two so effective.
A Carnival That Feels Like Hell
The demo follows two new protagonists, Alone and Low, sneaking through what is a mix of a carnival, a circus, and a factory. There are rides, food, games, a butcher carnie chopping up body parts. You know, your usual county fair activities.
Alone carries a giant wrench for busting open paths, while Low seems to focus on puzzle solving. Weapons are new for the series, but here they mostly looked like giant keys rather than anything that changed how you play the game. The puzzle platforming? Exactly what you’d expect: climbing, pushing crates, crawling through vents. The co-op bits I saw boiled down to helping each other through obstacles. Functional, but nothing mind blowing.
Two Kids Means Half The Tension
You can definitely feel how co-op changes the dynamic. The first two games worked because they made you feel abandoned in a hostile, oversized world. When you’ve got another kid to lean on, that dread turns into something different and without playing it, it’s hard to tell what kind of different it is. Even without the inevitable partner shenanigans (you know, spending half the game trying to hit each other), just knowing someone else is there sucks some of the fear out of the room.
Will The Final Game Bring The Fear Back?
The demo ended on a familiar tease. A crate stamped with the iconic eye symbol, hinting at bigger mysteries. Aesthetically, Supermassive has nailed the look, the sound, the vibe. But based on this slice, the co-op feels more like a novelty than an evolution.
If future levels lean harder into creative weapon combos and real, tension-building teamwork, Little Nightmares 3 might balance its creep factor with its new co-op approach. If not, it risks turning a series about isolation and dread into a slightly spooky co-op platformer.