You are what you e🍨at. If th♏ere is a theme running throughout Tarsier Studios' Little Nightmares, this is it. The stealth-heavy horror game takes the familiar adage and spins something new, something monstrous, something ugly out of it. And if you're the type to lean forward to hear a ghost story instead of hiding under the covers, it's a must-play.

At first blush, it's easy to think of Little Nightmares as a Limbo-like game: you are a small, presumably young, character surrounded by creatures and traps that can instantly crush your feeble bones. You run mostly left to right, pulling levers and swinging on ropes to reach the next area. But where Playdead's moody game is more concerned with puzzles, Little Nightmares often challenges you to play a deadly game of hide and seek. You'll catch the eye of some creature, then sprint to a n🐬earby table, ducking under it to evade capture, inching bit by bit toward freedom.

If you like a bit of mystery and effort on your end to decode what's happening, you'll enjoy Little Nightmares' obtuse approach to storytelling. Esp🥃ecially toward the end, it reminded me of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, if Spirited Away was grotesque and horrifying. But if you want a clear explanation of what's going on, Little Nightmares won't give you that.

Either way, your time spent in this strange realm will not be particularly long. I beat it in roughly four hours, though you could get a bit of extra mileage if you wanted to hunt down the collectibles which unlock some truly disturbing concept art. But at the same time, it should be noted th🦩at it doesn't feel like any﷽ of that short runtime is wasted. Just as you start to feel comfortable or safe with the enemies you're evading, the game throws something new at you. There's no padding or filler to slow things down - unless you get stuck on a puzzle or run into a poorly-paced checkpoint, as I did a handful of times.

The problems, when they come, stem from mechanical imprecision. In one instance, I൲ was being chased by a misshapen creature I dubbed ‘Slinky’. The pursuit unfolded through several rooms, with a daring jump at the end to escape. The first time, I failed to slide under a pipe and was caught, sending me back to the beginning of the chase. Fair enough, that was my fault for not reacting fast enough. But the second, third, and fourth times, where I failed due to getting caught on scenery, not jumping as far as I thought I should've, or not grabbing onto ledges I should've grabbed onto, were much more frustrating. These were also farther from the start, yet I had to do the entire beginning sequence over and over.

This wouldn't be an issue if the appeal of Little Nightmares was its difficulty. But this is a horror-focused game, and you can't be repulsed if you're frustrated. By the time I finally cleared that particular sequence, I didn't feel relief at having escaped my pursuer so much as I relief that I wouldn't have to sit through another loading 💛screen.

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