REANIMAL – Review

The folks behind Little Nightmares are back with their darkest game yet.

I’ve spent the best 10 hours of my life playing through the darkest nightmare imaginable for a vegan and a war veteran. REANIMAL is a cooperative horror adventure that takes you, practically, to hell itself. Except that I don’t think either you or I could have ever imagined such a nightmare.

I was really eager to play it, since it’s the latest creation from the geniuses behind Little Nightmares. Once again, I played through it in one sitting and was left wanting more.

From Little Nightmares to REANIMAL: a new cicle begins

Almost 10 years ago, *Little Nightmares* made its debut among horror fans. This game, developed by Tarsier Studios in collaboration with Bandai Namco, changed the perspective of the genre: polished platforming, rich environments, and characters to observe—but few scares. Two installments (in addition to a mobile game and a DLC) gave rise to a host of theories and the creation of a vast universe that explored the tragedy of Six, its protagonist.

And I say “two installments” because, for Little Nightmares III, Bandai Namco and Tarsier Studios stopped working together. As we explained here at IGN, Tarsier Studios wanted to focus on a new IP, which is now coming to the studio’s fans via THQ Nordic.

This new IP is going to be a real hit.

At a time when the horror genre is dominated by major franchises like Resident Evil, REANIMAL is a game as unsettling as it is mysterious—like those nightmares you can’t even make sense of.

In this story, you play as two orphaned siblings searching for their friends, whom they had left behind on a strange island that was once home to them all. This place is overrun with very sinister inhabitants who seem to be living through the horrors of war and… mutations?

REANIMAL touches on themes like war and our relationship with animals, without providing specific details. The island is in a deplorable state, and although not all areas are equally devastated, they all share that desolate and melancholic atmosphere characteristic of the studio.
Obviously, as the title suggests, there are animals. Your interactions with them are, to say the least, curious. It seems that the evil corrupting humans here has also affected the animals. But I’ll save my theories for another day.

In addition to encountering a story left half-told, you gradually see the tragedy unfolding: the thing is, you, too, secretly harbor a curse from which you want to escape.

As is customary with this studio’s games, saying more would be giving away too many spoilers. But it’s worth emphasizing just how cinematic this title is compared to its predecessors. It’s not that there’s a lot of dialogue between the main characters, but there is some—which is already a novelty.

Even so, the story gradually takes shape in your mind. There’s no clear path, no characters to blame, and more questions than answers. The only thing that’s clear from the very beginning is that you, your sister, and your friends must escape from there. No matter what it takes.

Family first, the apocalypse can wait.

It’s a title that highlights just how important it is to feel supported during the toughest moments. Interestingly, it achieves this sense of companionship even if you’re not playing with anyone else, because while the AI has its flaws, it does have its own set of movements that can sometimes show you the best escape route.
But obviously, we’re talking about a game designed entirely for you to share your suffering with someone else, whether locally or online. I’ve tried the first option, and I have to say that it feels like a much more consistent and genuine collaboration than in *Little Nightmares II*. Here, almost all the puzzles are for two players, and you can’t survive any fight without the other player’s help. No matter who you play with, you’ll become inseparable. And it’s not just about following each other and helping each other climb to certain spots—there are many actions that require real coordination.

This brings me to the challenges involved: stealth, shared camera, and AI. Starting with the first two, although the camera view is very wide in this installment, this still means the camera has to follow a single player for technical reasons. This is a fact, so if you’re playing with someone, be careful—everything’s fine until you die because the camera left you behind or because a monster spotted you when the camera shifted.

What does become a problem, though, is the AI. REANIMAL has a mechanic where you call your sister if you’re playing alone. This mechanic lets you tell the AI which object to interact with or where to go. It rarely fails and is usually more convenient than arguing with someone to figure out which path each of you is taking or which washing machine you’re hiding in (based on real events). But when it does fail, it can ruin all the progress you’ve made so far. For example, there were several times when the AI decided it couldn’t go through a door that I had already gone through, and the only way to fix it was to reset to the last save point.

That said, I’m aware that the flaws it has in this regard stem from the fact that it was designed for two players. These situations arise because cooperation is essential to the game, so there isn’t much that can be done to fix them. You could say they’re just part of the job.

I found myself in the middle of the rubble, having a movie-like nightmare.

REANIMAL breaks away from the platforming of Little Nightmares (without abandoning it) to focus on exploring a much larger world in every direction. The camera shifts from close-up perspectives to sweeping shots that let you appreciate every light and every detail of the environment.

The methods of exploration themselves have also changed. If there’s one thing this game has in abundance, it’s modes of transportation. This will force you to get comfortable with different controls—especially when you’re navigating, which you’ll be doing a lot.

As for the environments, despite how chaotic and cluttered they are, the level design is impeccable: you’ll always feel guided, whether by a point of light, a sound, or a building or object that stands out just enough. It makes you feel completely lost, yet at the same time it always manages to guide you in a straight line toward your new objective, thanks to landmarks. It’s clear that visual composition is its strong suit. You’ll constantly encounter new focal points in beautiful, eerie scenes.

I don’t think there’s anything to say about the art in this game. Tarsier Studios’ style is instantly recognizable. No one depicts nightmares quite like they do, with that dark, somber tone that blends realistic macabre elements with a cartoon aesthetic. To me, it’s the video game equivalent of a mix between *Coraline* and *Nosferatu*, because it doesn’t need to show you a lot of blood to give you chills—it just has to change the lighting and add some jarring sounds.

Speaking of the art, I can’t forget to mention the soundscape. No matter what platform you play it on, use a good audio system—every creak is worth it. Plus, without giving too much away, I’ll tell you that the final part of the game is pure auditory trauma… worthy of a war veteran’s nightmare.

Now let’s talk about performance.

It’s worth noting that you’ll get the most out of REANIMAL on a powerful PC or your PS5.

I’ve played through the entire game on the Nintendo Switch 2, but the load times still feel just as long as they did in Little Nightmares. Back then, I blamed it on my Nintendo Switch’s lack of power, but the same problem persists with the new console. Also, when it’s out of the dock, it barely gets warm, but when it’s in the dock, it heats up more. I don’t get it either.

Still, it’s a graphically intensive game built on the Unreal Engine with a lot of detail and frequent lighting changes, so it was clear it was going to be demanding on the graphics. Tip: Don’t be like me—don’t fall off cliffs. There’s nothing worse than a stupid death followed by a slow load.

In conclusion: I want MORE

What best sums up my thoughts on this game is just how much I’m looking forward to its release. I desperately need to talk to more fans: to hear their theories about what happens in the game or what will happen in the future, to ask about the standout moments in this installment, and so on.

Like all of the studio’s games, this one has left a void inside me that I plan to fill by coming up with theories and replaying it with friends to share new perspectives. I definitely want to learn more about this world, about this new endless cycle.