Little Nightmares II (Xbox One / Series X|S)

This game occurring some unnameable time after the events of the first game, we first meet the small boy, complete with his paper bag mask, in a creepy forest which is fittingly, all in shades of grey and monochrome. The little boy makes his way through the forest – and watch out for traps right from the beginning! – and makes his way to an even creepier forest, where he seems to instinctively know to avoid The Hunter, a rather ugly dude with bad things on his mind.

Mono creeps into the Hunter’s cottage and frees Six, and together they flee, discovering along the way that everyone in the world, or so it seems, is now completely addicted to their television screens. It is easily established that this is due to the Thin Man who is transmitting a hypnotic signal from the Signal Tower, and the game is on: get to the Signal Tower and smash the transmitter.

But of course, this is much easier said than done, and before the plucky pair can make their way to Pale City, where the Signal Tower stands tall and menacing, they must work their way through the Wilderness, escape the School, shudder through the Hospital and various other sinister locations.

All around, they see signs that the Thin Man does not take well to having his plans interfered with: bags of corpses litter the landscape, rock falls threaten to end the game immediately and bear traps are lying under a deceptively pretty layer of fallen leaves.

Perfect for Fans and Newbies

Fans of the series will find it delightfully recognisable, while newcomers will be able to slide right in without having any sense of not knowing what is going on. Bring your best puzzling mind to bear on each level, each of which is differently themed around a certain monster or environment – such as the opening scene’s forest.

You will need to be stealthy too, in order to get some peace to solve the puzzles, so don’t go blundering around too much! The game is grotesque rather than gross, with a slow accumulating build-up of the shudders, rather than a reliance on jump-scares.

Character List

There are a lot of characters, both neutral and hostile in the game – see if you can spot the following who are deserving of special mentions. But watch out for the others too!

Mono – our small boy protagonist, who wears a fetching paper bag on his head

Six – a computer character in this game, the protagonist of the original Little Nightmares game, and Mono’s gaming buddy

The Hunter – the first villain we meet

The Teacher – the stuff of every unhappy schoolchild’s literal nightmares, this teacher is no sweetheart to be consoled with an apple. She has a snake’s head – and that’s just the start of it!

Creepy Doll-headed Children – the charges of the Teacher they will attack you. The upside is that their little porcelain heads shatter beautifully, once you work out how to do it!

The Thin Man – the main protagonist and sure to give players of a certain age horrendously goose-bumpy Slenderman vibes