A new Little Nightmares 3 gameplay trailer is both the longest footage yet from the upcoming threequel and the first proper showcase of the brand new co-op mode.
I've always sincerely felt Little Nightmares is a series that would benefit greatly from adding co-op support, especially after the second game added Six as an AI companion. I vividly remember being disappointed when I found out the sequel didn't take advantage of that opportunity, but thankfully all is right in the world now that Little Nightmares 3 co-op has been confirmed. And now we have our first look at how it'll work.
As you might expect, it looks a lot like a Little Nightmares game! The only difference is both characters are moving around the 2.5D map freely, presumably being controlled by two human players. Oh, and of course there's a whole new setting an two new playable characters, Low and Alone.
The trailer shows the duo trudging through wind-swept sand dunes, climbing up an absurdly long ladder, and using a variety of mechanisms to traverse the crumbling ruins of the Necropolis. Oh, we also get a few incomplete looks at Monster Baby, the terrifying first antagonist Low and Alone will face in Little Nightmares 3, that reminds me unpleasantly of that scene from Resident Evil Village.
Little Nightmares 3 is the first game in the series not to be developed by Tarsier Studios. This time around, Until Dawn and The Quarry studio Supermassive is taking the reins while the original developer moves on to a creepy-looking new IP. Supermassive explained to us back in August how its take on Little Nightmares stands in contrast to its earlier games.
"Dark Pictures, The Quarry, Until Dawn, they tend to be explicit horror," Supermassive game director Wayne Garland said. "It's all through the characters and how they're driving the story in a very clear narrative. Little Nightmares 3 is much more implicit in that way. You find a lot of the horror through moving through the environmental setting, the actions of the antagonist, the character's influence, the sound. And really, that's what gives you that sense of unease you feel as you traverse the world."
There's still no hard release date for Little Nightmares 3 yet, but we know it's coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in 2024.