Conventional wisdom has it that having a companion by your side makes it easier to cope with a stressful situation. But after a 30-minute demo of Little Nightmares 3, it seems that this conventional wisdom doesn’t apply to The Maw, the macabre setting of all Little Nightmares games. Little Nightmares 3, which is set to release in 2025, will take players into new areas of The Maw, some of which I got to see for myself in a recent demo.
The big highlight of this horror sequel is the addition of two-player co-op, and as a horror fan, I was happy to learn that your codependent relationship can amp up the fear factor. In my demo, I played a level set in The Maw's “candy factory,” complete with candies that make the gelatin as appetizing as a Wonka confection. Assembly lines of dead and dying bodies slowly creaked through the shadows in the background of the oppressive workspace as my co-op partner and I controlled the game's new dual protagonists, Alone and Low.
One is equipped with a heavy wrench, which can be used to solve puzzles that require a punch, like pressing a button that's too big for the tiny characters to affect by jumping on it. The other holds a bow and arrow, used for other puzzles in which something is out of reach, like a switch hanging over an electrified puddle. Because each of these characters has a unique skill that the other will often need, the game's design philosophy is clear and engaging: rely on each other… or die.
It’s a tricky balance to strike, of course. No one likes a wobbly escort mission in a single-player game, because the AI can often let them down. An unreliable co-op partner can certainly provoke the same feelings, like a sous chef in Overcooked who doesn’t cook the onions when they’re supposed to. But what is horror if not extreme stress? I think Little Nightmares 3 might actually be the perfect setting for this kind of tandem puzzle-solving, even more so than games like It Takes Two or A Way Out, which expect their players to create a similar level of cohesion.
In previous Little Nightmares games, the puzzles were always different. Sometimes you'll have plenty of time to figure out a solution, and there's a limited penalty for failing—you might take fatal damage if you fall or get electrocuted in a puddle—but the incredibly scary enemies, thankfully, aren't there. In Little Nightmare 3's co-op mode, this makes for some fun brainstorming sessions where players work together to progress.
Then there are the puzzles where failure means alerting an enemy, and these are arguably scarier. It could be a noise you make, or your inability to move from one shadow to the next before the monster looks your way. These puzzles are more stressful because they tend to end in death animations where your character is coldly eliminated or eaten. It's unsettling, but still manageable for many players who have played these games, though now it might be your co-op partner who betrays you, as I often did to my co-op partner, someone on the Little Nightmares 3 team who knew all the answers and let me fail to keep my experience pure.
But there are also those sections where, as soon as you start on a new screen in the 2.5D platformer, you are chased and you have to intuitively find and use the escape route on the spot. Sometimes, a single misstep can get you caught. In previous Little Nightmares games, missing these moments repeatedly resulted in a recurring bad dream. Now, in co-op for the first time, this will create new situations in which one player was able to escape, but the other was not, forcing them both to start the thrilling sequence again.
As I said, this could The characters can become a source of frustration throughout the game. Relying on someone other than yourself in such a stressful situation is a difficult task. For some, this loss of autonomy is more stressful and therefore more frightening than being alone in the same situation. Little Nightmares 3 plays with these interpersonal dynamics with puzzle designs that will feel familiar in a world that is not at all. But from what I saw, the characters are presented in a way that quickly elicits empathy.
They are, after all, the only good-natured beings in The Maw, so while your co-op partner might unfortunately drag you back to Hell just when you thought you'd escaped, I expect – and from my playthrough so far, have found – that you're more likely to feel empathy for them and want to be there to save them from the clutches of the truly horrifying ghouls that populate The Maw.
I've enjoyed both Little Nightmares games so far, and so far this new game looks to be a worthy and disturbing successor, even though development has moved from Sweden's Tarsier Studios to Supermassive Games in the UK. I wondered whether co-op or a studio change would mean a loss of the game's obvious merits, but my concerns have been put to rest. I look forward to diving into the game next year with my co-op partner, my easily spooked wife, and seeing if we can stay on the right side of execution and executed.
Although it doesn't have a specific release date outside of 2025, you can already pre-order Little Nightmares 3.