Reanimal (2026)

★★★★

Same team as the first 2 little Nightmares, and it's that same kind of deal. Honestly, this feels like little nightmares so much I'm surprised it's called something else. Played it solo, took my time. around 5 and a half to 6 hours, something like that. Enjoyed it. Cute game. No puzzles, not really, just straight forward objectives. You kinda just explore around until you can interact with stuff. Very cool set pieces. Nice music, vibes match. The re-spawning did feel a bit slow though which was kind of annoying since I died quite a bit.

The story.. haha, unsure!.. It's all presented super vague, probably so people engage by theorizing. It's pretty artsy like that. Me, this is what I think's happening right. This is my theory (spoilers for the ending):

So all these kids are actually a bunch of little psychopaths that love spending their weekends killing animals together, and doing blood rituals and whatnot. Well, one day they kill the wrong fucking sheep and awaken this eldritch horror that pulls them inside a reality where animals are the stuff of nightmares(oooh). All the animals chasing them are animals each of them killed at some point... and yeah as I'm typing this I'm realizing that not all of them were animals.. So I suppose one of them must've killed an ice cream man at some point. Haha so the little girl mouth-births the sheep because she did the killing blow and threw it down the well. And to get back and escape they all re-do the ritual with the girl. There, most definitely wrong but its what I could come up with. There's also like a war happening in the background? Who knows, man. Maybe you get the real story if you find all the masks or something.

Well, it was a little concerning to see this game get review bombed on Steam, but it seems to have been completely tied to financial reasons (no free friends pass) and not the content of the game itself. I always planned to play single player so this doesn't affect me. Anyways -the game is FANTASTIC.

It is completely similar to Little Nightmares, but with slightly different theming and a few additional mechanics. This game feels much less beholden to the children's gaming market, as gore and adult themes are much more present as opposed to dark fantasy imagery. The creature designs are unbelievably cool and grotesque, pure eye candy for freaks like me. The game gives you weapons this time, and there are multiple instances of actual combat. And lastly, the game takes place in full 3D, whereas Little Nightmares was 90% 2.5D.

The themes and story are just as mysterious as ever. If I had to guess, humankind has devolved into some type of biological apocalypse. Bodies, both human and animal, seem to both reanimate on their own and be used and harvested for nefarious purposes by the villains and scavengers of this world. There are also depictions of war, which tells me there was some kind of political interplay with.. a biological outbreak? Absolutely no idea, but what matters is you and your group of adolescent friends go around trying to rescue eachother and survive a plethora of threats.

The game is short, as usual, but its extremely high quality and shows constant evolution from the devs. No one can do what they do, the concepts and execution are singular and iconic, much in a similar vein to a Tim Burton or David Lynch. Little Nightmares 3 proved how embarrassing it is to even attempt such a feat (though I would say PLAYDEAD nailed a somewhat similar type of game with Inside). Anyways, its a total must-play for anyone who enjoys horror and unique body-horror type worlds.

8/10