Little Nightmares 3 co-op is ‘next evolutionary step’ for the series, says director, despite our concerns

Little Nightmares 3 was a surprise showing during Gamescom Opening Night Live on Aug. 22, but what was more of a surprise was the reveal of two key factors—Supermassive would be making it over Tarsier Studios, and the game would introduce co-op, a series first. 

Not much else was really unveiled about the game outside the teaser trailer, but at Gamescom, I was given a hands-off look at Little Nightmares 3, as well as time with Coralie Feniello, Producer at Bandai Namco EU, and Wayne Garland, Game Director at Supermassive Games to ask questions about the series’ direction.

Co-op is the focus

In the hands-off I saw small portions of a pre-alpha build of the game which took part in a dead desert city environemtn known as Spiral. Here, I was able to see exactly how two player co-op works and some of the puzzles players will be faced with.

For the team at Bandai and Supermassive, co-op was a natural progression for them for the series and, according to Feniello, was something the community had been requesting for some time.

“It was the most requested feature from the community,” Feniello told me. “In fact, you have like, core game. But now it’s really important for us to do with keeping the DNA of Little Nightmares [intact].” He also highlighted that it was important not to compromise on the design or atmosphere that a Little Nightmares game encapsulates.

Garland agreed with this statement, saying that it was the “next evolutionary step” for the franchise, while also stating that it was important to say that there is single player as well.

With single player, players will choose to play one of the two characters while an AI controls the other, similar to how Six is used in Little Nightmares 2. So for those who want to play by themselves, there will be an option to do so, and you can actually decide which of the two characters you would prefer to play as throughout the campaign. Garland also told me that there would be no way to interchange between characters during the story, so whichever one you choose at the start you’ll be sticking with.

More nightmare than dream

My initial thoughts when watching the hands-off presentation of Little Nightmares 3 were varied. While the start sees main characters Flow and Alone go through a desert towards a looming sgtructure in the world of Nowhere that gave me initial hype, it was quickly squandered when the actual gameplay was shown.

It came across as a very generic co-op platformer with each character having its own item needed to solve puzzles. Seeing the usual bow-user hit a target from afar while the melee user opens up blocked passages felt like the same ideas we have seen elsewhere, lacking the invention and interest of what a Little Nightmares title should be. Both of these weapon playstyles are needed to solve puzzles, but the puzzles didn’t seem like anything special.

Plus, the addition of weapons into the game takes away from one of the key aspects that made the first two Little Nightmares so unique. By adding some form of combat or combat puzzle, it takes away the feeling of being completely helpless to everything in the world. No longer are you running, dodging, or worried about what lurks behind every corner, the addition of weapons takes away that helpless feeling, except for when faced with the big bad, scripted, boss sections.

I do hope these concerns I have are just early game alpha jitters and will be squashed when the game releases sometime in 2024, but until then, I’ll be having my own little nightmares about what I saw.