Little Nightmares made a triumphant return at Gamescom this year, with a third game announced two years after the release of the last game in 2021. Unlike the first two games, Little Nightmares 3 is being developed by Supermassive Games. And with this new team comes an all-new feature: co-op with another human player - as long as you don't mind playing online.

Unfortunately for anyone hoping to play Little Nightmares 3's multiplayer in person, it will only be available in online play. This means no couch co-op, despite the game seemingly suiting the multiplayer mode nicely. Supermassive says this was a conscious decision, made to ensure that the game isn't any less haunting and intimidating when teaming up with a friend. The team argues that letting you play with someone else in the room would have detracted from its "atmosphere and immersion", whereas online play will not.

This comes from an interview with GamesRadar at Gamescom (as spotted by Eurogamer), with the developers shedding some light on the much-requested multiplayer mode.

"Couch [co-op] is something that we considered," says game director Wayne Garland. "But again, when you come back to the atmosphere and the immersion that we're trying to elicit through Little Nightmares, I think it was important for us that we stuck to our online co-op only rather than traditional more party aspects."

Put simply, it sounds like Little Nightmares 3 may have sacrificed some of its creepiness if you had a friend nearby for protection. Either that or perhaps the devs were worried we wouldn't take the game seriously enough if we were mucking about together like that. In any case, at least we have our answer - anyone who wants to play with a friend will have to talk them around to buying the game too.

If not, you can always have the other character controlled by AI. Each one has different mechanics too, so at least that way, you're not fighting over who gets to be who.

As for the previous developers of the Little Nightmares series, Tarsier Studios, we're still waiting to see what it gets up to. It had previously indicated that it wanted to leave Little Nightmares behind, so we can assume the move to Supermassive Games here was an amicable one. Given the new studios' history with the horror genre, the decision makes sense.

Little Nightmares 3 is launching sometime in 2024, although we don't have a more specific release date than that right now. It will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Posted: Sep 06, 2023 7:46 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/little-nightmares-3s-co-op-is-online-only/