Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes - Hands-on Preview
Little Nightmares has always felt like its name was a misrepresentation of what lies at the core of its world. The nightmares in this game are, in fact, quite big. This is in part because they are big in the sense that they are all-encompassing and often unsettling, the kind that creep into your mind when you are moments from sleep and make your skin crawl with trepidation, but also because they are, compared to the series’ protagonists, physically large. As a relatively short woman who can’t even reach her own kitchen cupboards without a stepladder, I am used to feeling out of place in my environment, but Little Nightmares: Altered Echoes takes this to a whole new level. You are a small being in a big world, and the world is out to get you. Okay… maybe this feeling is a little familiar too.
Little Nightmares VR puts you in the shoes of a small child in a raincoat – one that fans of the series will recognise as Six, the protagonist of the original game – only a version of her that is overcome by a strange darkness. In the tiny form of Dark Six, you must navigate the world around you, performing physical actions in space to reach for levers, pick up and throw objects, and crouch down to make your way through passages that actually seem somewhat large – until you see the size of them compared to the doorways in front of you. Your field of vision is obscured by a triangle representing the hood of Six’s raincoat, helping to further immerse you as you traverse this dark and twisted world, but honestly – being able to see less of what’s around you is not always a bad thing.
Though nothing “attacked” me during my approximately 30mins of gameplay across two different levels, I spent the entire time feeling tense. There’s a horrifying mix of whimsy and the grotesque that gives Little Nightmares its unique brand of spooky, and being forced to physically move through sections of it, knowing something could emerge from outside your field of view, is constantly unsettling to say the least. I took every step with an abundance of caution, never wanting to move too quickly for fear that I would alert one of the world’s inhabitants to my presence, even one I couldn’t yet sense. There’s a constant feeling here that something is watching you, and it often is – be it a creepy eyeball-shaped camera or an overly vigilant and somewhat malformed guard, and while you can’t always see them, it’s hard not to feel like they can always see you.
Mechanically, what I saw of the game was impressive. Playing on both the Meta Quest 3 and the PSVR2 felt like smooth experiences, with all of the unsettled feeling in my stomach thankfully coming from my deep cowardice and not from any kind of VR-induced motion sickness. While the most immersive way to experience the game has you physically crouching down or spinning in your space, there are options to do things things with just the press of a button, and some clever choices seem to have been made with the camera options to ensure exploring these nightmarish spaces feels as (physically) comfortable as possible. While it can be a little fiddly to get the hang of grabbing things, moving around the area feels (again, physically) like a breeze.
Mechanically, what I saw of the game was impressive. Playing on both the Meta Quest 3 and the PSVR2 felt like smooth experiences, with all of the unsettled feeling in my stomach thankfully coming from my deep cowardice and not from any kind of VR-induced motion sickness. While the most immersive way to experience the game has you physically crouching down or spinning in your space, there are options to do things things with just the press of a button, and some clever choices seem to have been made with the camera options to ensure exploring these nightmarish spaces feels as (physically) comfortable as possible. While it can be a little fiddly to get the hang of grabbing things, moving around the area feels (again, physically) like a breeze.
The transition to VR allows for a new sense of awe and discomfort for the Little Nightmares series, with the first person immersive shift feeling like more of a perfect match than I was expecting. Though I spent every moment of the preview humming myself a high pitched song to try and steel my nerves and self-soothe (much to the amusement of those around me) I still felt myself oddly compelled to continue. There’s something about being in this whimsical dark world that feels enticing and unsettling in equal measure, and if Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes can sustain that feeling for the entire length of the game, it may just turn into a truly memorable VR experience.
Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes releases on April 24th on PSVR2, Steam VR and Meta Quest.
