A Quiet Descent Into Something Wrong
There’s a certain kind of game that doesn’t just creep you out... it lingers. It sits with you. Festers, even. It makes you glance over your shoulder when the room gets a little too quiet. Makes you strain your ears to make sure you didn't hear what you thought you just heard.
Reanimal is exactly that kind of game.
From the same twisted creative roots as Little Nightmares, this experience feels immediately familiar, but with just enough of a shift to make you uneasy in new ways. This time, though, you’re not alone. You and a second player take control of two children navigating a deeply unsettling world, trying to rescue others like you while avoiding… well, things you probably don’t want a closer look at anyway.
I played through this with my wife, which added a whole extra layer to the experience. Instead of sitting side by side while one of us controls things in the original Little Nightmares, we dove into the horror of Reanimal together. And neither of us were quite the same when it was all said and done.
A World That Watches You Back
The first thing that hit me, and stayed with me, was the atmosphere.
Reanimal doesn’t just build creepy environments, it frames them in a way previous games haven't. The camera work is doing a ton of heavy lifting here, and it might be one of the game’s strongest tools. There are these wide-angle shots that pull back just enough to make your characters feel small, exposed… insignificant. Like the world itself is looming over you.
Where Little Nightmares often boxed you in, Reanimal opens things up just enough to make you feel vulnerable in a different way. Generally when you're in an open space you don't feel confined. You have room to move, room to run. But somehow, it still felt very claustrophobic, and I loved that.
There were multiple moments where I caught myself just pausing for a second, not because I was stuck, but because something about the scene felt… off. Not in a jump-scare way. More like walking into a room and immediately forgetting why you’re there. I would be captivated by the sheer strangeness of it all. Eventually my wife would snap me out of my daze, reminding me that something was out there, and we needed to keep moving.
A Story Told in Whispers and Glances
If you’re coming into Reanimal expecting a clearly defined narrative with a story, character dialogue, and a tightly put together story, you’re in the wrong place. Like its predecessor, Reanimal thrives on ambiguity. You’re given just enough to understand your goal. Rescue your friends, escape whatever this place is, and don't get caught. Everything else is left for you to piece together. Not that you're given a lot of pieces to actually do that with.
And that’s kind of the beauty of it.
Just like Little Nightmares, your interpretation is the story. There’s no big exposition dump, no character turning to the camera to explain what’s going on. It trusts you to sit with what you’re seeing and come to your own conclusions, however strange or incomplete they might be. Really, if you're anything like me, you're probably going to walk away with more questions than answers. And I can not stress enough how much that enhances the experience.
Two Small Figures in a Very Big Nightmare
The biggest shift here is the co-op gameplay, and while that seemed really cool on paper, I was admittedly a little unsure how that would land. Games like this rely heavily on isolation and making the player feel truly alone, so bringing in a second player feels like it could break that tension. But in my experience, it actually enhanced it. Just in a different way.
Playing with my wife turned the experience into this quiet, shared understanding. We didn’t need to talk much. A lot of the time, we just knew what the other was thinking. Move here. Wait. Run. Panic. Okay, maybe a little talking when things got confusing, but we didn’t get stuck often.
That said, I can absolutely see where some players might run into friction. There are moments where timing matters, or where one player might feel slightly more “in control” than the other. If you’re not in sync, I could see that getting frustrating. For us, though? It clicked. And when it clicks, it really works.
There’s something uniquely tense about experiencing horror with someone else. I think what made it even more fun for me (and less so for my wife, haha) was that she isn't a seasoned gamer like I am. But that never held her, or us, back. The game was designed in a way where we truly had to rely on each other and I loved when she got her moments to shine. Still, the world reminded us quickly that it was in control, and we were just unwelcome guests.
Familiar Horrors, Though Maybe Too Familiar
Here’s where things get a little complicated for me.
Reanimal is, without question, more Little Nightmares. And that’s both its biggest strength and its most noticeable weakness. On one hand, if you loved that formula, you’re getting exactly what you want. More tight platforming, environmental puzzles, grotesque creature design, and that signature slow-burn dread. Everything here is polished, effective, and confidently executed.
On the other hand… it doesn’t push the formula as far as it maybe could have. There weren’t many moments where I felt like the game surprised me mechanically. It plays things pretty safe. And while “safe” in this context still means “very, very good,” there’s a small part of me that wanted just a bit more evolution. Something to really separate it from the shadow it’s standing in.
It’s not a dealbreaker. Not even close. But it is noticeable, and that might matter to some to you depending on what you want out of this experience.
Share the Terror
At the end of it all, Reanimal is an easy game to recommend, especially if you have someone to play it with.
It captures that same unsettling magic that made Little Nightmares so memorable, while adding a co-op layer that, at least in my case, made the experience more personal. There’s something about sharing those quiet, tense moments that make the experience something that will stick with you for a while. The hesitation before opening a door, the split-second decision to run... Those moments still have impact both during and after.
Could Reanimal have taken bigger risks? Probably. Did I still love my time with it? Absolutely. And really, any game that can get my wife and I to sit in near silence together, completely locked in, only to immediately start talking about “what the hell that thing was” afterward… that’s doing something right.
"Home From Home" from Reanimal (Tarsier Studios, 2026). All rights belong to Tarsier Studios.