Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes Reviews

I hate this game with all my heart.

Like if teacher crackable broo (kopstoot toad ahh)

ITS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE

TLDR: Interesting in concept, runs fine, and looks cool, but is exorbitantly boring. Felt more like an unofficial demo or mod than an official, $30 game. (Please excuse the poor formatting. I don't write reviews often). Little Nightmares: Altered Echoes, [b] in my opinion [/b] , is a very good and very interesting idea in theory, but is very poorly executed here. The visuals and performance were both very good! Seeing and doing things in the perspective of the tiny children was very cool, and I didn't experience any (confirmed) bugs or performance issues caused by the game. In spite of that, I played through most of the game (I got to the final chapter), but even so, I literally could not bring myself to finish it because it turned out to be so incredibly boring. By then, the novelty of being small had worn off, and I figured that nothing had happened so far, so nothing [i] would [/i] happen, and I'd be better off doing something else. Gameplay-wise, the game is fine. The controls work as intended and they're generally not clunky. But, the Snap Turning doesn't work for chase sequences, especially if those sequences have sharp turns, which most of them do. Often, I couldn't evade an enemy without either completely stopping my movement to turn my camera, clipping a corner and subsequently getting caught (during the one chase that was actually fast), running into a wall because I didn't turn enough fast enough, or I turned too fast, knocked myself off balance, and almost fell over. Additionally, the game is extremely bad at telling you where you need to go unless your path is linear, or unless your objective is to explore (both of which are fine on their own, don't get me wrong). During the second chase sequence, I got stuck for at least 40 minutes because I would reach a dead on an otherwise completely clear and linear path, and die before I figured out where to go next (which is impressive, for a reason stated later on). However, in stark contrast to the above paragraph, the puzzles in the game are way too easy. Every single one is a "find the missing object" puzzle, most of these objects are either right in front of you or are barely hidden (either they're behind you, or are in open cabinets), and almost every single one is a crank used to open a door. The two most interesting puzzles that I came across were a puzzle where I had to find more than one thing, and one where I had to go around in a linear circle and plug some plugs into some sockets. The roster of enemies is incredibly lackluster, and none of them are scary. There is only one enemy per general area, and there are entire sub-areas (not singular rooms) where the location's singular enemy doesn't appear at all. This game has no equivalent to LN2's Bullies, or the Residence's Shadow Kids, or LN1's Leeches. I counted a miniscule five rooms with environmental hazards, but each area only has a singular enemy that you need to avoid. In addition, enemy behavior and perception is all over the place. One enemy saw me even though I was completely obscured under a table, and another was either so blind or so poorly coded that I literally thought their vision was based on movement -- until I got caught even though I wasn't moving (and wasn't in their way, so it wasn't like they found me by bumping into me). The chase sequences have absolutely no stakes or intensity because the enemies move incredibly slowly -- even though they've been shown to have the ability to move much faster. Unless you literally stop moving for a good three to five seconds, the enemy will never ever catch you. SPOILERS AHEAD! The game doesn't seem to have any story beyond the premise, that being "Six's soul tries to find her body". There's no visual storytelling to tell you more about the locations, no lore about Six, and none of the game's general locations are connected to each other -- or Six. The first few sub-areas are connected to each other because [spoiler] you're in the Thin Man's realm and the constant hopping around is expected [/spoiler] , and another two sub-areas have an obvious connection because [spoiler] one is a Train Station and the other is a Train [/spoiler] . But nothing explains why you're there, or what the places have to do with Six (beyond literally the first room in the game). The entire game feels like taking a virtual tour showing off set design, not a story. And finally, the game just isn't scary. There are set pieces that momentarily give you a sense of intrigue or foreboding, but those instances only last a moment, and they mean nothing. There's no lore attached to them that you wouldn't already know from past games. There are no jumpscares, no scripted moments where the enemies almost catch you for dramatic effect, or even death jumpscares, specifically. Whenever an enemy catches you, they just freeze right on top of you, your character gasps, and your vision fades to black. Not even an enemy's presence is scary or foreboding, because you're either hiding from them and you [i] know [/i] they won't see you because they're all legally blind, or you're in a chase scene that has no stakes because you can look over your shoulder and see that the enemy is still leagues behind you, and is moving at about the pace of an ant -- or they're so far behind that you can't see them at all. All in all, absolutely not worth the $30, even though I very intensely wish it was, and tried very hard to trick myself into liking it (hence the 5.5 hours of play time). I can't even recommend trying to get it on sale because there's literally nothing there. If you're still interested, I'd recommend finding a playthrough and watching some of it before you decide.

This is my first Little Nightmares game so I have no idea what's going on, nor do I understand any of the lore. The game for the most part feels mostly like a walking simulator with light puzzles. Despite that, I am enjoying the atmosphere and the creepy enemies. For a VR game, I don't really have many complaints outside of the basic gameplay. Devs implemented the smooth turning option and no vignette option, which is a literal game changer. Hoping it isn't a terribly short campaign. EDIT: I just beat it at around 3 hours so it's very short. Story makes no sense. Maybe wait for a sale.

The idea is great, the actual game is alright. First up I didn't mind the hood being on as it added to the immersion but thankfully the game has been updated so you can turn that off if it annoys you. The only section I found of the game to be scary was the schoolteacher, that actually kicked the adrenaline into gear. But as the game has no jump, which I'm surprised doesn't seem to annoy people more than your character wearing a hood, the gameplay is simplified af. It's also very short. (2.6 hours for me, felt like a demo.) The first few areas just feel like dead corridors with no decoration except the same ladder asset repeated. But then you get into areas that feel more like the game, like the school area and the train which do a really good job of replicating the game. It's a shame it's all for this annoyingly simple game that really ignores any mechanics you'd recognise from little nightmares. You can only open the doors you need to to progress, and they either open automatically. or you open them by spinning a lever. So no you won't be grabbing any doors by the door handle to open them like in the original, remember the game has no jump. So it just feels like a Little Nightmares walking sim with the only real gameplay being stealth sections. Idk man if you're gonna make a VR LN game, actually make a VR LN game where you carry over as much of the gameplay from the original as you can. Arkham Shadows did it. And actually make a lengthy game with variations on the gameplay aside from walk section, stealth section, walk section, stealth section rinse and repeat.