A few months ago, we here at HorrorBuzz reviewed the game Little Nightmares. It was a fun game, but one with a lot of flaws. To be honest, I completely forgot about Little Nightmares in the following months. I play a lot of these games, so these things happen sometimes. However, I recently remembered Nightmares, and that it had a DLC level released a few months ago. So, I dusted off my copy of Little Nightmares and paid my four bucks for the DLC level “The Depths.” Let’s take a look.
The Depths takes the bold step of not re-using the entirely forgettable main character of the base game. Instead of the yellow raincoat clad Six, this time we play as a bland little boy called The Kid. The Kid, much like Six, is a small human child loose aboard a ship called The Maw, where children are held captive to be cooked as food. The main difference, storywise, is that while Six attempts to go up to escape the ship, The Kid goes down further into the ship to try to hide.
Like with the base game, The Depths has a really nice, stylized look. It’s got almost a Coraline or Paranorman sort of vibe to it. Unfortunately, The Kid is definitely not as much of a visual standout as Six was. She had her bright yellow coat that made her clearly stand out from the dreary parts of the ship, but The Kid is all muted colors. The Depths also is just not as visually interesting as the upper levels of The Maw. Down here there’s mostly just a lot of concrete, steel, and various boxes floating around in murky water. There are dark, dank corners. Nothing has the visual pop of the sleeping cabins or the dining rooms from the base game.
There honestly isn’t much music in The Depths. That actually kind of works in its favor, though. This expansion seems to really be shooting for a bare, minimalist approach to level design, and stripping the music almost entirely, leaving just creepy sound effects creates a lot of atmosphere. In fact, I would say that this is the high point of The Depths. The sound design really carries the dark, lonely tone that The Depths tries so hard to create.
Gameplay was the big stumbling block for the original Little Nightmares. It felt very unpolished and kind of clunky to actually play. Does The Depths improve on this? Not in the slightest. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this one plays even worse than the base game. There is a lot more precision required in the platforming of this expansion than in the base game, but The Kid still feels too slow and heavy for this platforming to really feel engaging.
Little Nightmares had its moments. For all its difficulties in creating a fun game, it certainly created an enjoyable atmosphere and setting. The same cannot be said for The Depths. I can’t say that I would honestly recommend The Depths for anyone but the most hardcore of Little Nightmares fanatics. There are still two more expansion levels due out. Let’s hope that the developers can improve the formula a little bit before everything is over.
