Maw than meets the eye.

You can’t ignore the LittleBigPlanet in Little Nightmares II. Tarsier Studios may have turned to horror with its eerie 2017 puzzle platformer Little Nightmares, but the Swedish studio’s body of work largely involves Sackboy, and he hangs over this gloomy PlayStation 4 sequel like an ominous shadow. Mono moves like Media Molecule’s mascot, grabbing onto objects in order to solve physics-based puzzles. At twice the length of its predecessor, this sinister sequel has plenty of memorable moments, but it’s let down by an overemphasis on trial and error.

Where the original was set entirely inside an otherworldly, underwater cocoon called The Maw, this follow-up attempts to explore more of the world outside it. You’ll play as a little boy called Mono, who awakens in a forest filled with discarded televisions. As with games like INSIDE, without any dialogue, the narrative is told through its imagery; it’s down to personal interpretation, and while essays will no doubt be written about its recurring themes, we saw it more as a montage of hellish locales, connected by a consistently bleak art direction.