After playing Reanimal's terrifying opening, it's filling the Little Nightmares void in my heart

Reanimal proves that though Tarsier Studios may have left the Little Nightmares brand behind with Bandai Namco Entertainment, that series' style of horror is just a part of the studio's DNA. Going hands-on with the opening of Reanimal, I guide small, masked children through a terrifying world – far larger than they are – with an eerie tone, stomach churning worldbuilding, and creepy, massive creatures that are warped reflections of humanity. It's never felt so wonderfully horrible to come home.

Which is good news as, in our Little Nightmares 3 review – we were disappointed with that series' evolution post-Tarsier. Reanimal also introduces co-op (so far, the implementation seems thankfully simpler). It's notable how much Reanimal feels like it's truly carrying the spirit of the first two Little Nightmares games forward, even after a brief hands-on. My time playing Reanimal made for a spine-tingling introduction to this new take on a mysterious world of uncomfortable terror, and there's no question I'll be coming back – though I may need to bring a stress ball next time.

Animal hour

Thrown into the world as a young boy on a boat, so foggy I can barely see the buoys I'm encouraged to motor between, I'm immediately playing catch up in this mysterious world. Reunited with his sister floating in the water, who he thought was dead, the two press further along the dark waters into coming to land. Interestingly, this interaction includes subtitled dialogue – though chatter is used very sparingly.

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The only way forward is through a dark, abandoned factory. Each character has their own light source – the sister a small lantern and the brother a flickering candle – but neither reaches far. When you're in the dark in Reanimal, you're in the dark. Early action is the kind of puzzle platforming familiar to anyone who has played something like this before. Pressing switches to turn machinery on and off to progress. Pushing planks across gaps. Pulling physics objects along with you to, for instance, fix up a pump trolley to make it across train tracks. Playing solo, any puzzle that requires two heads is quickly and neatly handled by the computer. None of this is cumbersome, though. It's all very slick to move through, and the way ahead is often clear (with diversions leading to collectible masks you can use to customize your character).

Heading deeper into the factory, I encounter another child in a mask hiding out behind grating in a sewer pipe, observing that we have returned, but that we should leave, before they run away from us deeper into the pipes. This is a world of missing children trapped in a deadly world – made to feel small by the towering structures and creatures around them. The metaphors aren't subtle, but Reanimal is totally nailing the uneasy fear of the child-perspective horror so far.

OK, so how scary is a dark factory, really? While the atmosphere is pretty creepy, it's not until I get a bit deeper that things take a turn. At first, it's seeing a gigantic figure just out of sight, moving through doors ahead of me – and seeing them having to bend down to fit through the still very large doors. These early glimpses are quick, making it hard to even register quite what the threat is at first – especially as this early trail leads to a gruesome dead end as we see it do something seemingly impossible to a slumped body before it vanishes. I'd better describe what I saw except, I can't. Part of the horror of Reanimal is trying to make sense of bizarre events that feel like they just don't add up.

The bulk of my playtime eventually revolves around fixing up the aforementioned pump trolley by exploring side branches of the factory. From a disgusting clogged toilet, to claustrophobic hallways where… empty human skins dangle from shelving and girders. Except, well, maybe they're not as empty as I first thought. Cue a desperate scramble away from oncoming horrors and a litany of curses from my lips. You will swear. You will recoil. Cheeks will be clenched.

My hands-on culminates with a sneaky, evasion section through a train yard as the siblings try to meet back up with their pipe-dwelling friend. Carriages lined with more empty skins, and piles of seemingly just as hollow suitcases makes you wonder just what has happened to this place. It has shades of the empty clothes that littered Little Nightmares 2. Then, something even more out of place – the headlights of an idling van. The strange, tall figure from before is here, angrily looking through flesh and luggage alike for… something. Us, if he sees me.

The art style is phenomenal, capturing stark, harrowing environments and some truly gnarly creature design. The tall man is humanoid, but moves slightly wrong, sags in the wrong places. Something in human skin?

These brief stealth sections move fast between striking moments of tension. The figure silhouetted in front of the van's headlights. It glimpses us as we struggle through an open window, closing it shut just before it can reach inside – its strange face pressed against the glass. Then, a hectic chase as its limbs move it toward us in a tangle, ascending up thin ladders to pursue us across haphazardly balanced carriages over a chasm. It reaches its long arms. The metal grinds. Shakes. Then… fade to black.

C'mon! You can't leave me hanging. Except, Tarsier absolutely can. Because they know there's no way I'm not playing Reanimal as soon as possible, to come up against the horrors that are so intriguing I simply can't look away.

Check out our best horror games ranking for chills you can have right now!