14 Best Indie Games Like Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares debuted in 2017, and the sequel debuted in 2021 as a prequel story. According to the writer, Bandai Namco, the prequel was the tip of the story. 

These video games supply a brief however memorable expertise. Can you proceed it on different titles from a gameplay perspective? Selecting video games like Little Nightmares or Little Nightmares II means understanding what the saga affords:

• A 2D story-driven cinematic horror recreation with a darkish theme and an ominous ambiance. 
• Limited gameplay revolving round puzzles, interactivity, and easy platforming.
• A hyper-surreal and hand-drawn artwork type that goes alongside an eerie soundtrack. 
• Mostly helpless protagonists that depend on hiding and gadgets to outlive. 

Games Like Little Nightmare

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds) is nothing like Little Nightmares, but is the distinctive indie story-driven expertise chances are you’ll be in search of. It received the Best Game Award on the 2020’s BAFTA awards. There’s lots of vital and fan reward behind the entry.

The setting is a free-roam thriller with out quests, map markers, or clues. You must cease an infinite time loop that resets a complete photo voltaic system daily. To full the hunt, you will need to enterprise into the world to slowly uncover what occurs till you discover the answer.

So, this can be a huge open-world puzzle-adventure-platformer recreation. You play as an Outer Wilds Ventures recruit. This is an area program looking for solutions within the photo voltaic system. Freely exploring the setting reveals many secrets and techniques, environmental hazards, pure catastrophes, and paths to achieve an answer. 

Undertale

Undertale is an indie title by a single particular person, Toby Fox. He crafted the story, characters, graphics, gameplay, and music of this cult-following expertise. 

The plot follows a toddler who falls into the hidden underground realm the place monsters dwell. As he searches his approach back, he uncovers their heartful, charming, however ugly story. 

On the floor, Undertale is a retro-RPG akin to Earthbound. It has two key variations, although. Combat opens up a Pokemon-like display screen, however the battles happen by way of mini-games like bullet-hells. Then, there’s all the time an choice to bypass fight by way of appeal, persuasion, and others. 

LISA: The Painful

Lisa is a 2D side-scrolling retro RPG set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It follows the brutal journey of Brad Armstrong saving her daughter from warlocks. 

The story opens up a story-driven RPG with selection mechanics, everlasting penalties, and a number of other endings. The world will drive gamers to make powerful selections that have an effect on heavy cinematic moments. Most of those moments revolve round darkish and tornado ethical themes.

Lastly, you possibly can recruit over 30 get together members the world over’s camps and cities. Then, you tweak your get together to discover the world and battle enemies. However, your get together members could die and endure beneath your command.

It Takes Two

• Developer: Hazelight Studios
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Release Date: March 2021
• Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, Windows

It Takes Two is one other stellar indie story-driven and cinematic recreation. Also, like Little Nightmares 2, it follows two small protagonists touring in an amazing world, filled with puzzles and risks. Most of all, it makes use of all of its quirks and parts to inform a compelling story.

However, the story is whimsical and filled with hope. You play as Cody or May (on-line or offline co-op solely), a pair on the verge of divorce. A mysterious spell turned them into dolls, they usually should discover their approach back to their our bodies.

The setting delivers 9 linear chapters with a mix of puzzle and platforming. Characters additionally be taught talents they will use for journey and fight, and challenges are diverse to maintain the sport dynamic.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a collection of family-friendly interactive horror. We select the newest entry within the collection as a result of you possibly can play both recreation with out realizing the story.

You play as Gregory, a boy trapped in an in a single day pizza place (Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex). As in earlier video games within the entry, the place is filled with hostile animatronic hosts. The participant should discover a strategy to survive through the use of safety programs, gadgets, witts, and hiding spots. 

It’s a first-person survival horror about adapting, hiding, escaping, and surviving. It additionally options mild puzzles, a touch of humor, and a lighter tone for youthful players. 

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Bendy and the Ink Machine is a first-person 3D puzzle action-horror title. It’s an odd mixture of animation and graphical type akin to Cuphead. However, as a 3D recreation, it makes use of cell-shaded graphics as a Borderlands recreation. 

You play as Henry as he revisits the deserted workshop of an animator. There, he revisits demons from his previous in a twisted and cinematic expertise. In essence, you discover the world, discover gadgets you need to use, clear up puzzles, escape the enemies, uncover the story, and transfer on. 

In the cartoon world, his previous drawings got here to life and are available to homicide him. Henry has restricted methods of defending himself, although. You’d have to cover, work together with gadgets, and clear up puzzles to outlive and clear up the thriller of the workshop. 

Bendy and the Dark Revival

• Developer: Joey Drew Studios
• Publisher: Joey Drew Studios
• Release Date: November 2022
• Platform: Windows, PS4, Xbox One 

Bendy and the Dark Revival is the sequel to the earlier indie horror hit. The story occurs 10 years after the unique occasions however introduces a brand new character, Audrey.

Audrey is an animator. The “Ink Machine” pulls the animator into the twisted ink world, and he or she beneficial properties particular talents she will be able to use to guard herself. Her aim is to place an finish to the evil ink cycle.

As earlier than, you’d play by way of a first-person horror journey. The graphics, the cinematics, the music, and the gameplay are total higher, although. Notably, Audrey can use stealth, technique, and expertise for exploration, fight, hiding, and puzzle-solving.

Detention

Detention begins like an everyday historical past lesson by way of the eyes of protagonist Wei Chung Ting. He takes a nap however wakes up in a faculty dyed in blood, with an ominous message on the partitions. “Typhoon Warning,” says the blood-died hall.

In the otherworld, he finds one other scholar, Fang Ray Chin. Together, they need to discover a approach back to the actual world, however the halls are filled with ghostly creatures. Playing as Wei and Ray, you will need to rigorously plan your steps to keep away from the animals. So, you hide, run, escape, and discover clues to finish the fear.

The creatures can hear your respiration, although. Your best hope is to see the clues to uncover what lies forward. These characters can’t battle or shield themselves, although. It’s a 2D horror journey about hiding and discovering the way in which out. 

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight mixes Metroidvania, 2D platforming, souls-like fight, and story-driven parts. Also, the sport’s eerie setting, hyper-surreal type, and haunting soundtrack will remind you of Little Nightmares. 

You play as a bug knight touring to Hallownest. You use an evolving set of expertise to unlock areas, journey, and fight. The fight depends in your ability, nevertheless it’s the basic dodge/slash/sprint you’¿d anticipate from the style. 

As for the Metroidvania design, it means you possibly can unlock beforehand inaccessible areas by studying new expertise or discovering gadgets. That stated, there’re a number of paths for every quest, in addition to an enormous solid of NPCs, enemies, bosses, and areas. 

Fran Bow

Fran Brow takes gamers to a spot of nightmares akin to Mono and Six’s world, however ten occasions crazier. The expertise is a psychological horror puzzle journey recreation with point-and-click mechanics.

You play as Fran, a woman in search of her dad and mom. Her solely pal is a black cat, Mr. Midnight, who can’t assist her. She’s trapped in an asylum within the Nineteen Forties. Her future might be a lobotomy, a typical remedy for the time.

Before that, Fran takes her likelihood at discovering her dad and mom to save lots of herself and save her household. However, she should escape the asylum as actuality shifts between actual, not actual, or each.

Inside

Inside is a surreal horror title that takes gamers to an unsettling world. Just like Little Nightmares, the characters are largely helpless, so the gameplay is about hiding, escaping, or discovering gadgets you could possibly use as weapons.

Players management a boy making an attempt to flee from a harmful world. Rather than going through supernatural foes, the enemies are merciless people. The story explores the darkest aspect of our nature from the angle of an harmless boy.

All of this occurs as a 2.5D puzzle platformer. Then, the setting is darkish, and the colour is scarce, highlighting key components of the maps. Lastly, the sport is generally silent, though there’s the occasional musical cue, sound results, and canine barking. 

Limbo

Limbo is the primary recreation by Playdead, so it’s fairly much like each Inside and Little Nightmares. It’s a 2D horror puzzle platformer following a boy on a quest to save lots of her sister in a sinister world. 

The recreation delivers a collection of puzzles and eventualities. The artwork type is akin to silent cinematic and black/white films, harking back to a Tim Burton film. Moreover, the enemies are shadows and distorted creatures. 

As gamers transfer by way of the sport, they’ll uncover the story by way of environmental storytelling, metaphors, and motion. There’re no cinematic cuts within the recreation.

Neverending Nightmares

This is a 2D side-scroller psychological horror journey much like Little Nightmares 2. The recreation follows Thomas, a boy with evening terrors who wakes up in a nightmare at some point, free to behave as he sees match.

The artwork type is sort of a black & white sketchbook, and shades of colour spotlight gore and evil. The surreal design comes from the developer’s expertise with OCD, melancholy, and paranoia. 

The hide & search journey takes gamers deeper down the nightmare’s rabbit gap. The aim is discovering the supply of the horror, and waking up. However, there’s one thing in his thoughts that wishes him lifeless.

Among the Sleep

Among the Sleep is a dreadful recreation concerning the risks of leaving a toddler alone. The protagonist is a two-year-old boy and his teddy bear. The mom is gone, and the newborn makes use of his creativeness to remain alive.

The expertise turns into a first-person horror journey about discovering your mom. The setting is filled with atmospheric horror. Anything may look alien and terrifying to a child. 

Ultimately, the expertise is easier and shorter, however it may be scary for those who’re a father or mother, or for those who went by way of one thing comparable whenever you have been younger.