Grotesquely distorted monsters, twisted worlds, and panic-inducing chases—this is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Tarsier Studios, the developer behind Little Nightmares. But the Swedish studio is “evolving” with its new game, Reanimal, which is primed to be its darkest offering yet.
The Reanimal trailer revealed on Aug. 20 at Gamescom Opening Night Live featured terrifying snippets from the horror adventure, including a chase with a contorted creature on a tiny bike, children sneaking past a hairy, too-many-legged monster, and a sheep crunching into life (which made me physically grimace). This brief montage, underpinned by a soundtrack that wouldn’t be out of place in a Jordan Peele film, left me uncomfortable—in the way a great horror game should.
After seeing the Reanimal trailer, I’m glad Tarsier isn’t working on Little Nightmares 3—because what it’s cooking looks infinitely more interesting.
Isolated, but not alone
Renaimal is a co-op horror adventure that sees you playing as two orphan siblings who need to find their friends in a distorted version of their home island. As they explore land and sea, they encounter its many psychological horrors and eventually uncover what binds them together.
There are so many parts of this premise that I’m excited for as a horror fan—and someone who loved LN but not its sequel. The main feature that intrigues me is the co-op aspect. The game is built for co-op but you can play completely single-player if you choose. If you play co-op, you can explore with a buddy on the couch or with a player online, whereas if you play single-player, you get an AI companion to help you out. AI companions can be rough at times, so how enjoyable the solo experience is rests on its functionality. Having said that, it sounds like Tarsier strongly encourages you to partner with an actual human.
During a virtual preview ahead of the Gamescom reveal, Tarsier Studios explained how the co-op aspect of Reanimal tries to tap into that feeling you get when you watch horror movies on a couch with your friend. “It just needed this flavor, something else to make it sing,” Dave Mervik, Tarsier Studios’ narrative director, said of the feature. “And it was this idea of the cathartic experience of going through something awful together.” Because nothing says friendship like being scared shitless with a buddy.
It just needed this flavor, something else to make it sing.
If the idea of co-op gameplay is scarier to you than the game itself, don’t worry. Reanimal’s co-op gameplay is “grounded and minimalistic,” with Mervik explaining that gameplay similar to the critically acclaimed It Takes Two would have been “too over the top” for the world Tarsier has built.
The developer is conscious, however, of ensuring co-op still feels claustrophobic, with a shared camera meaning you can’t stray far from your friend. The idea is to emphasize the isolation of the two characters, with loneliness seemingly being a key theme.
A much-needed horror evolution
The other aspect I’m intrigued about is how you navigate through the story and world. While LN was linear, Reanimal has a “fragmented narrative.” You’ll make your way through the story and themes in a fairly linear way, but there are pockets of explorable areas, letting you dig further into the secrets of the island and the orphans’ past.
This adventure element proved a balancing act for the studio, as it aimed to tap into the “excitement for adventure” kids have while ensuring players (at the right times) dread exploring.
And this is definitely a world to dread if LN and the reveal trailer are anything to go by. Tarsier excels at building tension, with its horrors cemented in unease—everything looks like something familiar, just warped and violent. But the studio was initially “very conscious” of Renaimal being too like LN, which led to “bad decisions.” As a result, it stopped “shying away” from this comparison and instead focused on “evolving” with Renaimal. From what I’ve seen so far, Renaimal looks like a mature, darker evolution of what we’ve seen from the developer before—and, following my disappointment with LN 2, I can’t wait.
Renaimal is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, but a release date has yet to be announced.
