Tarsier Studios is no stranger to invading our dreams. Its Little Nightmares series scared up some wonderfully disturbing gameplay that has lived long in memory, and now its spiritual sibling Reanimal is ready to pull us into another intense co-op platforming experience.
I was given access to the full game ahead of its February 13 release to feel first-hand the many delightful horrors that await.
A dark, dreamlike opening
Reanimal doesn’t waste any time, with a disconcerting intro to its protagonists. I started as The Boy, floating alone in a boat adrift in a sea of darkness. A press of R2 drove me towards a single red light bobbing on the horizon. That light led to another. And then another. Until eventually I stopped to haul a masked figure out of the sea…who immediately tried to strangle The Boy, my DualSense controller shuddering in the attempt.
It turns out this was The Boy’s sister, their reunion a sharp tone-setter for the brutal world ahead and an indication of how vital their collaboration is to survive.
Varied environments keep you guessing
While Reanimal starts off in bobbing waters, the setting changes and evolves in your search for the siblings’ friends Hood, Bucket, and Bandage. Your adventure across a fragmented island pushes you to an abandoned factory, an unsettling forest, a sinkhole-plagued city, and a waterlogged workshop, just for starters, before things vastly open up for more non-linear exploration.
Each area demonstrates that Tarsier can make practically anything creepy, with derelict gas stations, a bank of rattling washing machines and even playground animals feeling like an unspoken threat.
A focus on visual storytelling
As with the Little Nightmares series, Reanimal relies on minimal dialogue to convey its story. The characters speak in places, but many of its narrative beats are told through body language and smart use of camera angles to convey claustrophobia, tension, and direction. Not to mention the level design, which always provides a clue to your next objective or where to go, albeit often subtly. Speaking of design…
Sounds to make you quiver
Great audio design is essential to any horror game, and Tarsier leans into its genre experience with a creeping aural dread that can lurch into a full-blown jump scare. Music is used sparingly, leaving the sound effects to deliver the shivers and the DualSense wireless controller’s haptic feedback to accentuate the shudders. A particular favourite of mine was the distant jingle of an ice cream van which foreshadowed…well, let’s just say I definitely screamed for ice cream.
Teamwork is essential
If you don’t have a human partner to survive with, Reanimal’s co-op artificial intelligence is more than capable of keeping you company. In my playthrough, The Girl followed quickly when needed, swiftly responding to a press of the Triangle button when we needed to give each other a boost to out-of-reach platforms.
Alternatively, a tap of L1 gets her to interact with certain elements in the environment. For example, one puzzle required me to walk across a giant metal drum which was spinning too fast to traverse. The Girl was prompted to flip a switch to temporarily stop the drum from rotating, long enough for me to get across it and create a platform for her to follow.
The co-op AI even occasionally performed acts that pushed me into action. During a particularly tense sequence involving the inside of a runaway van, a giant smashed through a window in an attempt to grab the masked siblings. Given the game’s general avoidance of direct combat, my first instinct was to hide, but my partner leapt up to strike the brute, making me realise I had a weapon to join in the attack.
Chilling set pieces are never far away
You’ll be doing a lot of sneaking, running, and hiding in the many haunting scenarios that make up Reanimal, with cinematic chases and rooms full of strange, slithering skin. One of my personal highlights was preceded by a crackling night-time movie theatre, with awkwardly posed bodies and shadowy flickers which made for a deeply unsettling experience. And while I died many times in some of the trickier areas, the quick respawn points were never far from where I made my mortal errors.
It’s not just about primal survival
Environmental puzzles play a big part of the game, ranging from simply finding wheels for a pump trolley, to more elaborate tasks. One had me in a forest of cut trees, where a solitary saw embedded in one trunk hinted at what my next action should be. Another had the siblings’ use a car for a battering ram, take a complex detour to rescue Hood, then have to find and fill a gas canister to refuel the car to escape an increasingly hostile situation.
There are many secrets in the shadows
Hidden away in the dark corners of the game are collectibles such as masks and concept art to find, some requiring steely nerves, keen eyes or just the twisted desire to dive into areas which go squelch in the night.
Better bring a flashlight – you’ll see how dark things can get when Reanimal launches on PS5 February 13.
