It's rare for a video game to say that it's – beautiful. This is one of those. After the global success of the Little Nightmares franchise, the developers decided to abandon that franchise and devote themselves to a much darker project called REANIMAL. We played the PlayStation 5 version, the code for which was given to us by the publisher. The release date was February 13, 2026, and the price on the PlayStation Store is 40 euros.
DEVELOPER: Tarsier Studios (original creators of the hit series Little Nightmares)
PUBLISHER: THQ Nordic
PLATFORMS: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch 2
DRIVER: Unreal Engine 5
DURATION: 3-4 hours, 6 hours for 100 percent crossing
ACTION
The protagonists of this game are a duo consisting of a brother and a sister. We don't know their names, but we meet them in a boat sailing the dark ocean. Their mission is to find 3 lost friends. The way we lost them is mysterious and we don't know what happened. The setting is war-torn islands, full of mysterious giant monsters and ghostly corpses and dolls that haunt us. We never learn anything about the protagonists, or about the war that happened in the world we wander through. This adds to the mystery and dark atmosphere that is present from the beginning to the very end of this video game.
GAMEPLAY
Igra sadrži co-op mod, (slično kao u ‘It Takes Two’ ali bez kompliciranih zagonetki i neke prevelike spretnosti za kontrolerom), gdje jedan kontroler igra u ulozi brata, a drugi u ulozi sestre. Nema split-screena, igra se u jednom velikom ekranu i ako se udaljimo jedan od drugog na duži period – umiremo. Puno puta potrebna je koordiniranost i suradnja, no glavnina co-op igranja ipak je udruženo trčanje pred mračnim divovima koji nas proganjaju, te penjanje i istraživanje mračnog okoliša. Kada igramo single player, upravljamo bratom – nema opcije da upravljamo sestrom ako igramo jednim kontrolerom. Za razliku od Little Nightmares, REANIMAL koristi 3D perspektivu kamere, što pomaže u kinematografskom osjećaju. Kontrole su jednostavne, a nema sustava napredovanja ili skupljanja resursa. Igra je linearna, a svijet je poluotvorenog tipa. Može se lutati, no sve nas vodi nekom zacrtanom prolasku igre. Iako upravljanje čamcem zna ponekad biti nezgrapno, upravljanje malim čovječuljcima nikad ne preskače niti dolazi do glitcheva. Puno toga rješava se u stealth načinu, gdje potiho moramo prolaziti pored čudovišta, skrivajući se iza ormara i sličnih prepreka. Gameplay također sadrži i puno balansiranja po uskim prolazima, preskakanja preko uskih daski i otključavanja vratiju (ključeve je uvijek lako pronaći – nijedna zagonetka nije preteška). Unatoč tome što je igra lagana, puno puta ćete umrijeti zbog neuspjele taktike izbjegavanja čudovišta. No, i kad jednom umremo, gotovo uvijek iz drugog pokušaja uspijevamo riješiti problem. Kad umremo, uvijek slijedi poduga sekvenca gdje se brat i sestra probude zagrljeni na posljednjem checkpointu. Igra ima i laganu borbu – protivnika se rješavamo ili bijegom ili ih gađamo harpunom i udaramo pajserom, a u jednom slučaju ogromnog morskog konja ubijamo tenkovskim projektilom. Naravno, kako to obično i biva u atmosferskim horor videoigrama, ugođaj prati vrhunska glazba i audio efekti.
VISUAL STYLE
This is a video game where there should be a paragraph dedicated to visual style. The game is in one word - beautiful. The graphics are at the highest level. The main actors of the visual style are distorted monsters and a world destroyed by war (collapsed buildings, sunken ships and the like). We control small figures, which the camera sometimes brings closer to us, and sometimes the scene expands, so we see from a bird's eye view. The action scenes in which we run away from huge monsters are excellently done. The atmosphere can be called post-apocalyptic. The atmosphere and surroundings are sometimes a little too dark. The wide-angle shots are especially well thought out, for example a race through a large flower meadow or running through a huge lighthouse in front of a giant insectoid monster. It's worth mentioning the contrast of the huge monsters versus the tiny humans we control - it adds even more to the cinematic feel of this game. After watching REANIMAL, the impression remains that this could have been a top feature film instead of a video game.
CONCLUSION
Unatoč kratkom trajanju, ova igra će biti hit. Tarsier Studio vratio se korijenima, prepustivši Little Nightmares drugim developerima. Rezultat toga je impresivan – REANIMAL je horor kakav Little Nightmares nikada nije uspio biti. Iako je osnovna formula ista, ovo nije nastavak, već evolucija – pogotovo uvođenjem 3D prostorne kinematografije. Za fanove atmosferskog horora ovo će biti obavezno ‘štivo’. Nudi li igra premalo za svojih 40 eura, ovisi o igraču individualno. REANIMAL svijet vizualno je zapanjujući. Osobno – ova videoigra je prva koju ću vam ja preporučiti, bez obzira na preveliku cijenu za 5-8 sati gameplaya.
POSITIVE SIDES: superb sound; cinematography; refinement; graphics; atmosphere
NEGATIVE SIDES: shortness; high price considering the duration; a sketchy story
RATING: 4/5
