Fascinating Moments in PC Games: Escape from Little Nightmares’ Meat Feast
The PC gaming awesome moments are small-scale celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.
Little nightmares
Year: 2017
Developer: Tarsier Studios
Computer games do the rampage and jumping well. We get those, yeah. Psychological and mysterious horror? Challenging. But you don’t see the truth very often Gross out horror. I’m not talking about blood, guts, or psychosexual penis monsters. I’m talking about harnessing the simple resentment of a week-long sink full of dirty dishes, the feeling of 10 bites too much of an oily meal after a gritty jug (why did you order a pitcher, James?), The feeling that nothing beyond this escalation in fleeting pleasure and that we might leave Everything gets dirty while we eat and eat – we use these terrible feelings to scare someone.
Little Nightmares may be the best game ever made due to its local and unpretentious horrors, and the Late Meat Feast is a perfect symbol of what makes it so special. It’s gross and disturbing with no blood or impossible horrors. He is more insightful and real than any cursed ghost.
It almost makes you feel bad about the butchers, who are hard-working, almost adorable characters now in that terrible hierarchy. They toil endlessly in mysterious meats – not to feed themselves, but the insatiable mollusks that line cafeteria tables smashing steaks, sausages, bugs and you, if possible. These are the guests, some of them are very hungry.
Although never clarified, it implies that the guests are fattened up to the butcher and feeding incoming guests, a cannibal cycle of energy from which the lady constantly draws her strength. One hell of a metaphor for the exploitative nature of the ruling class, but also, and we go back to the word: disgusting.
The feast is full of details. Sausages, fish and cheese are piled on plates, on plates, on plates. Bells to ask for more. Depth in every scene, piles of dishes like a city view in the distance, more tables with more guests sniffing meat in every direction. The eclectic dim lighting casts the guests’ emaciated faces melted into a dull glow, making the tactile nature of Little Nightmare art design fashionable. It’s an incredibly beautiful looking game, which can be compared to my favorite horror graphics, reminds me of that Trembling truth And Bruce Beckford Surrealist clay epics.
It’s also one of the best scenes written in Little Nightmare. At this point in Little Nightmares, I was grumbling about its design language and speed, as I worked through some stealthy chase and sequences tightly written over some frustrating trial and error.
Little Nightmares doesn’t paint her scenes with button prompts or clear environmental cues, relying on what you can do – run, hop and grab – and on your physical relationship with a specific threat, in which case basically a lonely dinner that sits and cuts you off by dragging themselves toward you, their next snack. The benefit is that most of the scenes don’t look like you are playing a video game, but rather move through a legitimate animation. The downside is that you’ll likely get stuck trying to figure out the designer’s intention multiple times, breaking the flow.
But I beat the meat (the sequence) without fail, all at once, barely escaping the glittering and doughy hands of partying as I shoved between their legs and across the table. Inhale the surrounding air through tightly packed throats, the sound of saliva and guts – the way their eyes follow you! I remember how my face felt. Flared nostrils, shifting, mouth tightness – just totally sad. This word again.
This is Little Nightmares at its best: artistic direction, animation, playing with the greatest distinction and confidence, working in unison to leave me very breathless and upset. And yes, maybe a little hungry. Oh no.