REANIMAL Review

Have you ever experienced a nightmare where nothing makes sense at a glance, but there’s always the feeling that there’s something that you’re missing? If you have, then you’ll have some idea of what it’s like to play Tarsier Studios latest title, REANIMAL. The question is whether it’s time for you to wake up or delve deeper into the dream. 

You likely know Tarsier Studio from its other series, Little Nightmares, and much like those games, the story is really something you have to experience to understand. You take on the role of a brother and sister who have to rescue their missing friends from a world inhabited by strange, distended monsters. Other than that, you’re not given much information about why you’re there or even what happened to the world, and that is by design. The whole point is to feel lost and confused, and REANIMAL does that very well. 

The actual gameplay is, at a glance, very simple and similar to the style seen in Little Nightmares: you enter an area and need to complete basic puzzles or explore to find your way to the next one. However, no two solutions are the same, and you’re constantly under threat from the island’s denizens. There’s a lot of imagination here when it comes to the different tasks you’ll complete. For instance, one has you sneaking through a flooded room while a monstrous figure irons skin suits. If you keep moving when the washing machines stop, then he’ll hear you, and it’s game over.

There is also multiplayer, which is arguably the best way to play the game, in my opinion. The reason for this is that, during certain sequences, the AI for the other character will act appropriately. For instance, hiding before the monster appears or running in the correct direction through a maze. As such, it takes away from the tense feeling that you should be experiencing.

With that being said, REANIMAL can be frustrating at times, especially when it comes to interactable items and passages. Basically, when you can interact with a case, door, or hole, a small white dot will appear. However, you need to be in precisely the right place to see it, which can lead to stalls in progress as you wander around the same area looking for the prompt. 

There are also chase sequences where the monster of the area will chase you, which are tense as all get out, thanks to the sound design. However, there are some pathing issues if you’re not playing multiplayer. The problem is that the other character can trip you up or block a ladder, which leads to you getting caught. It’s not super common, but it can be annoying to deal with at times. 

There’s also the odd bit of combat, but it’s not exactly the most varied or interesting design to play. You have a button that hits, and that’s about it; there are no combos, no blocking, and no way to aim the attacks, so everything feels floaty as you leap across the screen with each hit. However, it’s nice to actually have the option to engage in combat, which helps to break up the sneaking. 

You’re not always going to be on foot, as sometimes you get to move around on a boat to reach different areas. It creates a time for the player to breathe, as well as enjoy the bleak scenery. The boat controls are fine, but when in single-player, you also have to control the lamp, which is the sister’s means of lighting the map, and it’s… not great. The problem is that where you move the stick doesn’t always control where the lamp actually looks. Usually, this isn’t a problem, but you need to point the lamp in a specific direction when you need to throw a harpoon, and it can get pretty irritating.

In reality, the strength of these games isn’t so much the gameplay, it’s the atmosphere that’s created. In that department, REANIMAL certainly creates an air of horror thanks to the use of lighting, which keeps much of the detail hidden when you first see a monster. Unfortunately, when you get to see them fully, they’re much less impressive. Honestly, that really sums up the graphics in general; they’re great if you don’t look too closely. The sound design, on the other hand, remains strong throughout with just the right mix of subtle, ambient noise to loud and chaotic. 

Overall, REANIMAL is a game that offers something horrific, but in a good way. However, one big debate will be over the length, namely, how short the game is. On one hand, if the runtime was too long, the simplistic gameplay would get tedious quickly. On the other hand, if you want more content in your purchase, then you’ll probably be disappointed.