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Tanden's Little Nightmares (PC)
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| [August 30, 2018 11:05:56 PM]
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Part three of my “Little Nightmares” playthrough will again follow the same format as my first two entries in that I will first talk about the gameplay experience itself and immediately after address an infrared/literal ethical issue involved in the game. Overall this third playthrough was more so lackluster than the other two. That’s not to say that it was bad by any means, it was just not as interesting as my other two experiences with the game. However, despite that, I still intend to make it as interesting as possible.
The game began unfortunately not where I had logged off but instead the puzzle right before I logged off and although this was slightly annoying I was able to breeze throughout in less than a minute so it wasn’t a big deal. Moving forward from that situation I ran down the hall being chased by the long-armed figure until I reached the elevator that got me into this mess in the first place. After hiding in a box on the elevator I proceeded to make my way through two rooms that were mostly forgettable. The game started to get interesting again when I entered a room with the long-armed figure assessing his toys. I don’t really know the meaning and I’ve found it difficult to really make an inference but this room is scattered with roughly a hundred dolls. Maybe they are taxidermied little people but it didn’t seem realistic enough to be the case, they looked like simple handmade toys so as to there meaning I haven’t yet figured out. After proceeding past this room I had to sneak past him in a room full of clocks which were quite easy since the sounds of the clocks distracted him significantly. Once I snuck past him I made my way into what seemed like his library… I found this extremely odd seeing as the long-armed figure is blind. Despite that, I had to traverse his library and make my way out of his “lair.” Once I made it out there was one final part of this stage in the game. I was stuck in a room with the door nearly collapsed and the figure is trying to reach around the room and grab me. After more thinking than I should have needed, I pull pieces away of the cage holding the door open and it collapses slicing off both his arms. It was at this point that I ended my third playthrough of “Little Nightmares.”
Now to talk about ethical issues that I found prevalent. Trying to decide what to talk about for this part of my journal was many times harder due to the sheer fact that the events that took place weren’t as distinctive as the other two playthroughs. With that being said, what I’m about to say may be a stretch but I think it’s at the very least worth noting. What I’m referring to is the idea that you’re the bad guy in “Little Nightmares.” To increase perspective think about it like this: You’re playing a little character who is running around causing trouble for these “figures” which are more humanoid than not. So as expected they set traps and chase you down until they finally catch/kill you. Yes, maybe some of them do odd things after they capture you but the idea remains that you are in some ways vermin similar to a rat. Now I think this idea could possibly fall flat when you consider the fact that the character you are playing appears to have human consciousness. But nonetheless, there is still an argument that could be made that even with a human level of consciousness your character is still in the wrong.
In conclusion, the experience of this playthrough was slightly lackluster and could have brought forth more thought-provoking events, however, despite that I still enjoyed this playthrough. In regards to the ethics, I think that the idea of right and wrong is so arbitrary to the individual in most instances that a lot of people would like to assume that whatever it is they are doing is what’s right. This is especially so if it aligns with whatever morals they have adapted from their upbringing. So whatever the case I would say that understanding both perspectives is vital to having a healthy understanding of ethics as a whole. So, as a closing remark, try your best to consider the possibility that maybe something you think is wrong is in fact not and vice versa.
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| [August 30, 2018 12:15:58 AM]
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Part two of my “Little Nightmares” playthrough was actually much more interesting than I thought it was going to be. The game provoked a lot more questions and ideas than I had anticipated. Because of this surprise, my perception of what the game is trying to talk about has changed and I still don’t think that I’m on the right track but I’m at the very least more in the ballpark. Following the theme of my last entry I’ll first talk about my literal gameplay experience and then ethical ideas I have regarding the game.
When I began my playthrough again the game was still at what I would now consider a slower pace. All I was doing was jumping around, solving puzzles and continuing progression. Of course, the game still felt unsettling but nothing too bad up until my character began to starve. After traversing a bedroom and going down an elevator I was welcomed with a long hallway and about halfway through my character grabbed his stomach and I knew what was going to happen. (because in the last playthrough my character was starving and an NPC gave me bread.) As I continued down the hallway eventually I reach an open room with a cage and a piece of meat inside, keep in mind the seen is much more depressing and repulsive than it may sound. The meat was raw and looked slightly spoiled, in addition to the quality there were rats circling all around. Regardless of the source, my character had to eat so as I began to eat the meat a frightening figure closes the cage door and captures me… I’m not going to lie, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the hand reaching down from the ceiling out of the darkness of the room. After awakening and breaking free from my cell I then had to sneak past this figure which was actually a simpler task than I had thought. After sneaking past the figure I fell down an air vent which leads to an open room with an ocean of shoes. I proceeded to swim through the ocean of shoes and jump from suitcase to suitcase in an effort to not get killed by whatever monster was lurking underneath all of the shoes. Once I made it to the other side I decided to end my playthrough there.
The ethical issue that I want to address has to do with kidnapping/child trafficking. In the game, you’re playing as a little person assumably a child. You’re not the only child in this universe, there are many others like you. Many of these children have already been captured, imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. There is evidence of these actions happening throughout the playthrough rather it is the numerous amount of cages, the bloodstains seen in different rooms, the beds with constraints, or any other sign that cruel acts are being done. In addition to the treatment, you receive after being captured, the methods used to capture you in the first place are cruel, and treat you animalistically. The creatures/people you hide from in this world will set traps with food since you’re bound to starve eventually and once you take the bait it’s all over. This could be related similarly to kidnapping in the real world where someone sets some kind of bait and once the kid takes the bait the worst may be assumed.
In conclusion, the game is becoming more and more frightening with each playthrough but on the same hand extensively more interesting. The two topics I have covered up to date only play a small part as to what could be expanded upon which results in a game that doesn’t get dull. The kidnapping was most relevant to me in this playthrough though due to the fact that it was the core of my experience.
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| [August 28, 2018 10:05:13 PM]
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After playing this game for slightly over thirty minutes I was blown away by how frightening the game was considering the style of the game. I didn’t necessarily feel fear except for at one part (which I will get to later) but all of the little aspects put together made for a really enjoyable experience. To elaborate, the sounds in the game from both the music and sound effects evoked a level of unease that made me always kind of anxious as to if something was going to happen. There would also be certain events that would happen in the game that would really make me question what actually was going on. At a certain point, I saw this little guy with what looks like a paper hat run away from me and every time I chased him he would get away. Another situation is when I saw these dolls that look like the woman depicted in the scene at the very beginning. I ended up throwing the second doll I found, and it broke open releasing what looked like black dust. It was interesting enough that there is assumably some sort of meaning behind it but, as to what I have no idea. The last occurrence I will touch on is the most distressing. Throughout the game, after a couple minutes, you’ll encounter what seems like a black tar-like substance which slows you down. The most notable time you encounter this is when you are attacked by a swarm of leeches. For the rest of my playthrough after being attacked by the leeches I saw what looks like a similar substance multiple times plastered on walls as handprints or what would look like blood stains if someone wounded was being dragged across the ground/wall if it were red. It could actually be some weird tar-like substance… but I think it’s a bit odd that a swarm of leeches would be sitting around tar and so for that reason, I’m currently inferring that what I fell into about five minutes into the game was in fact blood.
Moving forward I want to talk less about my personal experience and what I believe to be an ethical issue involved in the game. The issue I am referring to is simply the idea of rules. It’s explicit that these children in the game are being kept under significant restriction and I can only assume that the main character (who you play as) somehow escaped these restrictions. The reason I am inferring this is that in the first thirty minutes of my playthrough I saw a toy room, a sleeping area with beds, and a cafeteria so I assume that they are being fed, may sleep, and can have at least some enjoyment. However, as stated above there are depictions of what are seemingly brutal acts of abuse that possibly resulted in death. With that being said I think that it is safe to assume that you have a situation where there is some person who because of their place in power they can make rules and if not followed they can also choose any punishment they want even if that’s death. Since I don’t know the full story of the game it’s hard to say for sure what is happening and most of this is assumptive but the points still stand even when brought into society. Is it right for someone or a government to not only dictate rules but also punishment? Do the rules make sense or stand for what is moralistic right? Considering these questions can be heavily debated I won’t go into depth on my opinions. However, I think that the idea of rules in society are maybe being depicted through this game.
To conclude I think that this game will be interesting to evaluate in the coming journal entries and that there are multiple different aspects of ethics involved in the game. The most prevalent to me was the assumed belief that the children in the game are not inherently being treated poorly however due to rules and restrictions they are being treated barbarically if they do the littlest thing wrong. Although more extreme, this idea can be related to society.
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Tanden's Little Nightmares (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 28 August, 2018
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