REANIMAL

Reanimal delivers an unsettling co-op adventure built around survival and teamwork. It stands out thanks to its oppressive atmosphere, strong audiovisual presentation, and a symbolism-heavy narrative. Its linear structure blends exploration, puzzles, and intense chase sequences in a well-balanced way, while local co-op and Friend Pass support strengthen its identity as a shared experience. Even if it doesn’t reinvent the genre, it reinforces a solid formula that lands with real emotional impact.

When I started playing Reanimal, I was unsure where this experience would go. However, I found the game to be very surprising, not only when it comes to its story, but also the overall presentation and great sense of immersion. It retains Tarsier’s signature style, while adding some clever, new elements into the mix. Reanimal doesn’t rely on jumpscares, instead its focus is on psychological horror and a sense of uneasiness that follows you from beginning until the end. It's also nice to see that the game’s performance is outstanding, and the co-op aspect is one of the highlights. Yes, it’s not a very long game, but it tells a very refreshing story that we can easily connect with challenging moments in our lives. Plus, mechanics like scuba diving or driving break the mold, while offering yet another way to experience this troublesome, yet beautiful world they created.

Reanimal is the successful reboot of Tarsier Studios and offers strong horror moments with a dense atmosphere and a breathtaking world, both alone and in co-op.

Bold and brilliant, Reanimal is a strangling, grim adventure that’s anything but little or nightmarish, leaning into legitimate, unsettling horror through its stellar artistic direction, tense atmosphere, and grisly, haunting world.

Reanimal is another significant step forward for Tarsier, who, with their dirtiest creation to date, finds beauty in darkness and mark themselves as one of the great image makers of our time.

Reanimal is a bold evolution of the Little Nightmares formula, delivering a darker, more ambitious and more memorable experience. Its unsettling atmosphere, strong art direction and clever use of co-op mechanics elevate tension and immersion from start to finish. The narrative is deliberately cryptic, encouraging interpretation, multiple endings and post-credits discussion. While its runtime is relatively short, the impact it leaves is lasting. Reanimal feels like the creative freedom the team was building toward, and it absolutely pays off.

Reanimal is Tarsier Studios at its darkest and most uncompromising.

Stands out for its dark atmosphere, psychological tension, and grotesque design, in all its aspects: gameplay, story, and technical performance.

REANIMAL is a nightmare that won’t end. After beating the campaign I immediately started it up again, hoping that by finding all of the secrets I’d get some answers to the questions the ending raised. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, and I found myself with too many loose ends while also being unable to get the haunting aesthetic out of my head. This is a grim, nasty experience from the masters of the genre. It’s a singularly nasty journey, and while I can’t recommend it to everyone, anyone looking to take a trip through the dark side won’t find one much better.

REANIMAL is definitely one of the best games of the year. Of course, many hits are still to come, but this game is dark, exciting, and cooperative. It will make you cower on the couch in fear and leave you with food for thought. My partner and I, for example, discussed what was happening for a long time and came up with all sorts of theories. Despite a few drawbacks, the Swedish developers have created a genuinely frightening game. They achieved this not with jump scares, but with an oppressive atmosphere and terrifying imagery.

Reanimal delivers a grotesque and compelling horror experience reminiscent of the Little Nightmares series, set against a haunting Nordic backdrop. While brief and somewhat pricey, the intense atmosphere and Friend's Pass feature make this unsettling adventure well worth the journey for fans of the genre.

Reanimal is Tarsier Studios doing exactly what it does best: tense, physiological horror with a (un)healthy dose of gore and body-horror.

Essentially, the "real" Little Nightmares III, a nightmarish but very brief journey into the depths of paranoia.

Reanimal takes its cues from primal childhood trauma and the deep-seated fears that most people carry through life. It adds layers of familiar-feeling puzzles and terrifying monsters to a game that looks a lot like a Little Nightmares sibling. With the ability to play the game with another terrified human, Reanimal is all the more scary and memorable.

Reanimal is a compact yet intense cooperative horror adventure, built around the bond between two brothers and a journey through disturbing islands and unspeakable horrors. Tarsier Studios evolves the formula that made it famous with a more realistic three-dimensional world and a direction designed for shared fear. The atmosphere is the real strength, supported by powerful imagery and a minimal yet effective narrative. The puzzles won't fully satisfy those seeking a real challenge, and perhaps the mechanics could have been more daring, but the experience remains emotionally impactful, refined, and engaging from start to finish.

Tarsier Studios' new title, REANIMAL, overwhelms players with its grotesque atmosphere and direction. Its strengths lie in the immersion created by a UI-free interface, proactive action, and AI cooperation. While the short playtime and the easing of tension in the latter half are regrettable, Tarsier's unique horror formula is excellent.

A compact horror experience filled with the essence that made the original Little Nightmares so memorable. Its cryptic, nightmare-like narrative resonates and maintains tension until the very end, leaving lingering questions. Every scene—from camera work to lighting and sound—is meticulously crafted. While not striving for radical innovation, Tarsier Studios demonstrates clear growth in what it does best.

As the credits rolled after my four hour and 30-minute journey, I found myself a little lost trying to decipher exactly what had happened, but the experience getting there was the compelling next step of the gameplay seen in the previous Little Nightmares titles. Even if the puzzles remain simple and the controls occasionally stumble, these minor flaws hardly detract from the overall package, which includes striking visuals, tense encounters, and richly varied environments. Reanimal delivers a grim, beautiful, and unsettling time. Whether played solo or in co-op, this game proves Tarsier Studios are able to keep delivering little nightmares time and time again.

While born from the stuff of Little Nightmares, Reanimal transcends the confines of another sequel, leaving a uniquely devilish stain behind. [Issue#421, p.106]

REANIMAL is a fantastic horror game from the Little Nightmare veterans. The atmosphere and world are wonderfully crafted with a disturbing story and creepy characters. The gameplay differences help it stand out, though it still feels a little too close to home in some cases, but that doesn't detract from how great an experience the game is as a whole.

Tarsier picks up where it left off. They've once again done a great job with the atmosphere and storytelling. The only drawback is that they've been stingy this time, making the game quite short. It would have been better if they had made the main game a bit longer instead of saving a significant portion of the content for expansions.

Tarsier’s REANIMAL isn’t just Little Nightmares reskinned, with a new start, a new name, and a few welcome surprises added to an already winning horror adventure formula.

A harrowing but profound experience: Reanimal is a brief yet haunting journey to the breaking point of the human spirit.

Players will undoubtedly judge REANIMAL for its price versus gameplay hours, but the quality of storytelling, visuals, and sound design cannot be argued. The promise of DLC suggests to me that some degree of story clarity will be offered, which I’m not sure how I feel about, but I’m eager for more. Some will call this arthouse schlock, but I remain firm that there’s something here, and even if your last impressions of REANIMAL are slightly less enigmatic days and weeks later, the journey is worthwhile if you don’t fuss over the almighty Dollar.

Tarsier returns to horror with a rich, meaningful evolution of its familiar Little Nightmares formula. And while it could perhaps be a little more radical, Reanimal remains utterly compelling; bleak, nasty, and full of menace.

REANIMAL is an incredibly short experience, but it's worth every tense minute in solo or co-op play. If you've got four hours and a friend to play with, you should check it out and get lost in the terror.

Reanimal doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that it’s another Little Nightmares game going by another name.

Tarsier's most ambitious and grand horror-adventure yet is a thrilling, baffling ride that will have you fully invested — for as long as it lasts.

Reanimal is a satisfying horror experience, especially in local co-op, plunging you into a waking nightmare from which you will clearly not emerge unscathed. But while it shines in terms of visuals and staging, it's difficult to be fully satisfied with the gameplay, with a game that strings together situations that are difficult to understand and a camera that sometimes struggles to position itself correctly.

Playing Reanimal, everything feels grander, more abhorrent, and far more centred around creating a deeply unsettling thought experiment that will stick with you well after the credits roll. While the game itself is a short journey marred by its single-player AI companion, lacklustre combat and puzzle-solving gameplay, it is one I felt impelled to take over and over again.

Reanimal doesn't meaningfully develop Tarsier's approach to gameplay in the Little Nightmares games, but it's a grim sight to behold, and a worthwhile horror adventure.

Reneimal is a horror fairy tale that captivates with its atmosphere, but leaves much of its potential untapped in terms of puzzles and co-op play.

REANIMAL portrays its grotesque horror through its captivating ruins, loathsome monsters and tension-filled sequences, even if it doesn’t quite break the mould as a horror adventure game. While light on puzzles, it contains enough spooks to keep you awake at night.

Reanimal is a disturbing and visually meticulous déjà-vu, where gameplay lacks courage and co-op isn't fully exploited. Still, better to play it in two than alone.

REANIMAL continues everything great that we expect from the developer, but the short length and irritatingly small details hold it back a bit.

Reanimal is a captivating horror adventure with an intense creepy atmosphere and a cinematic look. It provides variety in terms of gameplay, but leaves a lot of narrative potential untapped.

Reanimal is an enjoyably disturbing horror fairy tale full of beautifully designed scenarios, landscapes and creatures that just doesn't quite bring itself together as a whole.