Little Terror Review

*Contains Spoilers* Some Glaring Issues I had the opportunity to play Little Terror pre-release, and at the time, I felt the game really lacked any solid direction. The objectives, if any, were unclear, the story made little sense, and events needed to progress to various areas seemed to happen spontaneously. For this reason, I put the game aside and only pick it up again a few months later when some of these issues had time to be ironed out. After replaying the game, I can confirm very little has changed and it is still lacking many elements of a successful horror game.

The player starts their journey as a toddler waking in their room. The door is locked, a menacing note is on the wall, and there is very little to interact with or help the player understand why they are locked in their room in the first place. After some movement about the room and using an item or two, a creepy sentient doll appears encouraging the child to get rid of a stuffed rabbit. The player then fumbles around with a few more items before they are able to unlock the door and leave the room. In my first attempt to get out of the room, the game bugged and I was locked in the closet, unable to escape no matter what I did. After restarting, and taking almost the same series of actions, I was able to free myself from the closet and, eventually, the bedroom. Once the player enters the hall, they will encounter the creepy doll once more, see bloody handprints appear inexplicably on a wall, explore another room, and proceed downstairs.

By this point, it becomes clear that the house is empty aside from the creepy doll and stuffed rabbit that keep moving and reappearing in various places. Looking at the doll seems to lower the player’s health, but it seems like an unavoidable interaction which is incredibly frustrating. The player can increase their health by eating “Fiddle Dough” which is, admittedly, a bit strange. After moving very slowly around the house, picking up objects, finding keys that spawn for seemingly no reason in obscure locations, tossing a creepy-doll-look-alike in the fire, taking pictures of scenes that already exist in photographs the player finds in nearly every room, continually running out of flashlight batteries, and being forced to endure faulty lights that blink nauseously, a key finally spawns beside the front door and the player can escape.

When the game was finally over, I still could not tell you why the child was alone, what happened to their family, why the creepy doll talked to them, why the rabbit moved around the house, or what the point of the game actually was. The inventory system was clunky and unclear, the game environment was made terribly disorienting with the constant flashing of lights throughout the house, and I ended my playthrough feeling disappointed. The game retails for $5 USD on Steam currently and I cannot recommend anyone pay that much (if anything, really) for a game that was largely uninspired and problematic.

[Lady played Little Terror on PC with a mouse and keyboard]