Reanimal Review: A Grim Fairytale of Childhood Terrors and Haunting Puzzles
"I thought you were dead," are the first words you'll hear from the child protagonists in Reanimal, a horror puzzle-platformer developed by Tarsier Studios and published by THQ Nordic. This chilling introduction sets the tone for a world where things have been going badly long before your arrival. Players explore dark waves and desolated urban environments in a rowboat, searching for lost friends across a landscape filled with rabid, malformed entities. As the children grapple with their outsize fears, so will you, but there's the option to play co-op if you want someone on the couch to brave the horrors with you.
Gameplay Mechanics and Nostalgic Critiques
In the early 2000s, the gaming blog Old Man Murray pioneered the "crate review system," where the sooner a player encountered a wooden cube of heinous mediocrity, the more uninspired the game was deemed. Updating this method for 2026, Reanimal introduces new contenders: how soon before you shimmy slowly through a gap, boost a companion over a high ledge so they can pull you up, or tediously rotate some mechanism with the analogue stick? Reanimal pulls out all these hits within the first 20 minutes. By the time the credits roll, six hours in, it feels as if Tarsier has wrung the final drops of interactive novelty from its formula of light exploration puzzles, tense but simple stealth, and ghastly chases. Yet, this grim fairytale remains difficult to put down.
Artistic Vision and Emotional Depth
Tarsier's Little Nightmares games were rightly praised for how their imposing and exaggerated worlds hold up a creepy funhouse mirror to a child's thoughts and fears, where adults are gangly and terrifying, work is bizarre, and bureaucracy is uncanny. Reanimal draws from that same well of fear but includes occasional riffs that feel at odds with childhood disempowerment, such as moments where the kids pilot a tank or find a big honking bazooka. The world's worn and weary architecture feels fascinatingly wretched, with assured cinematography and arresting scale. Concrete and steel creak out sorrowful stories of decay and disaster. The starring pair make their way through crumbling bulkheads, a rotting orphanage, and a forest so dark and dense that sunrise as a concept feels like a fanciful myth.
Immersive Details and Player Engagement
Obscured crawlspaces hide away moments of reprieve in the form of silly, sad little secrets, proving that even your worst nightmare is more bearable with a traffic cone on your head. Observing their confidence and resourcefulness, you get the sense these kids have been dealing with hell for a long time, but they're still children. You'll clumsily swing a crowbar at giant seagulls or take a break to use a rusted slide. You'll play grandmother's footsteps through a flooded basement, sneaking in time with clattering washing machines to hide the sound of your movement from the awful, lanky presence just a few feet away. Lovingly animated detail brightens up the murkiness; the kids will help each other up and dust themselves off after falls, and beds quiver when you jump on them. A lighter and lamp to banish the gloom provide small comforts, but comforts all the same.
Spectacular Moments and Narrative Shortcomings
And, yes, the handful of marquee moments spent running from or tussling with gargantuan creatures are spectacular. I will never turn my back on a pelican again as long as I live. Throughout, Reanimal drip-feeds clues to compelling mysteries surrounding the nature of its world and the children's place within it. A shame, then, that it whiffs its apparent swing at recapturing the gut-punch of Little Nightmares II's ending. One early sequence sees you creep through a dilapidated theatre while a projector flickers between macabre images. Reanimal, too, relies on a celluloid reel of darkly beautiful scenes: they're undeniably memorable in isolation, but they just don't form an especially cogent whole. Reanimal is out on 13 February, offering a haunting yet engaging experience for fans of the genre.
