The Depths is the first piece of story DLC for the fantastic horror title Little Nightmares. The Depths is the first of three parts from The Secrets of the Maw expansion pass, which are essentially three chapters telling the tale of The Runaway Kid (which I’ll call The Kid for short). Like Six, The Kid is trapped on the sinister and hellish Maw and in order to escape, The Kid is not only got to escape the clutches of many of The Maw’s ghoulish creatures, but he’ll also have to solve many puzzles in order to do so.
Priced at a mere £7.99 for the expansion pass, in terms of playthrough length, you shouldn’t really expect the same as the main story of Little Nightmares, which clocked in at around 6 hours for a first playthrough. However, within the hour or so that it took me to finish The Depths, it certainly left me wanting more with its devilish and moreish ending. Obviously I won’t go into specifics when talking about the story of The Depths (especially its ending), but while The Kid’s story doesn’t directly follow into Six’s tale, there are some links between the two, other than being set within the same location.
Much of your time playing through The Depth’s will feel quite familiar, with its eerie atmosphere and the fear of being caught at any given moment. It’s that kind of vulnerability that helped Little Nightmares become such an indie darling of the horror genre and The Depths certainly doesn’t fall short in that department either.
Other then The Kid looking different to Six in appearance, the level of threat is not. However, The Kid will encounter new puzzles during his gruelling escape that has an emphasis on water and electricity. While there not always the most challenging of puzzles, it is likely that you’ll be scratching your head from time to time, not only with puzzle solving, but the trial and error format of learning the best way to escape this stories new, creepy ass long-armed soggy demon thing. Some of the most well told horror stories feature the fear of water, the fear of being pulled down by the unknown or god-forbid, the fear of drowning and The Depths does an excellent job by installing that threat in you from the get-go.
Also, while The Depths is a short-ish chapter, much like Little Nightmares, there are hidden items to acquire, which at this time, I’m not sure of their meaning, but I’m sure they do have a purpose in this dark and dangerous world, which perhaps maybe be explained in later episodes. So in that respect, if you’re a treasure and trophy/achievement hunter, there is at least two playthrough’s with The Depths should you desire.
Along with the awesome Inside from the developers of Limbo, Little Nightmares is one of my favourite indie titles of all-time and during my review of the main game, it left me wanting more and calling for DLC to expand on its story. It’s not often I call for extra DLC, but with a world as luring as The Maws, this is certainly a story that will benefit from expanding on its tale. It would have perhaps been easy for developers Tarsier Studios to release a cheap DLC cash grab, but while it’s a short experience, The Runaway Kid has a feeling of belonging just as much as Six and at just £7.99 for the three-piece story expansion pass, this is a story that has worth, meaning and I can’t wait to conclude The Kid’s tale when the third and final piece of DLC releases, even though much like Little Nightmares, it’s likely going to leave me wanting more. But that’s a telltale sign of any well told story.
- You can read our review of the main game, Little Nightmares here.