Little Nightmares 2 brings a new story to what is becoming quite a popular franchise, as the sequel is getting nearly as much love as the original Little Nightmares. One of the things that has players excited for the follow-up's arrival is the idea that this time around, it might have a co-op feature. With its launch on the PC, Stadia, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, there are plenty of opportunities for people to play with their friends if the feature is included. So is there a way to play the new game cooperatively?
Back in 2019, the game was shown off through a trailer at that year's Gamescom. Alongside the return of Six to Little Nightmares 2, the rumors started early that there might be a co-op feature. The fact that Six is joined by a new character named Mono, some fans believed it was a set up for cooperative play.
The talk about the potential for Little Nightmares 2 to be two-player continued as more was revealed for the upcoming title. However, as more details were released, it turned out that the game's developers had a bit of a twist up their sleeve. This time around, the playable character is Mono. It turns out that Six is an NPC.
In the spooky setting of Little Nightmares 2, players will be able to get help from Six, as they guide Mono through different puzzles. However, instead of another player being able to pick up a controller and helping out, the game's AI will control how Six reacts and where she goes.
According to senior narrative designer Dave Marvik, there was a time when the developers thought about adding a co-op feature to Little Nightmares 2. During one media tour during GamesCom 2020, Marvik said the team ruled out making the title a two-player game because they wanted to make sure they could control how the story unfolded. He added the team wanted to elicit certain reactions from the players and felt allowing co-op would "kill that."
The comments from Marvik seem to indicate that not only doesn't the game have co-op at launch, but there's also no interest in eventually adding the feature. Marvik also said allowing players to work together would end up seeing people play the game "the wrong way." If the composite reviews for Little Nightmares 2 are any indication, it appears that the development team's decision to stick with a one-player game worked out.
Little Nightmares 2 will be available on February 11 for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions also in development.
