A bleak, wordless little odyssey
Reanimal drops you into a foggy, child-sized nightmare and mostly trusts you to piece it together. You start in a fragile boat, following red buoys through a deserted, eerie sea. One kid wears a hood, the other a hare mask — you never get an exposition dump about their backstory, you learn it by watching them help, argue, and limp along together.
The game is made by Tarsier (yes, the studio behind Little Nightmares), and it shows: handcrafted scenes, a cinematic camera, and a talent for making ugly things look breathtaking. The environments change from ruined towns to flooded streets to industrial hulks, and the whole trip clocks in at about six hours if you don’t dawdle.
Play, panic, repeat
Reanimal’s mechanics are pleasingly simple. You walk, hop, carry junk, boost your buddy up ledges, pull levers, and occasionally get very bad at running away. One sibling can hang a lantern; the other has a lighter that needs free hands. Those tiny differences spark silly teamwork decisions and, honestly, arguments about who’s doing the heavy lifting.
The puzzles aren’t brain‑melters — they’re clever enough to feel earned without stopping the mood. There’s no HUD, no map, just the camera framing what you need and the world nudging you forward. That design choice makes the game feel less like a list of objectives and more like a haunted diorama you’re exploring.
And oh, the chases. Early on you find body‑skins that curl and slither like snakes, and later a towering, mask‑faced horror skitters after you like a broken puppet. Most of Reanimal’s tension comes from sprinting through cramped spaces and making split‑second choices while your heart is doing laps.
It works as a solo experience, but it’s so much better with another human beside you. Local co‑op is rare these days, and handing a living person control of the other child makes disasters feel funnier and successes feel earned. Playing with a friend turned several near‑death runs into shared comedy gold.
There are small video‑gamey bits too: return trips to the boat let you poke around for extra masks and concept art, and the game rewards curiosity without breaking immersion. Occasionally you might repeat a chase because you missed the trick the first time, and yes, a few visual bugs popped up during my run — but they never killed the atmosphere.
Bottom line: Reanimal isn’t trying to reinvent horror or puzzle games. It’s a tight, atmospheric ride that leans into mood, composition, and the awkward intimacy of two kids surviving something awful. If you like moody puzzles, local co‑op, and occasional sprinting with your heart in your throat, this one’s worth the trip.
