REANIMAL: The Prisoner – Chapter 1 (Summer 2026) Review 🩸🐑

Welcome Back to the Nightmare — I Still Have No Idea What the Hell Is Going On

Let’s Start by Showing Y’all the Trailer, Shall We?

REANIMAL is already one of my favorite games of 2026 and quite possibly one of my favorite video games in general, so obviously I was excited when I suddenly discovered that the first DLC chapter had already released. I didn’t even realize it was coming out this soon until I was recommended a video talking about how good it was, which suddenly explained why my game had received an update. This first chapter is titled The Prisoner and is the beginning of The Expanded World, a three-part DLC storyline. Chapter 2 is scheduled for Fall 2026, while Chapter 3 is expected in Early 2027. Thank God they’re releasing relatively close together, because Chapter 1 ends with enough unanswered questions to make me want Chapter 2 immediately.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The Prisoner doesn’t continue directly with the brother and sister from the base game. Instead, we follow two new characters known simply as the Prisoner and the Soldier, with the latter being a girl wearing a military helmet. Their adventure begins aboard a military aircraft in the middle of an ongoing war. After everything goes wrong, the two children parachute into a devastated city and begin traveling through the ruins while following a mysterious horse they spot in the distance.

What follows is another journey through the horrifying world of REANIMAL, except this time the war that was mostly environmental storytelling in the original game is directly in your face. Soldiers are killing each other, buildings have been destroyed, fires are everywhere, and one particularly lovely gentleman with a flamethrower has apparently decided that if something exists, it should be on fire.

The DLC takes the pair through ruined streets, buildings, a mall, underground areas, a train and several other locations while gradually moving away from conventional wartime horror and back toward the bizarre supernatural nightmare imagery that REANIMAL does so well.

Don’t expect Chapter 1 to explain much, though. This is very clearly the first act of a larger story, and by the time the credits roll, the game has introduced several mysteries that it has absolutely no intention of answering until later.

Character Rundown

The Prisoner and Soldier are immediately interesting because their relationship initially seems relatively straightforward. They’re two children trapped in an absolutely horrific situation who need each other to survive. They solve puzzles together, escape enemies together and generally behave like the kind of partnership you’d expect after playing the main game.

However, REANIMAL being REANIMAL, there is clearly more going on.

The Soldier is particularly interesting because she’s wearing military equipment despite being a child, while the Prisoner is exactly what his name suggests. Why was he imprisoned? What relationship does he have with the Soldier? Why are these two together? The game gives you pieces without explaining the entire picture.

There’s also a mysterious child whom the Prisoner apparently sees but the Soldier doesn’t, and this becomes extremely important toward the ending. I won’t discuss exactly why until the spoiler section, but let’s just say the final few minutes completely changed how I viewed the Prisoner’s relationship with his companion.

Pacing / Episode Flow

I really enjoyed the pacing here because Chapter 1 constantly escalates.

The opening throws you straight into a war. From there you’re navigating ruined streets and buildings before eventually dealing with a flamethrower-wielding soldier who becomes one of the major threats of the chapter. Eventually the DLC transitions into a train sequence, introduces more supernatural elements and brings back creatures connected to the original game before eventually exploding into a surprisingly action-heavy motorcycle sequence.

It never feels like the DLC is simply repeating the base game.

The biggest issue is obviously that this isn’t a complete story. Chapter 1 is relatively short and ends on a major cliffhanger, but I don’t personally consider its length a negative. I’ve already talked about how ridiculous I find the idea that every horror game needs to be long. If something is tightly paced, entertaining and doesn’t waste my time, I’m perfectly happy with a shorter experience.

The difference here is that I genuinely wanted more because I was enjoying myself so much.

Pros

One of my favorite additions is the camera.

At one point the children obtain an old-fashioned camera whose flash becomes an actual gameplay mechanic. It can petrify certain creatures, expose strange things hidden throughout the environment and is also incorporated into puzzles. One puzzle has you using flashes to manipulate a figure into different positions so that you can retrieve an object from it. There are even hidden shadow figures throughout the DLC that can only properly be discovered through the camera flash.

Rip, also, you can use the camera on those bloated corpses.You saw in the base game that the sniffer went through to use as a portal. And you can use the same corpses as portals, and here I thought that was only a thing, the sniffer could do.

Here’s a fun detail in the base game. You can find these hidden propaganda posters, and you can tear them down. But in the DLC you can find these propaganda walls and find a white rabbit drawing on the spot and you get to cover it with propaganda poster. It’s reverse.

That’s exactly what I want from DLC. Don’t just give me another area using identical mechanics. Give me something new that changes how I interact with the world.

The flamethrower enemy is another highlight. This guy spends a substantial amount of time pursuing you through the city, including sequences where you’re forced to navigate areas he’s setting on fire. Eventually you’re chased through a house, hiding in places like a refrigerator and furnace while he comes looking for you.

Then you finally get to fight the bastard.

The boss battle has you avoiding his flamethrower while using a firearm to repeatedly hit his propane tank from the correct opportunities and angles. After enough punishment, the obvious finally happens: the man carrying an enormous container of flammable material while firing flames everywhere discovers why that combination has certain occupational hazards.

BOOM.

Another sequence I loved involves the train. After solving a puzzle involving several levers to get it moving, the children finally get a brief opportunity to sit down. One asks whether the other is cold, and the answer is that they’re freezing.

Naturally, because this is REANIMAL, that’s around the point where supernatural shit starts appearing.

The camera also becomes useful against the Dust Children, which are connected to the horrifying Spider Kids from the original game. Being able to petrify them with the flash adds another layer to encounters rather than simply repeating how we dealt with them previously.

Then the DLC decides that subtle horror has had enough screen time and temporarily turns into an action movie.

After surviving a large encounter and getting access to a two-person motorcycle equipped with a weapon, the Soldier and Prisoner launch themselves across a broken section of the environment and are suddenly chased by the Mother. You are speeding through the ruined city while firing back at this gigantic creature chasing you down.

It is completely ridiculous compared with some of the quieter horror sequences in the game.

I loved it.

The environmental design remains fantastic as well. REANIMAL already has one of my favorite horror worlds because it manages to make ordinary locations feel completely wrong. Here the war-torn city gives Tarsier another opportunity to show us what happened to this world without having characters stand around explaining it. Buildings are destroyed, soldiers are killing one another, bodies are everywhere, and the entire place feels like civilization has collapsed.

We still don’t know exactly what this war is about, who is fighting whom or why things have become this bad. Hopefully Chapters 2 and 3 provide at least a little more information.

And visually, it’s still REANIMAL. Meaning it’s gorgeous, disgusting and deeply unsettling all at once.

Cons

My only real issue is something I can’t completely judge yet: this is obviously not a finished story.

I don’t mean that as though Tarsier released an unfinished product. This was always intended to be Chapter 1 of three. Chapter 2 continues the story later this year and Chapter 3 concludes it early next year.

But that means you reach the ending with some enormous questions and simply have to wait.

Normally I’d be more annoyed by that because Tarsier Studios has a habit of being so vague that sometimes it feels like they’re afraid they’ll accidentally answer a question. They’ve been doing this since Little Nightmares. Sometimes ambiguity makes horror better. Other times I’m sitting there begging them to give me one piece of concrete information.

However, I’m willing to give The Prisoner considerably more leeway because this literally isn’t the ending. We have two chapters left.

If Chapter 3 ends and I still don’t understand anything?

Then we’re having a different conversation.

Final Thoughts

The Prisoner is exactly what I wanted from REANIMAL DLC.

It doesn’t simply give us another adventure with the same characters in another part of the island. It expands the world through different protagonists, puts much more emphasis on the ongoing war, introduces new gameplay mechanics through the camera, gives us memorable encounters and somehow manages to leave me even more curious about this world than I was before.

It also continues demonstrating why I love REANIMAL so much in the first place. The game feels like the spiritual continuation of the first two Little Nightmares games that I wanted. Tarsier understands how to create a world where everything feels familiar enough to recognize but distorted enough that you constantly feel uncomfortable.

And unlike Little Nightmares III, which I felt lost much of what made those original games special, REANIMAL continues scratching that itch while establishing an identity of its own.

Chapter 1 is short.

I don’t care.

I had a fantastic time playing it.

I’d rather finish a short horror experience wanting more than spend another ten hours begging the game to end.

Thankfully we shouldn’t have to wait ridiculously long. Chapter 2 is planned for Fall 2026, followed by Chapter 3 in Early 2027. And after that ending?

Yeah.

I need Chapter 2.

Rating

10/10

For clarity, that’s a 10/10 for Chapter 1 as an individual experience. I obviously can’t rate the complete Expanded World storyline because two-thirds of it haven’t been released yet. Whether the story ultimately sticks the landing is something we’ll have to revisit after Chapter 3.

But as the opening chapter?

I loved it.

Spoiler Warning

From this point onward, I’m discussing the ending and major story moments from The Prisoner. If you haven’t played Chapter 1 yet, stop reading here.

Spoilers

The ending is where The Prisoner suddenly becomes considerably more interesting.

After the massive motorcycle chase with the Mother, the children eventually crash. The Soldier is knocked unconscious, leaving the Prisoner awake by himself.

That’s when another boy appears.

The important thing is that this child apparently isn’t visible to the Soldier. He speaks directly to the Prisoner and asks one extremely concerning question:

Does she know?

The Prisoner says no.

Okay.

Know WHAT?

The mysterious boy then warns him that where they’re going is going to kill her.

And the Prisoner’s response is essentially that she deserves it.

UH OH.

Excuse me!?

We’ve just spent this entire chapter watching these two children survive together. They’ve escaped a war zone, fought enemies, solved puzzles, survived the flamethrower soldier, traveled together on the train, fought off the Dust Children and escaped the Mother.

And now you’re telling me that the Prisoner may knowingly be leading the Soldier toward something that he believes will kill her?

Even worse, she apparently has absolutely no idea.

WHY DOES SHE DESERVE IT?

What did the Soldier do?

Why was the Prisoner imprisoned?

Who is this mysterious boy?

Is he actually there?

Is he some kind of spirit?

Why can only the Prisoner apparently interact with him?

What exactly is waiting for them at the tower?

I DON’T KNOW.

Because immediately afterward the Soldier wakes up and asks who the Prisoner was talking to. He says nobody.

The two then look toward the enormous tower in the distance.

And that’s where Chapter 1 ends.

Goddammit, Tarsier.

As frustrating as that sounds, I actually think it’s a great cliffhanger. The difference between this and some of Tarsier’s more frustrating ambiguous endings is that we know for certain that the story isn’t over. This isn’t the developers dropping a pile of unexplained symbolism on the floor and running away.

Chapter 2 is coming.

The ending completely changes the context of the relationship we’ve just spent the chapter watching and gives me an immediate reason to return. Whatever happened between these characters before Chapter 1 clearly matters, and the Soldier seemingly doesn’t know that the Prisoner may have an ulterior motive for accompanying her.

So now I have one major request for Chapter 2:

Please answer SOMETHING.

Not everything. This is REANIMAL. I don’t expect Tarsier to suddenly install a PowerPoint presentation and explain the entire lore.

But after ending Chapter 1 with the Prisoner effectively saying that his companion deserves to die?

You’d better tell me why.

Until then, I’ll be waiting for Chapter 2.

10/10.

See y’all for part 2 when it drops.