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tl;dr Despite the possibly large price tag, Little Nightmares offers a unique and adrenaline-fueling experience, making great use of both its genres.

Full Review

I was recommended Little Nightmares by a friend, and the gameplay and visuals presented were certainly intriguing for me. Having played through the main game multiple times, I am quite certain my expectations have been well satisfied, haha.
Gameplay:
Little Nightmares is a horror/platformer and excels at fulfilling both of these genres. On the platformer side, the contrast of being a small child in a place full of giant objects allows for some fantastic platforming puzzles. Can’t find a way up? Try climbing an impromptu ladder of filing cabinet shelves or cage bars. If you need to hide, try looking around for holes in the floor, or gaps below the furniture. It all feels rather mystical and satisfying. Also, being able to fling around bottles and other random objects you find is really fun, and it helps that the physics work really well here. For the horror side, Little Nightmares works its players by pushing you to do more daring and risky actions in order to continue, often throwing you right in the sights of the monsters you are trying to avoid. This works well because it's no longer just the unnerving aspects of the monsters and environments that contribute to the horror theme, you now have to be the instigator! For example, you can easily sneak past the Janitor (the long-armed guy) to the next room…but then you need to pull a noisy crank to continue, forcing you to give away your location. My explanations cannot do it justice. There were plenty of moments where I realized what I needed to do to progress and I just thought “you are KIDDING me…”
To warn you, the levels seem to be designed to punish the uncareful. Players who run headfirst into challenges will get themselves killed more often than not, while those who take a second to assess their surroundings are rewarded at least with a possible solution for progression. Watch out for the electrified door!
I had some concerns initially about Little Nightmare’s platforming challenges due to the forced camera angle, but the game is surprisingly polished with its controls and I rarely had any frustration with controlling my character. There were a couple annoyances where I tried to slide under some cover quickly, but I missed because I couldn’t tell the depth very well and I slid into a wall instead. Such complaints are mostly minor, though.
Story:
From the game description and intro, all you’re given is that you’re playing as a little girl named Six, trying to escape from this weird vessel. A brief cutscene at the beginning (the only real cutscene in the game) shows a mysterious woman surrounded by fog – the main antagonist. And then you’re thrown into the mess! There’s not a single bit of exposition to be found in Little Nightmares, but its environment does a great job at telling a story on its own. You’ll see disturbing recurring themes such as the seeming child factory that’s running on the island, and the general dilapidated appearance of the vessel itself. The stark size contrast really emphasizes the nightmare part of the game, really making you feel the childhood dread of things like the dark, strange giants, and losing your grip. It’s a thrill ride to the very end, to which I might add that Little Nightmares has one of the most memorable endings I’ve ever seen in a game.
Music:
There’s not really any consistent soundtrack in the game; rather, you get the general ambience of the vessel, plus occasional themes which play based on the current events. These still really strengthen the moods of the game, making everything feel more ominous and unfriendly.
Visuals:
The dark and off-putting style of Little Nightmares really helps to make it feel like the nightmare it wants you to imagine, with even recognizable things being disturbing enough to unsettle you. The physics in the game seem pretty consistent, and Six moves and interacts with objects with believable motion. Most of the monsters you encounter are designed to leave an impression, much like an actual nightmare. There’s a couple hiccups where a monster might move through a solid object, but overall the game is pretty polished.
Replay Value:
Despite being short (with the main game being possible to complete in under an hour), Little Nightmares offers such a great experience that’s easily worth revisiting, and the various hidden collectibles offer even more incentive to do so. Even if the game is rather linear, the monster AI is erratic enough to keep you on your toes even if you know what you are doing. The usual $20-$30 dollars can be a bit much, but purchasing this game on sale is a no-brainer.
In conclusion, players who are looking for a unnerving horror experience will enjoy the challenges offered by Little Nightmares, and those who are into platformers could easily find excitement here as well. For anyone else, the short length combined with the puzzling platformer challenges still offers a great experience, if you don’t mind getting scared.

EDIT FOR DLC REVIEW:
The DLC chapters for Little Nightmares are alright and offer more unique gameplay and puzzles, but they are noticeably less refined compared to the base game. Your objectives are sometimes unclear and frustrating, and there's some places in the chapters where you can get stuck unexpectedly in the terrain. They aren't unplayable, but I would recommend buying them only if you really want to extend the base game