REANIMAL Review – Tarsier Studios’ Best Work Yet

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit over 2D cinematic horror games featuring a kid in a scary place. I feel like I’ve seen that setup play out far too many times, and that’s the mindset I went into REANIMAL with. Somehow, though, Tarsier Studios has managed to pull me back in, and I think it’s their strongest, most brutal, and heartfelt work yet.

Absolute Dread and Claustrophobia

It’s hard to talk about a game like this without spoiling its themes and story, which have a larger and more direct focus this time around. In short, it’s about a pair of siblings returning to an incredibly rotten island to rescue their friends from the literal monsters of their past. If that sounds interesting to you, that’s pretty much all you need to know about its premise. Anything more would give away much of what makes it so special and devastating.

This is a horror game that wants to shock you and keep you on the edge of your seat, and it does so in a fairly direct manner. Whether it’s the violence inflicted on your characters, the roaming monsters in the background, or the constant imagery of death and decay in practically every scene, REANIMAL commits fully to its tone.

There’s a constant sense of dread throughout. You can never quite predict what’s waiting as you open doors and crawl through holes into the next area. I’m being purposefully vague, but my intention here is to assure you of its horror caliber rather than spoil any individual moment.

But despite its horrific exterior, there are enough moments of shared justice, closure, and quiet calm to balance it out. The bond between the characters as they move through this nightmare provides the necessary contrast for it to work.

Someone to Count On

Gameplay is fairly standard, and if you’re familiar with this style of game, you’ll know what to expect. Contextual puzzles that take a few minutes to figure out, plenty of hide-and-seek sections, and minimal combat encounters form the core experience.

Thankfully, you have an AI companion this time around to keep you some much-needed company through this literal waking hell of an island and its individual sections. If you’re playing in co op, the second player assumes that role instead.

Some sections require both of you to work together, and that’s handled quite elegantly even when playing solo. The AI companion always seems to know what to do and will sometimes react before you, subtly hinting at the solution. Since this title makes better use of 3D space, there’s more to work with, and some puzzles feel more involved as a result.

That said, it’s not especially inventive or surprising in the gameplay department like something such as It Takes Two, but it remains a tense and rewarding co op experience in its own right. If the intent is to scare two people at the same time, make them shout instructions at each other in horror, and fully immerse them in the terror on display, then job well done.

It plays well, and despite the lack of innovation in this format, it’s an absorbing cinematic adventure that feels handcrafted and remains polished throughout.

Horrifying Attention to Detail

I think REANIMAL is probably the best-looking game of 2026 so far. Yes, it’s early to make that claim, but Tarsier is known for delivering jaw-dropping visuals that can go toe to toe with animation studios. The sheer amount of detail, the clean and deeply unsettling animation work, and some of the most impressive and horrifying abominations rendered in a game all stand out.

It’s also one of the few Unreal Engine 5 titles that doesn’t run poorly, which feels like a miracle in itself. There are minor traversal stutters here and there, but nothing I would consider distracting. It sounds great, and the minimal approach to almost hushed voice acting works quite well.

Verdict

While its gameplay remains familiar, REANIMAL elevates itself through its dense atmosphere, an unwavering commitment to delivering a consistently tense horror experience you cannot take your eyes off, genuine emotional weight driven by voiced characters with deeply personal stakes, and impressive technical polish, standing as Tarsier’s most cohesive and fully realized project to date.