As horror boomed on Youtube, I was always a Five Nights At Freddy’s gal. As a result of that, I’ve never played any of the Poppy Playtime games. With the release of chapter 5 back in February, I was lucky enough to be play all five chapters back to back.
Does Poppy Playtime deserve the hype that it gets? Is it all a big marketing ploy to get you to buy some cuddly toys? I’ve spent many, many nights playing through to find out whether you need to add this Mob Entertainment franchise to your library.
15 plus hours of sadness, torture, death and running… no hour of joy to be found.
A Brief Overview…
Each chapter of Poppy Playtime plays into one interconnected story. However, the game introduces new characters, gameplay mechanics and more with each chapter. I have played through each chapter so here’s a breakdown of each chapter.
Chapter One
Chapter one is the only Poppy Playtime chapter that is free to all. It’s a short 20-30 minute experience which introduces you to the basic gameplay mechanics. It’s a very simple introduction which, honestly, surprised me considering it somehow managed to span five chapters which each increase in length. Chapter one introduces players to the face of Poppy Playtime – Huggy Wuggy, a strange but cuddly looking monster that chases you down and leads you directly to the end of the game.
This chapter also starts the collection of lore via video tapes that can be found around the map and played on nearby TVs. The lore isn’t all that interactive. The videos themselves are just static imagery with voice recordings playing over the top of it and some of them go on for a while. It’s not a bad thing per se but sometimes it felt like the point was being dragged for the sake of it.
Poppy Playtime chapter one is a nice little introduction to what players will face in the coming chapters. That being said, a 20 minute chapter turning into a five chapter (with a sixth on the way) game is astounding. I’m still not sure how it established itself as the phenomena that it is today in all honesty. It was interesting but I can’t imagine I’d have gone back to it if the next chapter wasn’t already in my library.
Chapter Two
As the first full-fledged installment of the Poppy Playtime series, Chapter 2 really does have to extend the ground work that’s been laid. In this chapter we meet Mommy Long Legs. She’s a pink stretchy creature that tells you to go through three mini games and she’ll give you a map to get out.
Throughout this entire chapter, Poppy is giving you instructions on how to get out and where to meet. Realistically, this chapter is the one that actually sets you up with a story and a purpose, unlike chapter one which is essentially just a game trial.
Where does it rank?
In the grand scheme of things, this is the real start of Poppy Playtime. It develops the very simple controls set up in the first chapter but isn’t able to be something wholly different. The shortness of the first chapter is actually a detriment to the second in some ways as there’s a larger story to really establish. Chapter two is easily the least memorable of all five chapters.
Chapter Three
It’s nap time!
Chapter three has a significant jump in the length of time it takes to complete the main story and my god is it obvious. There are some parts that make this chapter enjoyable though.
Mrs Delight is a really interesting concept. She only moves when you’re not looking a la Weeping Angel style. It’s not a difficult situation by any means but it adds something that’s a little bit different from the complete a task, get chased for five minutes slump that this series seems to often find itself in.
Then there’s the Catnap fight at the end of the game. Somehow this was both really fun and annoying at the same time. It was one of the first times things in this game felt actually randomised rather than a forced outcome. What didn’t help was the fact that I didn’t realise that you actually had to do things in the last scene which apparently wasn’t a cutscene. One simple mistake like that and I had to do the entire final boss scenario all over again!
Aside from the fact that it felt like the game was longer than necessary, I actually really did enjoy the third game. The atmosphere was consistent and the characters were interesting. This chapter felt like the first real step towards making grounds in the story.
Does it make sense to me that there’s a massive underground laboratory and a malnourished cat toy thing that’s worshipping the ‘Prototype’? No not really but I must admit I did miss a few video tapes.
Where does it rank?
In the ranking of the five chapters I think Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 would sit at second place for me.
Chapter Four
Introducing the best character in the entire franchise… meet Doey! A playdoh creature creating a safe haven for all the toys left behind. I’m not entirely sure what it was about chapter four that felt so different to everything else but this game really did feel like a stand out entry in the Poppy Playtime universe.
This chapter features the introduction of The Doctor who follows you through the lab. We get a better understanding of the Prototype. There’s even get our hands on some bombs to blow the place to smithereens.
It is also in this chapter that we meet Yarnaby – a dog/lion creature that chases the player in a seemingly never ending loop. Where Doey really ramped this up, Yarnaby (as cute as he was) made me groan. Every time he was on the screen I just knew my next mission was going to be “Run!” or “turn on a bunch of levers to open a single door”.
The Doctor is an odd character in the grand scheme of things. Especially with the way that he’s built up in this game which is even more confusing if you’re not actively hunting for every collectible. I really thought he was going to amount to something crazy when in reality he was just a brain in a jar. Defeating him was far too easy. Even with the threat of his robots, you can easily just run around and avoid them with little difficulty.
Where does it rank?
Four is definitely my favourite chapter. The exposition of the story, the lovable side characters? They just make this chapter really enjoyable. There are some consistancies with errors in graphics or repetitive areas. Mob Entertainment clearly know they can do a chase scene well because they cannot stop throwing them at us. However it kept me the most engaged, I really liked Doey and where their story went.
All in all a solid addtion to the franchise.
Chapter Five
Remeber five seconds ago when I said Mob Entertainment loves a good chase scene? Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 might as well have been called Poppy Playtime: Chase 2 Chase Harder.
Every time I felt like we were getting somewhere I was sprinting for my life. The chapter starts with a chase then ends with a chase and there’s more chasing in the middle. It’s too much!
Anyway… chapter 5 is the latest entry to the series. Unfortunately things just seem to get more convoluted from here. I still don’t really understand why there’s a factor, then an underground school house. Then there’s another factor that leads to a lab which leads to a… doll house?
This chapter is by far the longest, lasting around 3-5 hours for completion. It also delves a lot deeper into what the Prototype is and how to stop it.
I didn’t hate this chapter by any means but it definitely wasn’t my favourite. There are too many little things that realyl ruined the experience for me. For example, later in the chapter you have to follow Lily Lovebraids path that she’s painted on the floor. Seems simple enough however I had multiple instances where I would do exactly as she said and would still be killed.
The chase scenes obviously didn’t help but the worst part about them was that sometimes the way to go just wasn’t obvious. After a while these chases just aren’t scary or that exciting. If you get stuck in a deathloop then it can really ruin the overall experience.
In the eyes of Huggy
In this chapter we also get a bit more backstory into the character of Huggy and what happened to them. This was actually a really fun little section to the game. Seeing the world through Huggy’s eyes and having to go through the painful throwing of toys into boxes actually had me quite deeply invested in the story for a while. This section of the game really shows the quality that Mob Entertainment can put out. I just wish there was a bit more of it.
Where does it rank?
Chapter 5 is not a bad installment of Poppy Playtime but it definitely isn’t the most compelling in the series. The ending in particular made this entire chapter feel redundant in a sense. Perhaps that’s just a me issue but spending almost 10 hours building up the Prototype only to have him be beaten pretty quickly to then reveal that the big bad was already defeated once is a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Chapter 5 could have been excellent but it really didn’t seem to use the groundwork laid out for it to the best of its ability. I would say this chapter ranks 3rd in the list of games.
The Problems
The Prototype
After four chapters building this guy up, seeing a clown crawl out from behind the curtain was such a let down. Aside from a few pieces that were clearly throwbacks to the earlier chapters, he wasn’t all that scary. Also, it really didn’t help his image when the entirety of his boss fight in chapter 5 was broken for me.
The model had absolutely no animation. When he was running along walls and trying to kill me it was just the static model skating around.
The Side Characters
To keep the game going, Mob Entertainment add new characters in with every chapter. This shouldn’t be an issue but they’re so quickly killed off or removed that caring about them feels like a waste of time. For example, Lily Lovebraid could have been a very interesting character. However because she was a bad guy in a Poppy Playtime installment, it was very easy to just put her to one side and not engage with her character.
Ultimated the bad guys do have to die but the short length of each installment leaves little time for people to sink their teeth into the enemies and the lore that is presented to them.
Graphics & Audio
The graphics throughout Poppy Playtime were incredibly hit or miss. Prior to chapter five the textures and the visual looks of the game were subpar. This could honestly be down to my poor computer not being strong enough in all honesty.
In chapter 3 I had a large number of issues with graphics, particularly regarding the frame rate during jumpscares. It was so bad in parts that it actually ruined the scare because the game essentially froze.
All of these issues were resolved in chapter 5 however that doesn’t change the fact that the game was borderline impossible to play even when there wasn’t much going on. I can’t push too hard on this though because, as mentioned, my computer might just not have been strong enough.
Longevity
To complete every chapter currently released for Poppy Playtime, it took me 15.6 hours. It would be shorter than that but there was a lot of chatting and exploring going on that has definitely inflated the number. The chapters are definitely long enough for the game to get the story across. In some cases they’re a bit too long and it feels like some missions are just there to make you feel like you’ve got your moneys worth.
In all honesty, unless you’re a lore hunter and want to find answers yourself, I don’t see much replayability in this game. I certainly don’t plan on going back to it until chapter six comes out. For all five chapters it costs £53.48 which isn’t necessarily a bad price but for a lack of replayability it might be a bit too much.
Final Thoughts
From a twenty minute intro to an over 5 hours long chapter, Poppy Playtime has developed into a mammoth of a series. I’m really glad I got to experience this game franchise in quite a signficant chunk. As mentioned, if I played this game in time with each release, I don’t think I would have been invested and the story has quite the potential to fall flat.
It was an okay experience. There were parts that I really really loved (looking at you Doey) and parts that I hated. The game as a whole isn’t bad but I feel like the story is overly convoluted at this point. It almost has too much going on at this point but isn’t doing much with the gameplay to make up for how futuristic and developed the technologies are in the lore.
Ultimately, I’m going to give Poppy Playtime the Thumb Culture Gold Award. I’m excited to see what happens in chapter six and how everything actually closes out!
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Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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