Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (PC) Review

It should be noted that while "rushed" is the most accurate description of most aspects of FNAF2, it doesn't come with the usual connotation of "buggy" in this case; the new game has about the same technical adequacy as the first. What it doesn't have is the ability to expertly penetrate and disturb the human psyche, because that can only come with dumb luck or extensive playtesting, neither of which were a part of this game's development. The first game was an unbelievable balancing act - a coalescence of uncanny characters, haunting sound design, and paranoia-filled gameplay. If each element wasn't being supported by every other element, the whole enterprise wouldn't have had nearly as much horror value. That is exactly what happened to the sequel.

All of the scare tactics employed by the first game remain, but either their intensity is diminished or they no longer fit together as a whole, creating something that feels like a string of moderately upsetting events rather than a focused composition designed to extract as much pure fear as possible. Take the audio design, for example. The antagonistic animatronics still emit creepy sounds as they move through the premises, but they're now more obviously menacing and unnatural, squelching some of the disturbing irony of a murderous children's character. The fact that some of them play nearly all the time doesn't help matters. Additionally, the jump scare animations - one of the most important inclusions in the game - were hit especially hard by the game's short development cycle. Instead of violently gnashing their mechanical teeth, many of the robots simply leap or motionlessly scream at the screen, giving plenty of time to view how silly most of them look.

The gameplay retains its theoretically sound design, but once again can't quite get the specifics right. In the role of night watchman at a (probably) haunted children's restaurant, a whole week on the job must be survived by hiding from and fending off the inexplicably homicidal robotic mascots that stalk the premises. Unlike before, there are no doors with which to lock the robots out, and only the flashlight drains power. Instead, the main method of defence is a mask made from one of the mascots' heads that will fool most of the robots into thinking the protagonist is one of their own. Those that can't be fooled need to be kept at bay by winding a music box and disorienting them with the flashlight, neither of which can be done while the mask is being worn.

This additional balancing act makes a lot of sense on paper - the player can never become complacent by focusing on just one of their tools - especially since the minimal power rations were what made the first game so fiendishly difficult. Unfortunately, with the need to conserve energy not as pressing, the game loses those anxious moments where time must be found to wait before checking the cameras again. In addition, the fact that many of the animatronics can (and in some cases, must) be stopped by simply throwing on the mask really quickly after they've already appeared in the protagonist's office diminishes their threatening aura considerably. It also means there's almost no reason not to immediately switch to the mask every time the camera monitor is lowered.

Players and enemies quickly fall into patterns in FNAF2. Aside from the enemy released when the music box song ends and the one repelled by the flashlight, the enemies no longer seem to be triggered by actions such as checking or ignoring cameras. Because of this, players are likely to find themselves in a constant cycle of "music box, mask, flashlight, repeat." There is definitely some deviation in the AI that attempts to keep things interesting, but it's only evident because the amount of light required to scare off a bot seems completely different between retries. Part of the blame may also rest with the larger number of animatronics. At a total of 11, they're each a little too specialised, only moving through the same rooms with the same timing over and over again.

Most of the new machines have a more overtly kid-friendly design than the previous ones, which seems an odd decision given that the old machines hit a perfect sweet spot between colourful and creepy. However, their presence still has some fright value in the same way that the exploration segments of Shadow of the Colossus have entertainment value: by introducing contrast. The new machines' relatively innocent look disarms the player in order to make the unannounced return of the redesigned original cast all the more horrific. Maybe that's not as valuable as making everything equally scary, but it's worth remembering that four of the six new inclusions (the least dangerous ones) mostly take a backseat once all the mechanics and enemies have been introduced, ensuring that the later days of the week are as frightening as possible.

Despite its faults, the game still has some scares of its own to deliver. Since the music box takes a fair amount of time to wind, and the mask is only effective if it's kept on until any immediate threats go away, both of them foster some tense situations where the player is aware of other animatronics that must be repelled, but unable to do so. There's also a collection of randomly launched mini-games seemingly inspired by the aesthetics of the Atari 2600. As benign as that sounds, they play the "haunted video game" trope for all it's worth, fully exploiting the harsh audio and indistinct graphical capabilities of the ancient platform to surprisingly unnerving effect. The complete mystery surrounding their existence helps, as well.

The mini-games are also the primary medium through which the sequel's most interesting addition - its unsettlingly ambiguous story - is conveyed. The first game's near-total lack of explanation for the morbid events it depicted worked in its favour, but FNAF2 manages to one-up its precursor by expanding an understanding of the setting while introducing new mysteries to keep the dread flowing. The execution is enough to wish Cawthon would work on a story-based game in the future. The man is a master of showing rather than telling, using subtle symbolism to great effect. The game is also full goosebump-raising hidden clues, eliciting a nervous excitement akin to a partially uncovered alternate reality game. If the series ever decides on a concrete narrative explanation, FNAF2 may be retroactively considered the game that began to kill the mystery, but for now, it's an effectively creepy tale.

Everything else that hasn't yet been covered by this review is either a direct holdover from the first game or is thematically identical to its earlier counterpart. The graphics are still an intentional invocation of the unnatural look of 90s CGI, and the title screen still features a fittingly gloomy theme song. The interface feels less empty thanks to the gaping hallway door covering the centre of the room, but it still features the moronic control scheme that involves moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen to bring up the camera monitor. In fact, that aspect has actually been made worse, since the bottom of the screen is now divided into two tabs, one of which activates the cameras while the other activates the mask.