I have mixed feelings toward this game, but my opinion sure does lean towards positivity. The way the environments are designed is absolutely fantastic, and the voice actors do a phenomenal job of pouring their heart and soul into the characters and bringing them to life. The antagonist designs do end up having the same pattern, with the longer, skinnier limbs and bigger bodies, I don't see too much of a problem, especially with The Prototype, the series' big end villain, clearly hinted at having a completely different design. The story, while having a few holes here and there, is much more coherent and organized than some other indie horror games. While I do get the feel that the creators behind the game, Mob Entertainment, are starting to milk the series a little more than they should, it doesn't change the fact that they've made a mascot horror game that has its own identity while still taking appropriate inspiration from other franchises.
That being said, our main protagonist. I know this is intentional, but I don't really like our character's motives and find their scripted actions so bizarre that it takes me out of the game. I know it's a standard horror protagonist trope and we're all pretty much used to it by name, but I just can't really find myself believing that an adult randomly finds a note with misspellings in their mail telling them to go back to their old workplace that caused many people to disappear, and just answer its call seemingly without a second thought. I know the whole "silent protagonist" is supposed to let us insert ourselves and have us more immersed in the game, but since we have to do what the game tells us to do anyway without many decisions to make for ourselves, it feels like it defeats the purpose. I feel like Mob could have taken the opportunity to make this a choice-driven indie horror, where our actions impact the flow of the story as it goes on. Maybe I am misunderstanding the character's motives or taking things way too seriously, but I can't really see how guilt is driving us to free the toys, especially since right after chapter 1, we just go ahead and free this sentient doll and ultimately decide to get out. Why couldn't we get the police involved after The Hour of Joy was over? Why couldn't we go back to Playtime Co. On our own to collect that evidence and submit it to the police, then turning ourselves in as a way to make up for these crimes, but ultimately being stopped by The Prototype because he doesn't want the factory's secrets getting out? Just a thought, but maybe these questions will be answered in Chapter 4
Secondly is Mommy Long Legs. This is definitely due to personal preference, but I didn't really find her design all that intimidating her scary. It was refreshing to not see another stiff animatronic attacking us, but her bright pink appearance just wasn't really it for me. Over time, we'd slowly destroy her, making her much more deteriorated and maybe seeing human muscle and organs the more we try to stop her. That way, her words of danger and foreshadowing would have more of an impact. However, despite my opinions, I do adore her personality! And her voice actress did a fantastic job of capturing her sinister nature.
The next few points I want to cover would mostly be about chapter 3, which I feel is Poppy Playtime's best chapter.
More positive things I wanna point out though, I really love the animation for the Smiling Critters, and how that terrifying ending transitioned to a news outlet about the next protagonist. Didn't make much sense that Playtime Co. Would release an animation with that horrific ending if it was an episode geared toward kids, but still was a great intro overall. Not to mention how the textures were much more well-designed and the character models were beautifully animated.
Now for the negatives...
The puzzles in this chapter don't make much sense to me. In the first two chapters, they felt very unique to Poppy Playtime's identity and were fun to do, while also blending into Playtime Co.'s wacky environment. However, in chapter 3, we're still turning on power, but also activating like 6 poles to power up a lift, which only takes up one to like, one floor. This felt very odd to me; I understand having boosters because it's underground and maybe power is a lot harder to distribute, but I feel like a lot of this could have been solved with just some stairs. It just felt a little nonsensical at times.
Another thing was The Red Smoke. I felt like it was heavily underutilized despite being a focal point of the chapter. The first sequence in Home Sweet Home where it's used against ourselves and pushing our guilt in our faces was borderline genius. It allowed the main antagonist to study us like we're praying and establish how The Red Smoke will affect us and how it will make us vulnerable. And yet, afterward, that's completely thrown out the window, at least until the final confrontation fight.... I'll get to that later, I have a lot of opinions about that one. But anyway, The Red Smoke only becomes a small obstacle to us, and if we don't have our gas mask, we just immediately die. Why couldn't it be used to lead us completely off track and make us hallucinate much more vividly, giving us more clues as to who we are (more than just the worker who helped cause all this), our characterization, and even our antagonists? Have it play more into the P. T. but more as a Poppy Playtime identity; make us question who we're really talking to and what's real and what's not, not just in that first sequence, but throughout the entire game. And if we're too distracted by the hallucination, then we can be killed off, not by the smoke, but by CatNap, chapter 3's big star.
And I have some problems with this one.
CatNap was an amazing antagonist until after the Playhouse. The Home Sweet Home sequence allowed us to see what kind of character he really is; not just someone on a blind rage spree coming after us, but someone who will actively study us, figure out our weaknesses, and how we can be not only physically, but also emotionally and mentally vulnerable. It's a little like Huggy Wuggy when we see him stare at us a bit in Chapter 1 and Mommy Long Legs, how she's willing to toy with our lives. But it's implied here that CatNap is willing to do both; so that's why I don't understand people's complaints of CatNap not being seen too much. I think it would be due to the fact that his presence isn't as overwhelming as the other antagonists, and that is fair since we don't really see hints of him aside from in Home Sweet Home and a few scratch notes. But I think limiting our sight of him does help build up tension; I do think he could have toyed with us and our mindset more without actually letting us see him, but I agree with the decision on not letting him be seen too much.
I was really hyped for this character, and I was so excited to see what his fight would bring and how else he would turn our minds and guilt against us.
...and then he just doesn't.
Remember in chapter three after the DogDay chase sequence? (absolutely wonderful character by the way) Ollie tells us that "(CatNap)'ll take away anything you have to defend yourself."
..no he doesn't. He literally doesn't. He takes away our gas mask, yeah, but that's not all we have to defend ourselves. We have our GRABPACK, something which was actively used to defend ourselves against the last two antagonists??
I really, really don't like this fight. It just made CatNap seem so... lame. And kind of dumb. Sure, he was a kid when he was converted into CatNap, but being a kid doesn't automatically mean you're stupid, especially if you're Theodore. (Spoilers for the ARG: Theodore was a 7-year-old kid who was "friends" with The Prototype. One day, he asked him to wield a grab pack to help him escape, but it ultimately failed (obviously), making Theodore shock himself with the green hand and being on the brink of death)
I thought this would play into the final battle since it's literally canon that Theodore has had a traumatic experience with the grab pack, mostly the green hand. But we don't see that here. Even with the ARG context cut out, if CatNap really was watching us as much as he says he was, didn't he also see that we would be using our grab pack constantly to solve puzzles and actively go deeper into Playcare? Wouldn't he think that would pose a threat because would use it against him somehow?? Did he FORGET that we had it as soon as he took our mask???
I can't see this as something like, "Oh, maybe he was just overconfident" because we're literally told that he'll do anything to make us powerless. Especially considering that we have a green hand, something that almost KILLED HIM. You're telling me he saw this and thought nothing of it; he clearly remembers The Prototype saving him, so why couldn't he process that we had the thing that harmed him? In fact, why did he corner us and actively FOLLOW US to a room that was filled with GREEN ELECTRICITY? He had to know that was there, he clearly has access to it and has been wandering Playcare for 10 YEARS. And shouldn't he have like, not actually followed us there or maybe even showed a lot of fear and distress when he saw that we were going up towards there? Which would then indicate that he's weak in green electricity. And not to mention that the fight itself just isn't very fun or innovative at all. It's just doing the same thing over and over again with poorly explained instructions and the plot hole about The Red Smoke....first, it just makes us hallucinate, then we just straight up die for no reason, and then we hallucinate again...it doesn't make any sense.
Still a great game, but Mob really needs to fix their storytelling.
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