When Did This Get Here? Five Nights At Freddy's 2
Freddy's coming for you
The last time we looked at Five Nights At Freddy's 2 on our security camera feeds, the animatronic horror was standing quietly still on Steam Greenlight. And now it's here. It's here on Steam, before us, released properly for real, and we didn't even notice it leave Greenlight. It's all very convenient for me, writing this now, as that's the basic setup of the game: a Chuck E. Cheese's-ish restaurant's frightful animatronic animals come alive at night when not watched, and will try to sneak up and murder you. You can have a crack yourself in the demo.
I knew how mega-turbo-popular the first Five Nights was, but hadn't played it as I'm not really one for jump scares. After trying the sequel's demo, my response is a horrified, as the youth say, "#nope". Unlike many jumpscare 'em ups, Five Nights is about managing time and other resources while keeping your cool. It's a stealth game where you're sat in an office chair.
Time spent flicking through security cameras is time spent not winding up the music box that keeps one particular creature distracted. Time spent winding up the music box is time not spent checking there isn't something creeping towards you. Flicking your torch light down the corridor takes both time and battery. When the creatures suddenly appear before you, or you hear banging in a nearby air vent, you've got to stay calm and still balance keeping watch. They go away eventually, but obsess over them and you'll miss new ones arriving. Then you'll be in trouble. You can pop an empty animatronic bear head on to fool them, panting deep breaths, but I'm sure that can cause terrible death too. I played the first night of the demo's two (and of the full game's five), and have no desire to see what happens as things escalate on the second. #nope, right kids? Yeah, right!
In terms of new things, the sequel adds new animatronic creatures with new behaviours, changes up the basic routine with new responsibilities and defenses to juggle, and brings it to a new restaurant with a new layout. It's £5.59 on Steam.