The first Five Nights at Freddy's could accurately be described as bare bones. Featuring a simplistic premise, the cult classic indie horror title made use of some fairly basic management mechanics to keep players on edge. It gained quite a large following because of that despite its small scale, and left the door wide open for one-man developer Scott Cawthon to capitalize on all of its no doubt at least somewhat surprisingly high success with a follow-up.

The thing about sequels though is that they're expected to expand and go deeper with the concept in order to improve and not sell consumers the exact same product twice. As a result, FNaF 2 doubles the amount of everything from how many animatronics there are to deal with, the security blanket resources you must ensure don't run out, to even the number of locations that need to be monitored. I must praise the inventiveness of many of these newly introduced functions and ideas, but having to stay on top of so much calls to mind the old saying 'less is more' as while undeniably more interesting and demanding the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't as much fun as what we got before. Likely because of how quickly it came out...

Released a mere three months(!!!) after its predecessor, there are some obvious issues with the balancing in this game. Even when using the most effective strategy for success, the increase in scale and therefore potential variables causes you to regularly end up in situations where you're unavoidably screwed due to the RNG. The challenge never feels insurmountable, but the tension and fear quickly gives way to tedium and irritation in the later stages forcing me to wonder if this wouldn't have been better off had it spent more time in development to alleviate some of its frustrating nature.

There are still aspects that make this worth a look for fans of the original. For example, this is where that "lore" you'll always hear the Five Nights community talking about started to be built through the prequel/origin tale on display here. The writing is a bit too cryptic and vague to fully figure out what exactly the dude calling you at the beginning of every level is talking about without doing some digging online, but for an experience clearly not tailored around storytelling it's impressive how it manages to kick off a larger narrative that so many of the series' faithfuls have latched onto. I'm also once again blown away by how all of this was designed by a single person and works as well as it does given how the quantity of factors at play got upped in such a brief period. However, the fact that it's simply not as enjoyable prevents me from being able to view it as anything more than a big disappointment. It's not awful and I respect a large portion of what it set out to do, but consequently I can't really consider myself a fan of it like I could the prior entry.

6.9/10

rly rly apt illustration of the distance, often painfully unacknowledged in Mechanical Games Criticism, between compelling game design and Theoretically Perfect game design. thinking ab it i can come up with a bunch of objections to raise to this: all the cameras except one might as well not be there, the lack of mechanical individuality among the animatronics, the abundance of moving parts making it so that just getting Bad Lucked into an impossible-to-win situation is a lot more likely, and more then anything the emphasis on reactivity means that its not so much a game ab Strategizing or Making Decisions as fnaf1, at least no decisions that will be relevant more then a music box's cycle away. but these High Level ideas ab how parts Should click together dont actually feel all that relevant (or at least Detrimental) to the actual moment to moment experience of my playing this, which i find even more enjoyable then the first ! its just an endless cascade of split second decisions, theres always something demanding yr attention, and the vocabulary of reactions is very simple and manageable to learn, u just gotta learn to match em up with the memorable cast of robots. much better use of audio cues in this one too, i understood the purpose of their vagueness in the original but i prefer the increased clarity of information here, and the relative forgiveness of having yr Reaction Time Tested rather then Instant Death upon misreading that information. its nowhere near as Scary ofc...the atmosphere in general has honestly been pretty Gutted on the altar of colorful designs and slick shininess, this always feels a bit more distant and cartoony then the hyper-tactile original. still! im not rly playing past night 5 in these initial playthrus but i think i will come back to this one's challenges cuz i just think its super duper fun to play! lots of chemicals being set off at all times

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 2 REVIEW

Why did I let myself play FNaF 2 after giving the first game such a low score? Maybe it's because I thought there was an actual chance of refinement here. After all, there is some groundwork in FNaF 1 which I believe could be implemented into something much better.
I knew that being released only 5 months after the first made this an obvious cashgrab - meaning it probably wouldn't actually be a huge upgrade. And yet, I still found myself curious. So I ignored my better judgment and picked it up.
To my own surprise, I actually do think that there are improvements in FNaF 2 when compared to its predecessor. I feel like this COULD HAVE been average, or maybe even good, if there was more time spent polishing it up. As it stands, the sequel does better than the first in a lot of departments - and yet, goes backwards in the one that really matters (for this type of experience.) Gameplay.


SHORT REVIEW

Visuals: 2.5/5
Sound: 1/5
Story: 1/5
Gameplay: 1.5/5
Worldbuilding: 1.5/5
Achievements (Does not count toward overall score.): .5/5
Overall score: 1.5/5

IN-DEPTH REVIEW

Visuals:
FNaF 2 does not look much better than the first game. This is definitely contributable to its short development time. In fact, there are assets reused from FNaF 1 - which would be fine, if they weren't so ugly.
The rooms are more interesting to look at, though! There's more filling up the spaces, and it feels like a much more realistic location because of it.
The menus and game over screen are still very simple, but I like the ones here better. They're creepier.
I'm also a fan of the ability they added to use the flashlight in different rooms. It reveals characters you might not see otherwise, and gives creepy imagery for a few of them. However, I prefer the way the animatronics play with the camera angles in FNaF 1. They were often much closer to the camera.
FNaF 2 does succeed where it's most important visuals-wise; the character designs are drastically better. Nearly all of them are creepy, and I love the way that space is utilized to make them even creepier. It's really unsettling to see a giant withered Freddy leaning over your desk, or a withered Chica towering over you, or a toy Chica or withered Foxy standing at the end of the hall. (Again, though, I wish that they were closer to the cameras more often. That's the one thing that made them feel large in the first.)
The toy designs do what FNaF 1 failed to - make characters that manage to be both scary AND charming. The shiny, plastic look and the realistic (yet empty) eyes are what do it.
Mangle is my favorite character. The weirdness of their design and the radio noise that accompanies them is so cool. I really did like a lot of the animatronics, though. In fact, the only one I didn't care for was Balloon Boy. I think they could've taken him out and let Mangle serve a similar purpose. Their radio static could interrupt your security feed, or something like that.
The jumpscares have more variety, which is a complaint I had with FNaF 1 and something I really appreciate them improving on with this one.
FNaF 2 still isn't anything particularly special visually, and a lot of it is still ugly. However, I think it hits the mark much better than the first in a lot of ways, especially the ones that count.
Overall, 2.5/5.

Sound:
I honestly liked the sound design better in the first. It was easier to understand, and played into classic audio horror tropes in interesting ways. There's so much going on (something I will address in gameplay) and the audio doesn't always help to distinguish things. For example, I didn't realize that one of the noises wasn't designated specifically for withered Foxy until later levels; it's just supposed to be for when any animatronic is close by. It's confusing.
Phone Guy's voice actor still does a great job, though.
Overall, 1/5.

Story:
While this game is lacking in similar ways to the first story-wise, it does add a few elements which make it a more interesting experience. The cutscenes after each night and the minigames add a little bit to the lore, and give you something to chew on as you play. Still, they're pretty vague and one-note. I also really hate the 'tell a singular story over the course of an entire franchise' mentality this series has. A plot which could easily be told in one game is stretched out over 5+ of them. It spreads itself way too thin, ruining what would otherwise be interesting lore.
Overall, 1/5.

Gameplay:
Good God, where do I start?
This game is a mess. There is way too much going on. There's ELEVEN animatronics total. On top of that, there is a ridiculous difficulty spike on Night 3. It drove me crazy, to the point where i found myself missing the simplicity and monotony of the first. At least it was over faster.
Now, I don't mind difficulty. In fact, I enjoy difficulty. I don't mind the addition of more animatronics or more mechanics. The thing that makes it all so bad is how obviously rushed it is. There's way too much of it all - there's too many ways you're supposed to keep the animatronics at bay, and too many enemies to keep track of.
It gets so overwhelming, especially on Night 6 and 7. These levels really highlight that there's only one way to win FNaF games, and it's to do exactly what's expected of you, with no room for leniency or creativity.
Related note, I hate how small of a reaction time you have to put on the mask with the withered characters. I got good at it during Night 6 and 7, but it's still a ridiculously tiny window.
Also, why in the world can't you skip the minigames? I had to restart the application entirely after so many deaths solely because of those stupid things. They were cool the first few times, then became a nuisance. Especially because your character slows down halfway through a lot of them.
Overall, 1.5/5.

Worldbuilding:
There's a lot more going on here than there was in FNaF 1 - the minigames, the cutscenes, the more fleshed-out locations, and Phone Guy's return (yay.) I ALMOST enjoyed what FNaF 2 had to offer in this department, though it's still not anything great. In fact, the minigames and cutscenes get really repetitive after awhile. On top of that, it's all left very unclear - which is fine to an extent, but since this franchise is so boring, it could really use all the help it can get.
Overall, 1.5/5.

Extra Category - Achievements:
God, don't do it. The Golden Freddy custom night is hell. It took me days to beat it. It was not fun, either. It was just extremely frustrating.
Overall, .5/5.

Overall score, 1.5/5. Like the first, I was hoping to give FNaF 2 a higher score than I ended up giving it. It has better character design, better lore, and better worldbuilding - but it still ends up being a rushed mess with frustrating gameplay. I just can't, in good conscious, recommend it to people anymore than I would FNaF 1.

-that’s what the mask is….that’s what the point of the mask is (fr though i never understood what the fuck the point of the mask was in the game)
-played w my bf while way too high which def seems to be the best way to experience all of these lol
-i like the lame lore 8bit parts I think they’re rlly cute tbh and almost makes dying seem justified/like a good thing which sucks u into a very repetitive and addicting gameplay loop
-wow sucks that the homophobe dude was pretty good at making games and even better acting in them lol

Preciso nem dizer nada, além de ser um dos jogos que eu mais "conspirava" na minha infância, também tem uma das gameplays mais desafiadoras, difíceis e divertidas ao mesmo tempo da série, pra mim foi aqui que a série demarcou o seu ápice em questão de gameplay.

É dificil falar de um jogo quando ele é tão bom, o jogo consegue trabalhar perfeitamente com poucos recursos que o Scott tinha na época e ainda assim se tornar um marco.

Eu amo esse jogo.

Es un juego que es alabado por el fandom por ser muy frenetico y toda esa mierda pero.. No..

El juego en si, solo tiene 3 mecanicas importantes, Puppet, La Mascara, y la Linterna.

A simple vista pareceria que las 3 formaran una trifuerza en cuanto a jugabilidad, perfectamente equilibrada, pero no. No son pocas las ocasiones donde el juego se limitara a lo mismo "prender camara", "recargar a puppet", "ponerse la mascara", y asi en un bucle sin fin, lo que lo hace totalmente repetitivo, a tal caso de ser robotico.

Y es que, de los 11 animatronicos, 9 se esquivan de la misma forma, siendo las unicas diferencias el camino que siguen, el cual no importa por que van a aparecer siempre por los pasillos, haciendo que las camaras no aporten en nada, y se sientan como algo totalmente vacio.

11 Animatronicos, todos copias de otros, basicamente.

Un juego mediocre, sobrevalorado

October game except I finished it a month in advance to make things easier on me
It's neat, a slight step up from the first game in a couple ways and then everything else is still kinda ¯\(ツ)/¯
There is zero reason to ever use the cameras for anything other than the music box, and it doesn't take long to figure that much out.
Every animatronic is dealt with in the same way besides one, and there's no punishment for just putting the mask on immediately after putting down the camera.
Really, every mechanic in this game only ever serves one purpose, making every night feel extremely same-y, even for FNAF. But I do still like this game more than the first one. I think the random factor of when anyone will show up makes the game a little more tense, instead of having a set process that makes every night a guaranteed win.

i was really generous with my ratings back then, why did i give this an 8/10 lmao
maybe like a 6.5/10 game

Going to complain for a while. Had an urge to.

The trope of "children's media and playthings is actually scary" is so fucking tiresome. You could trace it back to the 1988 movie Child's Play at a bare minimum, probably even further, less popular examples, but there's been a really absurd resurgence in the past decade that seems to have found its roots in this series. Five Nights at Freddy's is completely inescapable to this day and so are its cheap imitations. Shit like Bendy and Poppy Playtime rose from the anals of utter filthy incompetence to get a quick buck. Some random made Baldi's Basics as a pisstake on the phenomenon, then it got equally popular somehow. It's spreading back around into unimpressive movies, shows and pitches. The Banana Splits movie is dogshit, that Barney movie will be dogshit, and I said Learning with Pibby will be dogshit but I also got violently assaulted by my friend circle for it. There's so many analog horror and fake lost media series on the internet that my friends are hooting and hollering for, yet when I try a couple I just squirm and die. I don't get it, it all blends into an amalgamation of the same basic, trite concept. I guess this is where the cynical asshole in me truly shines. I don't have a real preference in how I prefer my horror media, but I can tell you it's none of this.

I decided to rack my brain a little and see if i could recall whether Five Nights at Freddy's, the patient zero of this whole thing, was of any interest to me back when it was new. I think I only played these first two games, and didn't like either. I more vividly remember this one, though. The atmosphere it provides never really got to me, I just found myself frustrated with all the mechanics and how unforgiving it is as a whole, namely the narrow ass reaction time. The music box is the worst, most of your time spent is winding up the damn thing. It's tedious as hell, but at the same time you can't get too focused on it or one of the double digit amount of fuckikng animatronics will get the drop on you somehow. Don't you think there's a bit many?? It certainly succeeds in being stressful as all get out, but in my case it really isn't at all in an enjoyable way that makes me want to give it more shots. I ditched at I think night 4 or 5 and uninstalled after some weeks of not touching it.

Yet its impact remains completely bonkers. Did Scott Cawthon just get lucky? Who knows. Maybe he did, if you look at his prior works such as "Fart Hotel". Maybe it had to do with Markiplier's claims of them being the "scariest games in years", he's had a pretty massive influence since the cretaceous era. Did other game studios really just try to top it in scariness by doing...more of the same? And still earn success? Did they perhaps get lucky rather than Scott? Or was it both? Who knows.

No sir, I do not like this genre of stuff. When I think about it, and see all my friends infodumping to each other about it, I look at myself and feel like a hating little bastard. Hell, I kind of envy people who find so much interest in it! More power to you! That said, I don't have a strong urge to LIKE stuff like this, or Pibby, or whatever the hell, but it makes me wonder if something in my head isn't clicking like everyone else's. Missing the hype train is always an ass feeling for me. Sometimes as a kid I would refuse to step on, to be "different", and other times like this I really have tried and I don't understand.

I guess this isn't much of a review, is it? I kinda just felt like ranting for a while, uninterrupted, about a thing I don't understand so well. Yet I feel somewhat hollow after writing it all down. Maybe I should like grab a meal or something, go back to shitty old games on my shitty computer. That aligns with my interests a lot better.

do people really think of this as a prequel when the first thing that the phone guy says is "yeah remember freddys pizzeria it got shut down" and there's literally the old models of the previous pizzeria in the backroom are these guys alright im just asking probably the same people who talk about zelda games with their placement in the timeline

so this is fnaf encore way more animatronics with the same core at heart

let's address the real issue here why the fuck did this get the same score by me as the first one ? well I do remember fnaf4 being my fav one but last time I actually played that game I still smelled of mammary milk so I'm not entirely sure that statement would be also correct nowadays

that being said this game is definitely an improvement over the first one if you ask me . since the old and rusty jumpscare horror tropes got a bit too tiresome I genuinely cannot be scared by this stuff anymore literally if I put a cardboard of a cat jumping at you with a screech ofc you're gonna make a little jump that's so cheap yall

that being said this is both the main improvement and complaint I have in that department they switched absolute dread to absolute chaos and I'm pretty glad they did but this comes in the cost of denaturing the main horror experience like I didnt feel like actually being in a claustrophobic environment but more working a 9 to 5 as security service

gameplay is pretty useless to explain because I already did that in the previous review and its the same . you got your ass stuck to a chair you can only move your head in what seems like a 15° angle and check lights/cameras/stuff around the workplace with the addition of a mask you can put to pass as an animatronic so that the bad guys see you as an ordinary freddy fazbear and get the fuck out and also wind the jukebox every 5 seconds or else a spooky marionette will get your ass eaten ooooooooh spoopy poppy

the graphics are still kinda raw in nature and I'm kinda surprised they didn't add some cool animation tricks like the ones in the first one when in later nights some animatronics will have spooky spasms or whatever in the cameras like epileptic seizures those were kinda cool actually ok anyway I went off the road the animatronics actually look better in this one this is when they started to put some more money into the different models around and there's such a wife variety of characters and gimmicks to explore in this one it's still off putting

sound department is good for nothing because music doesn't exist and sound effects are as cheap as they can get but I mean they do their job like stomping sounds when animatronics get in the vents and such

as I was saying this one's chaotic AS FUCK you got old animatronics up your ass then you also got new chika new bonnie new freddy for some reasons foxy was replaced with a female clown fox who makes TV static noises there's a boy with a balloon who's actually super dangerous a marionette in a box if youre lucky enough youre gonna see some golden freddy apparition like as I told you you're gonna have your ass full of these automated endoskeletons chasing you from front left right probably from behind too if it was possible to look behind your head so anyway after a while you will also get the gist of how every single one of this bitches works and you will he breezing through this in no time remember to just put your mask on as soon as you turn off the cameras and you'll be good you can thank me later

foxy may be my fav animatronic now that I think about it pretty insane if you ask me

there's some weird spooky beats after each night but again if you shit your pants at some animatronics in the dark looking at you please don't play resident evil 8 or at least don't get to the fetus scene you will know what I'm talking about

also why is the cover art so weird like why is a freddy head levitating in space

So yeah it's an upgrade to first game. You need to use a music box now in every 30 seconds, you have a mask now, you have a vent pipe to check beside the doors to close etc.

But also it's hard in a unfair way. Think about this, every enemy needs their own exclusive equipment to deal with. So what you do? You give additional time to react. This game does not do that, no... Actually it's even more aggresive than the first game. I don't think I even manage to beat the final day and just watched it because rng just ###d me. It's not fun.

But there is now short 2d sequences that get shown in every night and they actually made me want to continue the game. They actually was more engaging to experience for me because of the mini stories it tells and for this reason I actually enjoyed a bit more than the first one.

This was the last game I played in the franchise and believe me when I saw there were 4? more games released after this, I was dumbstruck. I can say that definitely.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 improves on the first game in nearly every way. There is more animatronics, so there's more to deal with making the game not as boring as the first one. The designs are better, and the mask brings a lot to the game. This game is also a lot harder than the first one. And I mean A LOT harder than the first one. So hard, that it was quite frustrating at times. I also got this bug, where when I put down the camera, I couldn't put the mask on for 2 seconds, which caused around 15 deaths. Some animatronics being able to force the camera down was also annoying, and added to the difficulty. Other than that though, fun game.

Na minha memória esse jogo parecia ser melhor, só que ele possui mecânicas fáceis, repetitivas e cansativas, além de ter algo que eu odiei com todas as minhas forças que é a maldita máscara, esse negócio tem um delay ridículo e eu morri muitas vezes por causa desse maldito delay. Ele é extremamente fácil mas em compensação terrivelmente quebrado, um retrocesso enorme em comparação ao primeiro jogo. A única estrela é justamente pelo design dos animatronics que alguns são melhores outros piores...