This game is a major step back from the previous game in my opinion. The main reason being that it is simply just not scary any more.

With this game, you pretty much got rid of all the creepy ambience vibe that you have from the previous game. While it feels like you were trying to stay alive in a hopeless situation in the former game, for this one it just feels like you are doing a job with the animatronics being reduced to nuisance.

The replacement of the door for a flashlight and helmet is just not as effective. The helmet is extremely overpowered as it is effective against 99% of hostile beings as long as you click it fast enough. You are thus far less vulnerable in this game and the game ended up being way less scary.

There is also a notable lack of creepy ambiance that was present in the previous game. They are still there like Foxy sliding the door and such but it's just not as effective. There's also the music box system which could have worked well theoretically but ended up ruining the experience. This is because every time you open the camera you are just preoccupied with winding up the music box and have no chance at examining the other scenes.

This sequel is definitely a downgrade from the previous game in terms of spookiness. If a horror game ended up not being scary, then I would say it did a very poor job.

so when i started fnaf 2 i found myself completely overwhelmed. so much shit to keep track of and all that. but then my friend told me literally nothing matters besides the music box cam and flashing the hallway. and okay, despite not liking this at first because of how different it was compared to the first game, it's also not scary whatsoever, i came to like it's chaotic approach. it becomes a game of patterns and habits more than anything else, and i wont deny that i was feeling a great rush on the winning run of night 6. plenty of memorable moments and close calls, when you "get" fnaf 2's loop it becomes second nature, and despite the rng, despite the fact most of the animatronics function the exact same, i can respect it for having a loop that requires you to fully commit yourself to a rigid regiment for minutes that feel like hours. so even if i hated it at first, i learned to like it quite a bit.

i think the atmosphere is pretty fucking bad in this one, though. there's no tension or fear, only frustration of the rng. the same can be said for fnaf 3, which i just started playing, but ill leave that for that review. this frustration, as well as the less than unnerving animatronics leaves it not very scary. who cares if the big ass rabbit's in your room when you just immediately pull up the mask and oh 5 seconds later youre back winding that fucking music box. it just never gives you time to breathe which ruins the fear factor, even if i learned to enjoy that aspect in the gameplay.

overall i quite liked this one but it still can't hold a candle to fnaf 1. fnaf 1 is like a jack of all trades but fnaf 2 heavily leans into getting into a groove which is still mega fun for me. fnaf 3 definitely cant hold a candle to either as it is, and i expect a low score for that one. fnaf 4 might be the best one tho. depends. like i said in fnaf 1 review, i only watched these on youtube prior and never actually played them.