Well, why shouldn't I?

It's a glorious occasion, filled with rainbows and butterflies!

Why, you ask? Simple. Today, at the exact time I upload this, at 12:00 AM on November 11, 2015, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 turns exactly a year old.

I remember when this game first came out. I remember it all. Things were so different back then. I remember thinking, "Hang on, didn't the last one come out just three months ago?! And wasn't this supposed to be released in 2015?!" Haha, I remember. I was shocked. We all were. I had no idea Scott's website even existed.

I didn't know what was yet to come.

And now look at where we are! Four games, one story, seven emails...oh, sorry, what? Oops, I'm rambling again. Sorry. My bad. Anyway, in celebration, I decided to give you exactly what I think of this game. And yes, people - I WILL be doing the other ones, too. :)

The Story

In the sequel to the #1 Indie horror game of 2014, we play as a night guard called Jeremy Fitzgerald at the "New and Improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza". As we learn from the man on the phone from the previous game, the "last location" was left to rot after some terrible incidents occurred there, and some people still have a negative impression of the company. The new "Toy" animatronics - Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica, Mangle, BB, and the Puppet - have been retrofitted with facial recognition and criminal detection features. Sounds pretty cool, until the man on the phone becomes a lot more...revealing than he was in the first game. Things begin to go wrong as their AI drastically malfunctions and the restaurant is forced to close at the end of the week, with the new ones being scrapped but the old ones being kept in hopes of a possible reorganization of the company.

Right away, I'm very happy that the developer - Scott Cawthon - finally gave the company some brains and a bit more of a personality. They're obviously remembering whatever happened in the past and are trying to make sure it never happens again. Too bad all their efforts go to waste. But once again, Scott has went above and beyond and has given this story a deeper meaning.


Remember the newspapers from the last game? They come into a big role of importance in this game as well. On Night 6, we learn of some terrible news. Somebody - what's hinted to be a "previous employee", has used one of the suits, a yellow one - for something. And whatever it is, it's not good. Sound familiar?


Now, Scott has done something absolutely genius here. He took the game we all assumed was a sequel and turned it into A PREQUEL from the first game. I mean, nobody suspected a thing until that final phone call. Nobody. Only then did we realize that something wasn't matching up. Even the NEWSPAPER backs this up. Remember, it said that the ORIGINAL characters - Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy - were being moved to a new location with a smaller budget. This matches up PERFECTLY with the events from the first game. It's hard to believe somebody who started out with almost nothing turned into one of the most tricky game developers I've ever seen. He pulled the wool over everybody's eyes. And we're not even done yet!


While there may not be newspapers to reveal more information that was never mentioned in the phone calls, we have a new mechanic - Death Minigames, secret easter eggs in the form of an Atari 2600 that are rarely presented when we, well, die. In these "Death Minigames", we get to play as multiple of the animatronics that are forced to witness terrible incidents from the past of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As Freddy Fazbear, you are set in a small location giving cake to children when a crying child appears, trying to enter the diner. Suddenly, a purple man - not kidding, he's purple - drives up and murders the child before driving off again. Yup, THAT event was never mentioned in the first game. As Foxy, you rush out from Pirate's Cove to greet five cheering children. The third time you do this, however, a purple man - believed to be the same one from before - watches you do so while smiling sadistically. When you enter the room with the crying children, you find out that they're already dead. As the Puppet, you frantically try to give gifts to the now dead five children from before, but this doesn't do anything. The second time you go around, the Puppet hatches a new plan - he STUFFS THE DEAD BODIES INTO THE ANIMATRONIC SUITS. Uh-huh. This is revealing to us how the children possessed the animatronics in the first place. It wasn't the murderer, it was the PUPPET, a brand-new character we've never seen before. In the final minigame, Freddy Fazbear accompanies the Puppet to an unknown location. Sounds boring, right? Well, listen to this - very rarely, the PURPLE MAN will rush out holding some sort of object. You can try to escape, but it won't work. As soon as the purple man touches you, the screen crashes with the words "you can't" on the bottom.


When these minigames are strung together, we are told some of the greatest storytelling in the entire millenium of gamemaking. Scott Cawthon has once again given us the absolute perfect blend of vagueness and revealing. It's incredible how he manages to do this. While multiple questions are answered, approximately fifty new ones appear in its place. This is the game that leads to the change in the franchise as we know it. Everything that happens after this is based on these four easter eggs. Despite receiving the minigames in a random order, there is no choppiness or confusion given. Not only that, but the fact that Scott did it through an entirely new game mechanic is just so eye-catching and creative. Even though multiple characters are entirely new but proven to be key to the storyline, the developer has shown to us again and again he can make it work without just hurling new events in our faces in an unprofessional way. From the moment we meet them, these new characters give us bundles of emotions - sympathy, anger, sadness, and most of all, awe.


Really, the only complaint I have is that these minigames are a bit too rare to come by, and the main point of the game isn't to die over and over so you can try to find the entire backstory. Aside from that, though, the fact that we have to DIE to get these just makes these minigames a lot darker. Every single aspect of them is about death, revenge, and receiving new life. They might just look like cheap and outdated nusiances on the outside, digging just a little deeper reveals they are a mixture of sadness, anguish, despair, and vengeance all wrapped up into a static and bold environment that you can interact with and feel like you're there, witnessing every last crime the newly introduced villan commits.


Rating: 9.5/10

The Gameplay

Putting on the Freddy Fazbear head.

Foxy the pirate fox is back, but he's not hanging out in some pirate cove anymore. This time, he only appears in your hallway, forcing you to use your flashlight to stun him. Your flashlight is thankfully the only item now that drains power, and you really don't want to lose that thing. Foxy isn't quite as dumb as the others, and he KNOWS you're a human deep inside. No Freddy head trick will work on him! Fail to flash him enough and he'll jump in your office with no second thoughts, which is really bad if you're busy with...ahem...other characters.


Instead of simply checking up on a character every now and then, you must flip to a certain camera feed frequently to wind a music box. Sounds ridiculous, but if it runs out all the way, it spells CERTAIN death. Yeah, there's no escaping from the Puppet. If you're wondering why it's so bad to flip up your monitor every now and then, it - along with Foxy - forces you to take off your Freddy Fazbear head, which allows the other animatronics to sneak into your office and rip that monitor right out of your hands, giving you a split second to put the head back on. That's right - you can't use the flashlight or the monitor while the head is on.


As I said before, almost all the characters will enter your office at some point to inspect you, and what's REALLY scary is that it's the only way to reset them on their path to the office. This requires some quick reactions with flashing Foxy, winding the music box, and equipping the head the second you pull down the monitor just in case. All the characters have their own unique way of attacking you, which I applaud Scott for since there's eleven of them. Foxy appears outside the hall and requires the flashlight. The Puppet needs the music box to be wound up. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Toy Freddy only enter the room once you pull the monitor up and will inspect you from inside the office, requiring you to have quick reflexes to avoid death. Mangle and BB will appear in the vents, only appearing in your office if you pull the monitor up. However, they WON'T leave, taking their sweet time before killing you. Toy Bonnie slides into view when you put the head on, making the music box run out before you can take the head off and tend to it. Toy Chica only attacks if she is left unattended, never appearing in your office aside from attacking. Golden Freddy randomly appears when you pull the monitor down and you must wear the head once you see him.


It's simply amazing how the game has similarities to the first game, but also has a perfect amount of differences to make this one truly a sequel. The cast of characters is easily likable, and all have their own style of making you suffer. This game has much more of strategy and timing involved than the first title, and requires a brand new direction of tactics and hand-on puzzle-solving. You must forget about everything you thought you knew about Five Nights at Freddy's and must quickly adapt to certain scenarios if you want to win the game. The colors are bold and enhanced, and Scott has incorporated a clever sense of depth and vibe to the scenery.


However, no game's without its sins. For one, this game's simply not scary. I mean, we completely lost the dark and frightening atmosphere we had in the first game. The new restaurant is big, colorful, bright, cheery, and kid-friendly. The fact we can bright up any room we wish with our flashlight also takes away from the scariness of the game. Not a single one of the Toys is unsettling, either, mainly because, again, they're bright and colorful and completely kid-friendly. While the building has an excellent modern design, it completely ruins the goosebumps that were given to us when we were sitting inside a cramped, old, dark, musty, and dull restaurant in the previous title. Not only that, but the jumpscares are completely expected. For example, you generally know you're going to be jumpscared in a few seconds by Bonnie because you were too late in donning the mask. In the first game, you could just simply pull your monitor and BAM! They were screaming in your face. And what about Freddy? He can just scream in your face WITHOUT the monitor being pulled down. Also, there are next to NO scary sounds in the game. Probably the most unsettling one is Mangle's weird radio static. So, a 12-year-old could totally play this, unlike any of the other games that should be 15-plus.


It's not just that, either. The fact that there's 11 animatronics and a music box to deal with makes it IMPOSSIBLE to check any other cameras than Prize Corner. One of them is bound to be heading toward you, and you have to deal with them, AND wind the music box every seven seconds. You have no time to use the monitor to its true potential. I mean, Scott should've just dumped the monitor completely. It's a shame, really, since he worked so hard on all the other camera feeds.


Aside from that, though, the cast of characters, the brand-new and changed mechanics, hidden easter eggs, cool effects, and sense of feeling makes the gameplay in this title better than the original. Despite not being very scary and lacking a point to check the other camera feeds, you still get a great amount of respect for the hard work Scott did to make this game as great as it is. If you're looking for hours worth of entertainment and puzzle-solving, look no further to the Freddy Fazbear head, the flashlight, the monitor, and the building. Having only two tiny flaws, this is COMPLETELY worth your money.


Rating: 9/10

The Teasers 

Bonnie and Toy Bonnie in the second teaser.

Unlike the previous game, this one had multiple teasers. Our first one is the promotional image, revealing the game was supposed to be released in 2015. Next, we have Bonnie and Toy Bonnie. "Something Borrowed...Something New..." After this, we have Foxy and Mangle peeking out of a purple curtain. Then, we see Foxy in the hall looking ready to pounce on the player wearing the Freddy head. Finally, brightening up the last teaser shows the Puppet emerging from the box.

I must admit, the teasers look amazing. Scott Cawthon completely had to make up new models for the original cast as well as give them their own toy counterparts, so I applaud him for this. However, I can't help but feel as if they're a bit too revealing. We understood right away the old models have been put away and the new ones have been created as replacements. Also, the promotional picture says "Grand Reopening!" Honestly, we had a lot less to theorize about until the one for the Puppet came out. Now THAT one was interesting. Good job, Scott. Good job.


And now we have the trailer. Aside from the fourth one, this is arguably my favorite trailer in the series. It's twice as long as the last one and shows gameplay footage! Not only that, but we finally get that epic vibe we've been waiting for, as well as a jumpscare! The music in the background was also splendid, as well as the cinematics with the old characters put in storage. Simply amazing.


Rating: 8.8/10

The Time 

The clock rolling over to 6AM.

As most of you already know, this game was originally set to be released in 2015. Assuming he was going to release it sometime in February, that was six months away from when Scott first announced the sequel. Obviously, Scott was even more hyped for the game than we were and attempted to upload a two-night demo in November. For some reason, that didn't work, so Scott said "Screw it!" and released the game three months early.

HOW. HOW DID THIS GAME TAKE THREE MONTHS TO COMPLETE AND WAS BETTER THAN ITS PREDECESSOR? HOW?!?!?!!?


And the fact that Scott made the game entirely by himself...Most people can't even make a game with a bunch of helpers in eight months and have it be good, but somehow Scott Cawthon did! Wow. Just...wow. Kudos to you, sir.


Rating: 9/10

Overall

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a complex, stimulating, interesting, creative, and unique new twist on the "horror" genre. While it may not be very scary, the special effects are eye-catching, clever, and awesome. The game mechanics are new and improved, but still have that sense of respect to what made the first game so popular. The old characters have returned along with a new cast of pleasing and personalized crew each complete with individualized mindsets and personalities. If you liked the first game and want a brand-new adventure with Freddy and his friends, then this is the game for you. If you never tried the series before, I'd suggest you go take a look at it and give it a chance. If you were looking for a scary game to play at night alone, then perhaps you will be disappointed. Either way, the fact that this was made in three months and includes some of the most extraordinary gameplay and storytelling I've ever seen, this earns my seal of approval!


Final Score: 9/10