Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Five Nights at Freddy's 2
Steam storefront header
Developer(s)	Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)	Scott Cawthon (PC) Clickteam LLC USA (Console and Mobile)
Series	Five Nights at Freddy's
Engine	Clickteam Fusion 2.5
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows iOS Android PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch
Release	Microsoft Windows WW: November 11, 2014 Android WW: November 12, 2014 iOS WW: November 20, 2014 PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch WW: November 29, 2019
Genre(s)	Survival horror, point-and-click
Mode(s)	Single-player

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is an indie survival horror video game developed and published by Scott Cawthon. It is the second installment in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Similar to its predecessor, the game takes place in a fictional pizza restaurant, where the player acts as a security guard who must defend themselves from hostile animatronic characters that roam the place at night.

Cawthon first teased the game in September 2014, just one month after the release of the first game. It was released on Steam on November 11, 2014, earlier than its planned release date of December 25, 2014. Mobile ports of the game were released for Android and iOS were released on November 12, 2014, and November 20, 2014, respectively, and ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released on November 29, 2019.

The game received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised its panic-inducing gameplay but criticized its difficulty in comparison to its predecessor. The third game in the series, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, was released on March 2, 2015.

Gameplay[]

A gameplay screenshot showing the protagonist's office, with Mangle in the hallway

Similar to the first game, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a survival horror video game with point-and-click elements.^[1] Players take on the role of a security guard who must survive the night shift at a fictional pizza restaurant without being attacked by the animatronic characters that wander through the building.^[2] The animatronics include remodeled versions of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy from the first game, as well as their old, decrepit counterparts.^[2] Two completely new characters also feature, including a puppet-like character called the Marionette (or The Puppet), and a humanoid animatronic called Balloon Boy.^[3]

As in the first game, the player sits alone in an office.^[4] They cannot leave, but can track the animatronics' movements via a network of security cameras placed throughout the building.^[4][5] The office has three entrances, a hallway and two side air vents, through which animatronics can enter. Unlike the previous game, none of these can be sealed off, but can be checked by lights.^[4]

The player can avoid attack by most characters using a wearable animatronic mask; however, this strategy will not work on Foxy or the Marionette, who are repelled by other means.^[6] A flashlight must repeatedly shone into the hallway to ward off Foxy, and the Marionette is subdued by a music box that must be kept wound up by the player using a button on a camera feed.^[7] Unlike the first game, the power supply for camera and light use is unlimited, but this does not apply to the flashlight; if its battery runs out, the player becomes vulnerable to attack.^[4] The player will be jumpscared if they fail to defend themselves from any animatronic except for Balloon Boy, who will instead appear in the player's office and disable their flashlight.^[2]

After the player is jumpscared, there is a chance that, rather than the usual game over screen, an Atari-style minigame will appear, in which the player controls one of the animatronic characters.^[8] The minigames provide insight into the game's plot.^[4]

The game consists of five main levels referred to as "nights", gradually increasing in difficulty.^[2] Completing all five main nights unlocks an even more difficult sixth night, which in turn unlocks a seventh "custom night" upon completion.^[2] In this night, the player can adjust the difficulty of each individual animatronic, or play one of ten pre-set challenges.

Plot[]

The player assumes the role of Jeremy Fitzgerald,^[9] a new security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (though identically named, this is a different location from the first game). An unnamed employee calls Jeremy on the office phone each night to provide advice and information about the restaurant's backstory.^[9] He explains that the "new and improved" restaurant has introduced new animatronics, which have special facial recognition software and access to a criminal database to protect the children from potential harm.^[10] Despite these features, the robots were not programmed with a proper night mode; when they detect silence, their programming tells them they are in the wrong room and they seek out the nearest source of noise to find people to entertain, which happens to be Jeremy's office.^[10] The voice from the phone also explains that 'older' animatronics reside in the restaurant, but as the restaurant company opted to redesign the characters, they are kept for spare parts in a decrepit form.^[11]

As the game progresses, the voice mentions rumors surrounding the restaurant, and later reveals it to be the subject of a police investigation.^[12] Atari-styled minigames provide insight into the restaurant's troubled past, implying that it was the site of the murder of multiple children by a nameless individual represented by a purple figure.^[9] On the game's fifth night, Jeremy is informed by the voice on the phone that the restaurant has been put on lockdown due to an unspecified event, to make sure no employees, present or former, can enter or leave.^[13] He also mentions that the restaurant's daytime security has a vacancy, and Jeremy may be promoted to it.^[13] Jeremy receives a check at the end of the fifth night, dated November 1987, revealing that the game is a prequel to the first installment.^[13]

On the sixth night, the voice on the phone informs Jeremy that the restaurant has been shut down for undisclosed reasons, albeit mentioning someone's use of a "spare yellow suit" and malfunction of the restaurant's animatronics.^[14] The voice mentions that he plans to take over for Jeremy as the restaurant's nighttime security guard when it reopens, and that Jeremy will work a daytime shift for a birthday party the following day.^[14] A newspaper is shown upon the night’s completion that announces the restaurant's closure, stating that the new redesigned animatronics will be scrapped, but their older counterparts will be saved for when the restaurant reopens, leading to the events of the first game.^[9]

On the seventh "custom night", the player acts as a new character named Fritz Smith.^[9] Upon completing this night, Fritz is fired for tampering with the animatronics and odor.^[9]

Development and release[]

Shortly after the release of Five Nights at Freddy's, developer Cawthon began to confirm rumors of a sequel to the game.^[15] Just one month after the original game's release, Cawthon posted a teaser of a sequel on his webpage, and continued to post teasers until the game's release.^[16] A trailer for the game was released in October 2014, and a special demo was given to certain YouTubers such as Markiplier.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows on November 11, 2014,^[17] earlier than its planned release of December 25, 2014 due to issues with releasing the demo.^[18][19] Ports for Android and iOS were released on November 12 and 20 of the same year, and Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ports were released on November 29, 2019.^[20]

Reception[]

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was received mostly positive reviews from critics. The Microsoft Windows version holds an aggregate score of 62 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[21] Omri Petitte for PC Gamer gave the game a score of 70 out of 100, calling it “a horror game dipping heavily into deception and subtlety, a wonderfully cruel cocktail of supernatural mystery and jolts of panicked adrenaline”, while disapproving of its “frustratingly steep difficulty."^[2]

Destructoid gave a positive review, opining that "it’s absolutely terrifying to know that you could be attacked at any moment from multiple avenues", praising the introduction of new animatronics and mechanics, but criticizing the jumpscares and calling the game "too hard for its own good".^[22] TouchArcade opined that the game was better than its predecessor in “almost every respect”, though noting the game’s difficulty “might turn some away”.^[4]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Five Nights at Freddy's 2

• Official website
• Five Nights at Freddy's 2 on IndieDB