Five Nights at Freddy's 2


Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is an indie point-and-click survival horror video game developed and published by Scott Cawthon. The second installment in the Five Nights at Freddy's series, the game is chronologically set before the events of the first game, making it a prequel to the series and chronologically the third installment in the series. The game was released on Steam on November 11, 2014, earlier than its two planned dates of sometime in 2015 and December 25, 2014, respectively, with the latter due to issues with releasing the demo. Mobile ports for Android and iOS were released on November 15, 2014, and November 20, 2014, respectively. A Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One port was released on November 29, 2019.
Similar to the previous game, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 centers around the fictional Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where the player acts as a security guard and must defend themselves from the restaurant's animatronic mascots. The game also introduces several new gameplay components, such as a flashlight, a wearable Freddy Fazbear head and 8-bit minigames.
The game received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the new mechanics but criticized its difficulty in comparison with its predecessor. It was followed by Five Nights at Freddy's 3 on March 2, 2015.

Gameplay

Similar to the first game, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a survival horror video game with point-and-click elements. Players must survive a night shift at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. game time, without being attacked by any of the animatronic enemy characters that wander from room to room. There are multiple different animatronic characters: the original game's antagonists: Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunnie, Chica the Chicken, Foxy the Pirate, and Golden Freddy, as well as toy versions of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, the Marionette, and a humanoid robot named "Balloon Boy".
Much like the first game, the player cannot leave the office but can track the animatronics' movements via a network of security cameras placed throughout the building. The office has three entrances ; in a departure from the previous game, none of these can be sealed off to prevent enemies from entering. Each vent is equipped with a light that can be used to check for any characters that are about to crawl into the office. Players are given a wearable Freddy Fazbear masks to ward off approaching animatronics; however, this strategy will not work on certain characters, who must be repelled by other means. A flashlight is also available, used to check the hallway and darkened areas of the camera feeds, as well as to reset Foxy via strobing. Unlike the previous title, the power supply for the cameras and vent lights is unlimited, but the flashlight has a limited battery life; if it runs out, the player becomes vulnerable to attack. In addition, a music box has been placed in one room and must be remotely wound up through the camera interface, to avoid being attacked by the Marionette, who appears when the music stops. Failure to defend oneself from the animatronics will result in a jumpscare.
Unlike the first game, after the player is killed, there is a chance that, rather than the Game Over screen, one of four 8-bit minigames will appear with instructions given at the start of each. These minigames contain insight into the plot of the game.
The game consists of five levels referred to as "nights", increasing in difficulty. Completing all five adds a star to the title screen and unlocks an even more difficult sixth night, which in turn adds a second star and unlocks a "Custom Night" upon completing the night. In the Custom Night, the player can adjust the AI difficulty of the individual animatronics or play one of ten pre-set challenges. Completing Custom Night with every animatronic set to 20 results in adding the final star to the title screen.

Plot

The player character, whose name is later revealed to be Jeremy Fitzgerald, has started working as a night watch security guard at the improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As he did in the previous game, a certain Freddy Fazbear's Pizza employee calls Jeremy on the phone in the office at the beginning of each night to explain both gameplay and parts of the backstory surrounding the restaurant. He explains that the new animatronics, which have special facial recognition software and access to a criminal database in order to protect the children from potential harm, were not programmed with a proper night mode; when things go silent, their programming tells them that they are in the wrong room and they seek out the nearest source of noise to find people to entertain, which happens to be the office.
As in the previous game, the animatronics' programming tells them that there should not be people in the restaurant after hours, so when they encounter Jeremy, they believe he is an animatronic endoskeleton without a costume and will attempt to stuff him into a spare Freddy Fazbear suit, killing him in the process. The employee explains that this restaurant has an unlimited power source at night, unlike the previous location, but there are no doors blocking access to the office, requiring the player to use a spare Freddy Fazbear head to trick most of the animatronics into thinking he is not an endoskeleton; he gives additional tips to help the player survive their shift. As more enemy characters appear as the game progresses, the employee informs Jeremy of their presence, their movement patterns, and some background information on their presence in the game. For example, he explains that the older animatronics are in the new restaurant, and have been retrofitted with the new technology, but as the company opted to redesign the characters, they are kept for spare parts.
As the game progresses, it is hinted that something is going on during the day, as the man on the phone mentions that rumors are going around and, later, that a police investigation is going on regarding the restaurant. Atari-styled minigames reveal that the restaurant has had a troubled past, as it was the location of a mass murder in which at least five children were murdered, with the culprit frequently appearing as a nameless purple figure. On the game's fifth night, Jeremy is informed by the employee that the restaurant has been put on lockdown due to an unspecified event, but which is in place to make sure no employees, present or former, can enter or leave. The man also mentions that the position of the restaurant's day shift security has a vacancy and Jeremy may be promoted to it, and that the owner of Fredbear's Family Diner will be contacted for more information on the incident. Notably, the check the player receives at the end of Night 5 is dated 1987, thereby establishing the game as a prequel to the original.
On the sixth night, the man on the phone informs Jeremy that the restaurant has been shut down for undisclosed reasons, although he mentions the use of a "spare yellow suit" and an issue of the animatronics not functioning properly. He also says that he will be taking over as night-shift security guard when the restaurant reopens. If Jeremy is successful in surviving the sixth night, he is promoted to day shift to cover a birthday party the next day to make sure the animatronics do not cause any problems. A newspaper that is shown in the winning screen of the sixth night says that the restaurant will close down and the new animatronics will be scrapped; however, the older ones will be saved for when the restaurant reopens, hinting at the events of the first game.
On the Custom Night of this installment, the player acts as a new character named Fritz Smith due to Jeremy being moved on the day shift. Upon completing Custom Night, Fritz is fired for tampering with the animatronics and odor, a callback to the first game's Custom Night completion screen.
Between Night 6 and the Custom Night, there is a high chance that The Bite of '87 was caused. The Bite of '87 was an event mentioned by the man on the phone in the first game, in which an animatronic attacked a human, ending with the human surviving, but ending up without a frontal lobe. It is highly likely that the victim was Jeremy Fitzgerald, after being moved on the day shift. The animatronic that attacked him was most likely Mangle, as it has sharp teeth, and due to the fact that the newer models were scrapped, it had to be one of them.

Development

Shortly after the release of Five Nights at Freddy's, developer Cawthon began to confirm rumors of a sequel to the game. 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. A trailer for the game was released in October 2014. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was first released for Microsoft Windows on November 11, 2014, earlier of its planned release of December 25, 2014. Ports for Android and iOS were released on November 15 and 20 of the same year.

Reception

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was met with mixed-to-positive reviews from critics; the Microsoft Windows version holds an aggregate score of 62 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Omri Petitte for PC Gamer gave Five Nights at Freddy's 2 a score of 70 out of 100, commenting that what he wanted in the sequel "was more mind games and more uncertainty. I wanted the plodding animatronic suits to find me and rip my face off in new and interesting ways. I wanted working legs. What I got was a horror game dipping heavily into deception and subtlety, a wonderfully cruel cocktail of supernatural mystery and jolts of panicked adrenaline. Enjoying the good parts, though, comes with a cost of a frustratingly steep difficulty." Destructoid also gave the game a positive review, saying 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 also criticizing the jumpscares and called the game "too hard for its own good".