Do you like spooky games that send chills down your spine? Stuffed AI robots that come alive to try and kill you? If you do, I got the perfect game for you: Poppy Playtime.
On Oct. 12, a horror puzzle adventure game Poppy Playtime was released and quickly became popular with many content creators like Pewdiepie, Markiplier, DanTDM and many more. The game starts off with the player as an ex-employee of a toy-making company called Playtime Co., finding a letter sent to them by their co-workers who all mysteriously vanished shortly after they left, telling the player to find them. The game costs five dollars to purchase, but a question remains: is this horror game really worth it?
The answer is yes.
The game uses many traditional horror game mechanics like an abandoned building, suspenseful music and sudden jump scares while at the same time adding new mechanics that allow the player to interact with the environment. At the start of the game, you arrive at the factory, which is already very creepy, with broken lights, shattered glass and blood on the walls.
Once I entered the building, I had my first jumpscare, a huge blue slender doll, staring at you. The game is already doing a fantastic job of scaring you, and I did not even advance deeper in the game yet. I quickly found a new item called the grab pack, which I thought was pretty cool, being a unique way to extend interaction with the game. But suddenly, the light turns off, and Huggy Wuggy suddenly gets a key to the power room. When I turned on the power and returned, I had another moment of panic as the huge doll disappeared.
They did a really good job of building suspense and horror within the game. Ever since Huggy Wuggy disappeared, the intensity of the game suddenly jumped up because now you do not know where he is. He can easily appear anytime and anywhere during the game. The game is also a treat for fans of game lore with 5 collectible VHS tapes of the missing people from the factory.
After some more horror-filled moments consisting of the creepy Huggy Wuggy watching your every move, I finally found the second grab-pack hand allowing me to turn on a machine to create a toy that “should” allow you to escape, but instead you get meet Huggy Wuggy this time with a bigger smile and rows of razor-sharp teeth, which made me scream and jump. I panicked and walked back with Huggy Wuggy slowly advancing towards me, and then I saw the vent; it’s always the vent. I steeled myself and walked in the vent, and that is then when the intense chase scene started, and by intense, I mean screaming my head off, madly running around the vents trying to not die while Huggy chases me down. During the chase, it was horrifying, running through multiple short vents with intense moments when the vents close and you know he is behind you. If you make a single wrong turn, you get a nice “hug” from Huggy. Eventually, you make it out of the vents but so does Huggy. He makes a mad dash on all fours before you smash him down the abyss with a heavy crate, which made me very happy. I also then found out that it’s not just a robot but a living organism as there are several bloodstains on the pipes after he fell. The game ends with a spooky cliffhanger as you enter a bloodstained room opening the case containing Poppy, a talking doll.
Overall, the game precedes its reputation with dozens of horrifying moments and good scares. For people that are interested, there are more chapters coming so you can enjoy more of this amazing horror of a ride.
“You are here! You opened my cage!”
