Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Five Nights at Freddy's 2
Steam storefront header
Developer(s)	Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)	Scott Cawthon
Distributor(s)	Steam
Series	Five Nights at Freddy's
Engine	Clickteam Fusion 2.5
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows‹See Tfd› WW: November 10, 2014 (2014-11-10) Android‹See Tfd› WW: November 13, 2014 (2014-11-13) iOS‹See Tfd› WW: November 20, 2014 (2014-11-20)
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is an indie point-and-click survival horror video game created by Scott Cawthon, and the second game in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. The game was released on Steam on November 10, 2014,^[1][2] earlier than its two planned dates of sometime in 2015^[3] and December 25, 2014,^[4] respectively, with the latter due to issues with releasing the demo.^[5] The mobile port for Android was released on November 13, 2014.

The player plays as Jeremy Fitzgerald, as opposed to Mike Schmidt from the first game. It features six brand new antagonists as well as heavily damaged versions of the original five antagonists from the first game. Unlike the first game, there are no doors to close; instead, the player must put on a Freddy Fazbear mask to avoid being killed by most of the animatronics.^[6][7] It received mostly positive review from critics. A sequel to the game, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, was released on March 2, 2015.

Gameplay

As in the first game, Five Nights at Freddy's, the player must survive a night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. game time (approximately seven minutes and six seconds), without being attacked by any of the animatronic enemy characters that wander from room to room. The player cannot leave the security office, but can track the animatronics' movements via a network of surveillance cameras placed throughout the building. The office has three entrances, a hallway and two side air vents; in a departure from the previous game, none of these can be sealed off to block 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.

The player character can put on a mask 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 certain animatronics via strobing. Unlike the previous title, the power supply for the cameras and vent lights is unlimited, but the flashlight does not have an infinite 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 an additional animatronic that appears when the music stops.

Unlike the first game, after the player is killed, there is a chance that rather than the Game Over screen one of four low-resolution mini-games will appear, with instructions given at the start of each. These mini-games contain insight into the lore of the game series.

The game consists of five nights, increasing in difficulty. Completing all five unlocks an even more difficult sixth night, which in turn unlocks a "Custom Night" upon completion. In the Custom Night, the player can adjust the AI difficulty of the individual enemy characters or play one of ten pre-set challenges.

Plot

Taking place in 1987 and before the first game, the player character, whose name is later revealed to be Jeremy Fitzgerald,^[8] has started working as a night watch security guard at the family restaurant Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As in the previous game, a specific Freddy Fazbear's Pizza employee calls Jeremy on the phone in the office at the beginning of each night to explain both gameplay and the story. He explains that the animatronics, which have special facial recognition software to protect the children from potential harm, were not programmed with a proper night mode, so when they do not hear any noise, 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 in the office.^[9]

As in the previous game, the animatronics are able to roam freely at night or their servomotors would lock up. The animatronics' programming also does not have a proper night mode, so when there is no noise, they attempt to find some. This means that they are lead toward the only source of noise, Jeremy. The programming also tell the animatronics that there should not be people in the restaurant after hours, so when encounter Jeremy, they will assume he is an animatronic endoskeleton without a costume and will try to stuff him into a spare Freddy Fazbear suit, killing him in the process. The man on the phone (Known by the players as Phone Guy) also explains that this restaurant has an unlimited power source at night, unlike the restaurant in the previous game, but there are no doors blocking access to the office, requiring the player to use a spare Freddy Fazbear mask to trick most animatronics into thinking he is not an endoskeleton. The player will also be instructed to use the flashlight to keep the Foxy animatronic at bay and to keep a music box wound up to keep an additional animatronic, Marionette, from leaving its box and attacking the player.^[9]

The player is also informed their flashlight does not have a permanent power supply. As more enemy characters appear as the player advances through the game, the man on the phone informs Jeremy of the characters' presence, their movement patterns, and some background information. For example, the man on the phone explains that the older animatronics are in the new restaurant, and have been retrofitted with the new technology, but as they did not work properly they are kept for spare parts.^[10]

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. Exactly what is happening is not specified, but the man informs them that someone had apparently entered the restaurant and "used one of the [animatronic] suits" for unknown intentions.^[10] The man also notes that the animatronics have become strangely hostile towards adults, mentioning that they interact with children just fine, but will unblinkingly stare at adults; it is implied that someone has hacked the new animatronics' predator identification software. The rare "Death Minigames" (an occurrence in which if the player dies, there is a chance of an 8-bit style minigame appearing) reveal that there were previous incarnations of the restaurant (Fredbear's Family Diner, as revealed in Five Nights at Freddy's 4), which is where a purple figure murdered children and stuffed them in animatronic suits (and is apparently the one who hacked the new animatronics' software).

On the game's fifth night, Jeremy is informed by the man on the phone that the restaurant has been put on lockdown due to an event that he will not describe but which is in place to make sure no employees, present or former, can come in or go out. 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 the older restaurant named "Fredbear's Family Diner" will be contacted for more information on the animatronics.^[11]

On the sixth night, the man on the phone, sounding noticeably disturbed, informs Jeremy that the restaurant has been closed for unknown reasons, but he does mention that someone used a "spare yellow suit" for the animatronics and now none of the animatronics are "acting right" and warns Jeremy not to leave his station under any circumstances. He also tells Jeremy 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 on 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 newer animatronics will be scrapped, but the older ones will be saved and reprogrammed when the restaurant reopens, leading to the events of the first game.^[8]

In the Custom Night level, Jeremy is replaced by a new player character named Fritz Smith due to Jeremy's promotion. If the player manages to win the Custom Night, they discover Fritz has been fired for "tampering with [the] animatronics" and "odor", a call back to the previous game's Custom level message.^[12]

Reception

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."^[15] 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".^[16]

References

External links

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

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