After the first four “Poppy Playtime” chapters became some of the biggest releases of their respective years, Mob Entertainment had some big shoes to fill with Chapter 5: Broken Things.

What started as one of 2021’s most surprising breakout games, “Poppy Playtime” has grown into a franchise great enough to ensure its spot in the mascot horror hall of fame. It has spawned YouTube videos with hundreds of millions of views, traumatizing a whole generation of children and their parents even more so. This success raised one big question, though: what more would Mob Entertainment add to their story in Chapter 5?

Short answer: it’s complicated.

Long answer: new game mechanics, puzzles, deeper levels to the Playtime Co. factory, new characters, more puzzles, characters dying, characters being brought back to life, a thousand Huggy Wuggy chase scenes and even more puzzles.

This chapter starts exactly where the fourth left off, throwing you right into an intense chase sequence with Huggy Wuggy, one of many in this chapter, despite the introduction of many new characters. It also serves as a tutorial of sorts, teaching game mechanics while a giant blue creature repeatedly strikes the glass right beside you. It sets the tone for most of the chapter, keeping you on your toes for a chase that could happen at any minute. 

One of the glaring problems of the game, though, is that rarely does anything happen.

Chapter 5 is a puzzle horror hybrid, but the main point of making you do all that work is just to stall you. Not that the puzzles are necessarily bad, especially with the new grabpack mechanics, but the sheer number of them leaves you sorely unmotivated once you finally meet the main villain.

One of the most intriguing parts of the game is found within the various puzzles: a machine that lets you relive the time when Playtime Co. was once active, through the eyes of none other than Huggy Wuggy. These tidbits, although not exactly scary, provide interesting gameplay. 

More importantly, they provide more backstory on the experiments the toys went through, giving you a better understanding of the current situation. There is plenty of lore in this chapter, but to present it in a way that allows you to be 18 feet tall, blue and extremely fluffy is always a plus.

One thing to appreciate is just how good the quality is. Seeing this chapter, you can tell they made some serious dough from Chapter 4. The area feels more expansive than ever, showing even more levels of the factory developers hadn’t shown before. What this chapter lacks in boss fights, it makes up for in its grit and unsettling quality. From the disgusting Wrongside Outimals to parts of the factory that shouldn’t be shown to the public to the sheer amount of grime everywhere, developers did well in making the atmosphere truly feel abandoned.

Unfortunately, the tense, puzzle-filled environment leads to maybe one of the most anticlimactic villains in “Poppy Playtime,” Lily Lovebraids. Most of the time, she isn’t even trying to attack, so you wander around with your flammable hand, setting anything on fire you can think of. Finally, when you get to her boss fight, you find out it’s just a different version of PJ Pug-A-Pillar’s fight. 

All of this leads to one of the best moments in the game, though: the reveal of the Prototype. This jumbled design, where you can pick out the parts of all the past characters, adds a level of repulsiveness to the character. The reveal is one of the coolest, most cinematic moments of the whole series. It almost makes up for the excuse of a boss fight that was really just a glorified chase scene.

That being said, the end of the chapter really tied things up nicely. Although it did not progress the story as much as it could have, it set up what could be the final chapter in a way that nobody knows exactly what to expect next.

Categories: Arts & Entertainment