Five Nights at Freddy's 2

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 Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant (a pastiche of Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza Place) from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. (approximately seven minutes in real-time), without being attacked by the animatronic characters that wander from room to room. There are multiple animatronic characters: remodeled 'toy' versions of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, new characters the "Mangle" the Marionette (or "The Puppet") and a humanoid robot (“Balloon Boy"). There are also withered forms of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy.

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 (a hallway and two side air vents); in a departure from the previous game, none of these can be sealed off to prevent enemies from entering.[1] 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 mask to ward off approaching animatronics; however, this strategy will not work on certain characters, who must be repelled by other means.[2] 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 & continuously 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.

In a new addition, after the player is killed, there is a chance that (rather than a Game Over screen) an 8-bit minigame will appear. 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 will add a second star and unlock a "Custom Night" option. In the Custom Night, the player can adjust the AI difficulty of the individual animatronics (0 to 20) or play one of ten pre-set challenges. Completing each preset grants a different plush for the table and two stars in the custom night section below the respective preset. Custom Night, with every Withered animatronic set to 20, results in adding the final star to the title screen.

The player character, whose name is later revealed to be Jeremy Fitzgerald,[3][4] has started working as a night watch security guard at the improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As in the previous game, an unnamed employee calls the player on the office phone each night to give advice and some of the restaurant's backstory.[4] He explains that the new animatronics, which have special facial recognition software and access to a criminal database to protect the children from potential harm, were not programmed with a proper night mode; when things go silent, 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 the security office.[5][4] The animatronics' programming will see the player as an endoskeleton without a costume, and stuff him into a spare suit, killing him. Unlike the first game, the restaurant has an unlimited power source at night – however, there are no doors blocking access to the office, so the player must equip a spare Freddy Fazbear head to trick the animatronics when they enter.[6] The phone employee also explains that the 'older' animatronics are in the new restaurant, but as the company opted to redesign the characters, they are kept for spare parts in a decrepit form.

As the game progresses, he mentions rumors surrounding the restaurant and, later, that it is the subject of a police investigation. Atari-styled minigames reveal that the restaurant has a troubled past, as it was the location of a mass murder in which at least six children were killed, with the culprit frequently appearing as a nameless purple figure (later installments would name him William Afton).[7] Another shows five more murders in the current pizzeria, and occasionally the purple figure appearing as a security guard, tampering with Freddy. It's also shown that the Puppet animatronic stuffed the five dead children into the classic animatronics. 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 to make sure no employees, present or former, can enter or leave. He also mentions that the restaurant's daytime security has a vacancy, and Jeremy may be promoted to it. The check the player receives at the end of the week is dated 1987, thereby revealing the game as a prequel to the original; and also being the week in which "The Bite of '87" took place.

On the sixth night, the phone employee informs Jeremy that the restaurant has been shut down for undisclosed reasons, though he mentions the use of a "spare yellow suit" and the animatronics not functioning properly.[8] The phone employee also says that he will take over for Jeremy as night-shift security when the restaurant reopens. If the player is successful in surviving the sixth night, he is promoted to the day shift security. A newspaper that is shown on the winning screen 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, leading to the events of the first game.

On the Custom Night of this installment, the player acts as a new character named Fritz Smith. 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.

Shortly after the release of Five Nights at Freddy's, developer Cawthon began to confirm rumors of a sequel to the game.[9] 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.[10] 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,[11] earlier than its planned release of December 25, 2014 due to issues with releasing the demo.[12][13] Ports for Android and iOS were released on November 12 and 20 of the same year. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ports were released on November 29, 2019.[14]

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was met with mixed reviews from critics; the Microsoft Windows version holds an aggregate score of 62 out of 100 on Metacritic.[15]

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."[16] 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".[6] In a review for the Switch version of the game in 2019 Mitch Vogal of Nintendo Life said "Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 may not necessarily reinvent the wheel, but it still does a fine job of keeping you on the edge of your seat."

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