When I started playing the first installment of episodic first-person horror game Poppy Playtime back in 2021, I thought it might be just yet another Five Nights At Freddy's-alike. I was quickly proven wrong thanks to some top-notch voice acting, inventive puzzle-solving systems, and excellent character design. It may have a lot in common with many of the jump scare-fueled streamer-bait games that Steam is bursting at the seams with, but Poppy Playtime is pretty successful at doing its own thing.
Its fourth chapter, Safe Haven, launches today, and takes you deeper into the Playtime factory than ever before. Call it Hell, call it Toy Prison, call it whatever you like: it's a place «where the devil never sleeps,» as some graffiti scrawled on the wall informed me when I played a bit of Chapter 4 this week. It's a deeply unsettling sub-sub-sub basement of the factory, where discarded toys are piled so high they seem to form mountain ranges and it feels like tiny button eyes are watching you everywhere you go.
You're not alone down there, of course. A watchful malefactor isn't that pleased at your intrusion and there are horrifying new toys hunting you as you attempt to solve new puzzles with your ever-useful gadget-hands. There's also a new character, Doey the Doughman, a Play-Doh-like character featured in a commercial at the start of the chapter. As he bounces around and sticks to things, the jingle goes:
«He's stretchy, he's gummy, he's squishy, he's funny! D-O-E-Y, Doey!
He's silly, he's gooey, he's sticky, he's gluey, D-O-E-Y, Doey!
So many toys in one! Triple kind of friend and triple type of fun!
D-O-E-Y, Doey! Fun until the day that you die!»
There's probably nothing ominous about that last line. Have a look at the Poppy's Playtime Chapter 4 trailer below, where you can take a look at Doey for yourself and decide if he's really triple kind of friend and triple type of fun, or if he's a chilling 6-foot-tall clay golem wearing a cute little hat.
Poppy Playtime has
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