It seems that the further down you go in the Playtime Co. factory, the more messed up things get. What started out as a former toy factory has since turned into a massive play area for children complete with scary monsters. And now it introduces a former orphanage underneath all that, complete with some absolutely terrifying monsters. After my time with Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3, I miss the days of Huggy Wuggy being the only thing to worry about.
Chapter 3 represents the largest game in the series so far. It is also far and away the scariest, with genuinely chilling moments that are a far cry from the humorous scares associated with a mascot horror game. No, we are into full horror mode with Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3. It feels like Poppy Playtime has taken off our shackles; no longer toying with us with bendy pink or fluffy blue monsters, replacing them with something far more sinister: CatNap.
After the conclusion of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2, you groggily awaken to the site of a large cat-like creature dragging you away from the wreckage and throwing you into a trash compactor. After escaping this, you find yourself in Playcare, the on-site orphanage for Playtime Co. But as usual, things quickly take a turn for the worse.
This time around, a strange voice called Ollie will guide you around the Playcare setting. Back in the day, this would have been a pretty cool environment to grow up around. Complete with a school, play area and orphanage, it has clearly seen better days now. And not to mention all the blood splattered everywhere.
Ollie will inform you of CatNap’s mysterious power. They are so called because they can release this red smoke that sends a sleepless child to sleep if required. Side effects however include horrific hallucinations and nightmares, and as such, Catnap was recalled from consumers.
Can you guess where this is heading? Early on in Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 you will need to reroute this red smoke from the production zone, but this involves delving into the various buildings in the Playcare facility to reroute the electricity. So, naturally, the first place you visit is full of red smoke.
CatNap is part of a new crew called the Smiling Critters. And whilst CatNap is the big bad of Chapter 3, the Smiling Critters aren’t exactly the friendliest bunch either.
Do you remember the Scarecrow sections in Batman: Arkham Asylum? There they weren’t as telegraphed as they are in Poppy Playtime, so when things started getting trippy around you, it was a bit of a surprise. Here, things quickly descend into nightmare territory, but the real horror comes from knowing that whatever is happening isn’t real, but you cannot escape it. And then when you do escape it and things are arguably even worse, what are you meant to do?
It’s this thought process that elevates Chapter 3 into a true horror game. It makes Chapters 1 and 2 look like playtime, if you’ll pardon the pun. In Chapter 1 there were only one or two scary moments, in Chapter 2 there were moments where you were running on adrenaline rather than fear. In Chapter 3, things are tense, scary and unrelenting.
But it is also harder too. A recurring element of these games is a tense chase sequence, and there is another here. The difference this time is that you have to solve several environmental puzzles whilst being chased. This isn’t by Catnap, but by someone else that came completely unexpected. And without giving the game away, I will just say this: Weeping. Angels.
That doesn’t mean that Chapter 3 is a simple rehash of what has come before. With a new Poppy Playtime comes new GrabPack abilities. A new attachment allows you to push yourself high into the sky. And with that, new puzzles to solve are quick to follow. These can sometimes be a bit frustrating though; they’re not difficult to solve, but the issue is in executing them with these new abilities. And even without it, there is an early platforming section that is just straight up bad.
It’s these sections that make for the longest Poppy Playtime chapter; a chapter that feels just a bit too long. Chapter 3 takes between four and five hours to run, which doesn’t seem that long, but it’s perhaps the first game in the series that has unnecessary filler sections, where there isn’t anything to explore or cower away from. Just frustrating puzzle sections. The previous game remains the perfect length for a Poppy Playtime game.
It would be unfair to call Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 on Xbox a disappointment, because it gets an awful lot right. The atmosphere and genuine scares are a high point for the series, and it progresses the story more than what has come before. But with Chapter 2 improving on the original in every way, whatever came next was always going to have a tough challenge. And Chapter 3 doesn’t quite match up to that.
Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 is a longer and more rounded game, but that is achieved with some unnecessary padding. However, what is here shows that the Poppy Playtime franchise is a must play for horror fans.
Continue to explore the depths of Playtime Co. in Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/continue-to-explore-the-depths-of-playtime-co-in-poppy-playtime-chapter-2-and-chapter-3/
Buy Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/poppy-playtime-chapter-3/9n2xtqt0d3px