Poppy Playtime Chapter 3: The good and the bad

THE GOOD

Visuals: Great visuals. Very realistic. I liked the lighting too. Props to the game devs for this one

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was very scary. Which is good. I liked the scary and dark atmosphere a lot

Puzzles: The puzzles were well made and clever. Props to the devs for this one too.

Monster design: The designs of the monsters were great. Very scary. Especially miss delight and catnap

Map design: Very cool map. 4 types of buildings at the same place was a very good choice and the power being underneath was clever too.

Voice acting: The voice acting is the second best after visuals. Everyone did their job very well. Especially the vhs tape of marie payne's guardian and the vhs tape in stella's office.

Title screen: I like the fact that they changed the design of the title screen. It looks cool

Huggy Wuggy scene: I really liked that scene the most. The news reporting of the radio and the whole atmosphere... Just chills. Huggy wuggy coming out of the TV was cool

THE BAD

Catnap's screen time: They were teasing catnap since July of 2023. We thought he would be the main scare factor for the game. But with a game of 3 hours, catnap's screen time is only 15 minutes. That's not fair. In chapter 2, mommy's presence was felt throughout the game but not in chapter 3. When you are in a room, you don’t feel threatened or anxious that catnap may come at any time. In chapter 2, after you cheat, u feel anxious, thinking mommy can come at anytime but that never came into play in chapter 3.

Too many puzzles, less story: The game was 70% puzzles and power up doors and such and only 30% story. They should've focused on the story more rather than puzzles. Just like chapter 2 did.

Unnecessary critters: I am ngl, there were too many critters which didn’t have any role in the story. Sure, killing them off would've made catnap scarier but 8 critters? Really? 5 would've been enough. I know they mainly did it for selling merches but atleast make them to do an impact on the story.

Getting the equipments and hands without any hard work: We literally did nothing to get the hands. We just picked it up. In chapter 2, we built it. Playcare is not a factory, so it can't be made. But atleast lock them up inside something, so that we may unlock it.

The devs spoiling hour of joy: It's not a part of the game but I should mention it. The devs, through various notes and tapes confirmed what the hour of joy actually is. They shouldn’t have done that. They should've kept it a secret. Because we didn’t feel any intensity when watching the final tape, bcs we already know what it is. They should've also added the tape on the backstory of elliot ludwig and the company. So that we may get some actual answers, not the ones which have already been answered.

Lack of lore through notes: Now, I'm not sure about this one. Because the youtubers I saw playing didn’t interact with any notes( except miss delight's). Now, I'm not sure if they missed it or the devs didn’t put it.

Misleading scenes in trailer (Mini idea for catnap chase incoming) : We see catnap stalking us. But we never see him doing that. We see a vhs tape of someone being chased by catnap in playhouse. There was none in the game. There should have been a chase scene of catnap in a maze of playhouse. Because, the idea of being chased in a maze is actually very scary. That would've also solved the problem of catnap being slow since, we will be trapped when we reach a dead end in the maze, we would have nothing to do but wait in fear for catnap to slowly come and kill us. Also, when we would reach the exit, we would come to the place where there would be three slides (like the place with three slides when getting chased by dogday). We would have to go by one of the slides, one of them would be safe which would lead us to the exit, the other two would lead to a ballpit with no escape. Catnap will come suddenly from under the ballpit to kill us(that would mean that there was a way to escape but we would have suffocated). This would be way cooler than what actually happened in the game.

A major plothole: If all the employees died, then why didn’t the police investigate inside the factory? You are maybe saying because the police died too. But if the police died too, normally, the government would see this as a major threat and send military. But that didn’t happen.

What should've been done

I personally, would make the player feel threatened at every time with catnap's presence. He would've been stalking us, making step and scratch sounds etc. The game should've focused more on the story than puzzles or 50/50. Catnap's screen time should've been more. Hour of joy shouldn’t have been spoiled. Backstory should have been revealed. I would've also keep a scene where catnap chases us in playhouse. The unnecessary critters could have been removed.

My wants for chapter 4

First of all, a scary antagonist. Really scary. Make his screentime more. Make his presence be felt throught the game. A better story with an actual goal. No unnecessary characters. No plotholes. Reveal some backstories. That's all

My personal rating for the game: 7.5/10

Thanks for reading!