Although Poppy Playtime Chapter 2 has been out less than a week, there's a lot to unpack in terms of new gameplay features, storytelling, and lore. Once again, players are exploring the (mostly) abandoned Playtime Co., as they attempt to survive a mounting threat of monstrous toys. While Poppy Playtime Ch.1 introduced players to the iconic Huggy Wuggy, Ch. 2 takes a risk and puts most of the focus on a new entity - Mommy Long Legs. So how do the two chapters of Poppy Playtime compare?
From a gameplay standpoint, there's more to do - more puzzles to solve, more areas to explore, and more Grab-Hand abilities to utilize. In fact, it will take players about three times as long to beat Poppy Playtime Chapter 2 as it did to complete Chapter 1. There are also more monsters and toys (who will presumably become monsters in later chapters) to find scattered around this iteration of the Playtime Co. facility. From Bron the dinosaur merch appearing regularly to the artwork of Kissy Missy and PJ Pug-A-Pillar that players can find throughout the game, Chapter 2 is all about offering more than Chapter 1.
The basic premise of Poppy Playtime remains the same, however. A monster - Mommy Long Legs, this time - is hunting players, there are VHS Tapes to collect in Chapter 2, and with the help of the game's titular Poppy Playtime doll, perhaps players can survive long enough to escape Mommy Long Legs and the other Playtime Co. horrors once and for all. Despite some new Grab-Hand features, the gameplay remains mostly the same. It's been expanded and improved, which is nice, but anyone who played Ch. 1 will have no problem diving into Poppy Playtime Chapter 2.
Poppy Playtime Ch. 2: Story & Lore Compared To Ch.1
As with Ch.1, there's a lot of Poppy Playtime lore and story pieces that can go unnoticed. Although toys and cutouts of Bron are arguably featured more than any other Playtime Co. toy, Chapter 2 seems to be hinting at Kissy Missy becoming the main monster for Chapter 3. Kissy Missy can be spotted moving in a tunnel, and she's featured prominently on signs around the train station at the end of Poppy Playtime Chapter 2.
As a villain, Mommy Long Legs doesn't work quite as well as Ch. 1's Huggy Wuggy, although she has one added benefit - in Poppy Playtime Chapter 2, Mommy Long Legs shows up sporadically over the course of the playthrough. Huggy Wuggy, conversely, only really showed up as a monster near the end of Chapter 1, so Mommy Long Legs feels like more of a threat. It also works well to keep players on their toes, and it makes the horror a bit more intense since players never know when Mommy Long Legs might show up to terrorize them.
Overall, Poppy Playtime Ch.2 is a nice improvement over Ch.1. The level design and puzzles are more interesting, and the story is expanded upon in interesting ways. The ending for Poppy Playtime Chapter 2 also helps set up Ch. 3, which should appeal to fans who've come this far already. It will be interesting to see how Ch.3 can improve upon this formula even more.