"In the terms of our Great Society the Mascot Horror games and their ilk are losers - dropouts, failures and malcontents. They are rejects looking for a way to get even with a world in which they are only a problem.The Mascot Horror games are not visionaries, but diehards, and if they are the forerunners or the vanguard of anything it is not the "gaming revolution" in vogue on indie developer spheres, but a fast-growing legion of young unemployables whose untapped energy will inevitably find the same kind of destructive outlet that "kino" like the Mascot Horror Games have been finding for years." -Poppy S. Thompson, Mascot Horror's Angels

I have been banbaning it so much recently I completely forgotified this shit can be good. Mob entertainment has proven two brothers that could or could not be euphoric can in fact make a pretty fucking decent horror game, for the kids at least. It's kind of amazing how much they have upped their A-game on this one. The wait was well worth it, if you ask me (I did not wait for this piece of shit, I infact forgot it even existed for like two years).
Everything just kind of clicks on this one, getting through an extremely solid experience with actual puzzle solving and exploring some arguably fun platforming situations. This fucking thing also has very good monster designs for the most part and an honest to god creepy atmosphere, getting a good scares out of me and the things I call friends who pestered me to play this on stream for 4 hours, most of which felt like actual game time and not padding. The game is still kind of buggy, with a lot of possibilities for sequence breaking and jumping out of line to skip sections of the game (sometimes unintentionally)


"The videogame sphere is crowded with devs who create as if their sole purpose in getting behind the keyboard is to avenge every wrong done them by man, beast or fate. The only thing that keeps them in line is their fear of death, jail and refunds.” -Poppy S. Thompson, Mascot Horror's Angels.

Quite possibly lightning in a bottle, I'm not confident they can top this one because of the track record of videogames in general, but if they do it right and hire me as a psychotic latino they might become a staple of this genre.

Simplesmente inacreditável o que aconteceu nesse capítulo, ambientação nunca antes vista, mecânicas novas e muita história.

Com certeza o Capítulo 3 trouxe o terror realmente a tona, o jogo é uma mistura de fórmulas que deram certo em outros jogos enquanto ao mesmo tempo acrescenta suas mecânicas a gameplay.

Existe alguns problemas, Obviamente nada é perfeito, mas foi um enorme salto ao comparar com seu antecessor.

Ok clairement beaucoup d'améliorations par rapport aux 2 précédents chapitres. Les courses poursuites sont plus intéressantes avec des mécas inédites, la durée de vie aussi a été doublée par rapport au chapitre 2. Sûrement le chapitre le plus horrifique pour l'instant, je me suis rarement autant chier dessus, les design des monstres sont vraiment terrifiants. Le rythme est aussi bien géré je trouve, on alterne entre des phases anxiogènes et des phases d'énigmes (qu'il y avait un peu trop à mon goût). La narration a aussi été clairement améliorée.
En terme de points négatifs, manque de clarté à certains moments et une course poursuite qui était mal désignée je trouve (la 2eme).

My expectations for Poppy Playtime: Chapter Three were quite high after the last two chapters, and those expectations were easily met. This chapter blows the other ones out of the water by far. The graphics get a HUGE upgrade, and the graphics were already pretty good, in this game they look beautiful.

Everything is way more updated, and better. They had way more time to develop this chapter, then they did for the other chapters, and you see that time show in the quality of this game.

This chapter takes the most darkest route, where it does show some quite gnarly things, and some gruesome things, which was a pleasant surprise to the completely PG world of Mascot Horror now. The chase with DogDay, and seeing the Smiling Critters just go into him, and control his carcass was totally gnarly.

The sequence in the school with Miss Delight is also great, only moving when you don't look at her, like a Weeping Angel. The only main issue is the main villain, CatNap, he is built up quite heavily throughout this entire chapter, and yet barely appears.

Unlike Mommy Long Legs in Chapter Two, he barely talks, so he doesn't taunt you at all, and you barely see him. Leading to him feeling decently underwhelming, despite him not having huge screen presence, his character is very well done. The idea of his spewing sleeping gas out of his mouth that was used to put children asleep for testing is really interesting.

The game doesnt end with a chase like the other games, but instead ends with a boss fight, that is okay at best, it just feels a little dragged on, all the mechanics of it are fine it just feels a bit too long.

In the end, this chapter cements Poppy Playtime as one of the best Mascot Horror franchises out there right now, then again though, what good competition does it really have?

Overall: 9/10

- Not very interesting story
+ High fidelity has helped the world play better and navigate better
+ I enjoyed the new puzzles and the density of them to space out scares.
- Some bugs and glitchy areas that became frustrating or confusing
+ Praise to the new characters added and their designs. Evocative of early 2010's creepypastas.

𝟔/𝟏𝟎📜
I was always ready to defend Hagga Wagga from those who saw in it only an attempt to parasitize on scare characters, well.. now the arguments of the haters will become more weighty,
The first 2 episodes provided a truly unique experience of interaction with stretchable arms, the devs stated that their goal was, first of all, interesting gameplay in an indie horror game,
Either they ran out of ideas, or they were lazy, or the shitty Project Playtime took away resources,
But in the third episode I won’t be able to praise anything except some little things,
To make you understand right away:
here 1 location copies PT, the first boss copies SCP (defeating him is the same as before), and, of course, FNAF mini-game, the last one is too easy, which additionally devalues ​​it,
For the authors it was the first semi-open location, street space, and 5 buildings that we will gradually pass, we can’t return somewhere, but it still looks larger in comparison with prev. ep., so, probably, the idea was to incorporate all the best practices (tested by the people) in a large-scale episode,
and there would be no questions if it was done creatively, but no, it’s just something that you’ve already played or seen on YouTube, without any compelling reason for it,
And, alas, this is not even the tip of the iceberg, in a measured puzzle adventure - they added “Platforming”,
at first a bit of basic jumping on multi-level cylinders ala Half-Life - it’s okay, crooked, but forgivable, the problem is in the basic mechanics of the new Hand, they haven't come up with anything better than giving you the ability to jump high diagonally forward by pressing a button vertically below you, it's not exactly terrible, but still inconvenient, and in some places it can give you a "headache", not to mention the fact that physiologically it wouldn't work.
I won’t even talk about the gas mask, everything is clear here, you put it on - you don’t die, but you start to see worse in the bad smoke effect, the same thing with new batteries, you find it - insert it into the slot to start the mechanisms,

The second main feature is a “pistol” hand, or rather a lighter, a fireball hand, an interesting corridor is connected with it, when we need to fight off little plush assholes, and they are afraid not of fire, but of a shot, so each one will need a separate cartridge, of which there are 5 in total in a clip with an cooldown, they interestingly flock together, but at the end of the level they all got stuck in bugs, and, in general, the game design of the labyrinth was strange,
They could have made a whole “Poppy PLaytime: Survival-horror” out of this, ala resident,
But most of the time the glove is used to illuminate dark places, which, as you understand, is not very fun, but changing hand attachments it`s cool ASMR, I admit.
In the puzzles, they added stationary glove launchers, which you will need to aim at a new mechanism capable of redirecting your hand 360 degrees, but all these sections are too obvious, you don’t have to rotate and aim a lot,
basically, you can brake only if you don’t immediately notice a lever somewhere, it`s not about interesting solution ala Portal, which would give you dopamine in the brain,
The plot has clearly become larger, even a couple of scripts with friendly characters have appeared, but it’s all a template horror story (and it’s starting to smell a lot like fnaf and Bendy), believe me, if you’re not a fan of the cuteness of Hag Wag and all sorts of Kiss Mis, then you don`t need this, the only thing is that now you can pick up a note hanging somewhere on the ceiling with your hand, but usually there are also a couple of unimportant sentences like “blooood I ate everyone boo”,
At first I thought that at least they hired a normal designer, beautiful shots could be found, but after the first 30 minutes the chapter lives up to its name “Deep Sleep",
no unique charm of the factory ever appeared,
And the new “Cat” is not crooked enough to be scary, but the spider mommy in the second one was really good, and Hugga Hug is at least funny,
It seems like they upgraded the interface a bit, added some sorts of effects like beetles and flies, and a cool script with a clockwork machine clearing the way (and added FSR for those who have very weak computers)

In general, now I don’t know how to protect this, and whether it’s necessary at all, either the developers were lucky, or I’m stupid, It’s hard to believe that they have enough ideas to make Chapter 4 good,
If you are thinking about buying it, then it’s better to take the second chapter “Flying in the Web”, you probably only watched it on YouTube, and this is really good gameplay, it’s not about the screamers, just believe me, try to play it yourself.

😊 Sub to my Steam`s Curator`s page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41977550

//
Я всегда был готов защищать Хаггу Ваггу от тех, кто видел в этом только попытку паразитирования на страхолюдных персонажах, ну.. теперь аргументы хейтеров станут более весомыми,
Первые 2 эпизода предоставляли, действительно, уникальный опыт взаимодействия с вытягивающимися руками, сами разрабы говорили, что их цель - это, в первую очередь, интересный геймплей в инди-хорроре,
То ли у них кончились идеи, то ли банальная лень, то ли каловый Project Playtime отнял ресурсы,
Но в третьей главе у меня не получиться похвалить ничего, кроме разве каких-то мелочей,

Чтоб вы понимали - сходу: тут 1-ая локация копирует PT, первый босс копирует SCP (победа над ним такая же, как и раньше), и, конечно же, без FNAF-подобной мини-игры не обойдётся, причём последняя сделана чрезмерно просто, что дополнительно её обесценивает, для авторов это была первая полу-открытая локация, типо "предбанника" - уличное пространство, и 5 зданий, которые мы будем постепенно проходить, возвращаться куда-то нельзя, но это всё равно выглядит более масштабно, в сравнении с тем, что было раньше, поэтому, наверное, идея была в том, чтобы вобрать все лучшие практики, проверенные народом, в масштабном эпизоде,
И ладно бы это сделано креативно было, с добавлением чего-то нового, но нет, это просто уже то, во что вы уже играли, или что уже видели на Ютубе, без какой-то весомой для этого причины,
И, увы, это даже не вершина айсберга, в размеренной бродилке-головоломке, они добавили "Платформинг", вначале чутка базовых прыгулек по разноуровневым цилиндрам аля Half-Life - это ладно, криво, но простительно, Проблема в базовой механике новой Руки, они не придумали ничего лучше, как сделать возможность высокого прыжка по диагонали вперёд, путём нажимания кнопки вертикально под собой, это не прям ужасно, но всё же неудобно, и в некоторых местах может доставить вам "головной боли", не говоря уже о том, что физиологически это бы не работало,
Про противогаз я говорить даже не буду, тут всё понятно, надеваешь - не умираешь, но хуже видишь в плохом эффекте дыма, тоже самое с новыми подбираемыми батарейками, находишь - вставляешь в слот для запуска механизмов,
Второй же главной фишкой является рука-"пистолетик", а точнее зажигалка, рука-fireball, с ней связан интересный коридорчик, когда нам надо отбиваться от маленьких плюшевых засранцев, и, они боятся не огня, а именно выстрела, поэтому каждый потребует потратить патрон, которых всего 5 на бесконечном кулдауне, они интересно сбиваются в стаи, но в конце уровня у меня они все забагались, да и, в целом, геймдизайн лабиринта какой-то странный был, а ведь они могли сделать из этого целый "Poppy Playtime: survival-horror" аля резидент - сейчас это тоже модно, Большую же часть времени перчатка используется для освещения тёмных мест, что, как вы понимаете, не особо весело, но щёлкать - менять руки между собой, кайфовый асмрч-ик, да,
В головоломках же добавили стационарные перчаткомёты, которые вам надо будет нацеливать на новый механизм, способный перенаправлять руку на 360 градусов, но все эти секции слишком очевидные, много крутить и целиться не придётся, в основном, расчёт на то, что вы не заметите где-то вверху жёлтый рыжачок и из-за этого застрянете, а не на каком-то интересном решении аля Портала, которое дало бы вам дофамина в мозг,
Сюжета стало явно больше, появились даже пару скриптов с френдли-персонажами, но всё это шаблонная хоррор-история (да и сильно фнафом и Бенди попахивать начинает), поверьте, если вы не фанатее от милоты Хаг Ваг и всяких Кись Мись - то вам оно и не надо, единственное, что тут теперь рукой можно подобрать записку, свисающую где-то на потолке, но там тоже пара предложений что-то типо "уууу я всъех съел вы моё мясо" ничего такого,
Вначале я подумал, что хоть дизайнера нормального наняли, можно найти красивые кадры, но после первых 30 минут глава оправдывает своё название "Глубокий сон", в целом, никакого уникального шарма Фабрики так и не появилось,
А новый "Кот-Дермот" недостаточно кривой, чтобы быть страшным, а ведь мамочка-паучиха во втором реально внушала, а Хагга Обнимага хотя-бы весёлый,
Немного интерфейс вроде прокачали, добавили всяких эффектов типо жуков и мух, ну и прикольный скрипт с заводными машинками, расчищающими путь, (и добавили FSR - super resolution для тех, у кого совсем слабые компы, поэтому и требования у 3 эп. послабее стали)

В общем, теперь не знаю, как это защищать, и нужно ли вообще, то ли разрабам везло, то ли я наивный, вряд ли им хватит фантазии теперь на что-то годное в аж 4 части,
Вы, если подумываете купить, то лучше второй эпизод "Полёт в паутине" возьмите, наверняка вы смотрели её только на Ютубе,
а это прям геймплейно добротно, не в скримаках дело, просто поверьте, попробуйте сами поиграть.

😊 Если вам понравился обзор, лучшая поддержка - подписка на Кураторку Стима: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37365104

so hard to rate this one. it excels and improves tremendously over the previous chapters as a horror game, offering more tense build up and interesting and terrifying scares through huggy, catnap's stalking, and the various areas of the playcare we start to explore. the moment you start playing, you can FEEL how much the developers have taken their time with this and crafted something that feels bigger than just another "mascot horror" game.

despite this, poppy playtime 3 fails as a game. the puzzles themselves are interesting and decently fun, albeit a little glitchy at times, but it irks me how little catnap featured despite how excited I was for him as an antagonist. he was genuinely terrifying, but his final boss fight is anything but. i dont want to spoil much, but its so underwhelming when compared to how wonderfully executed mommy long legs and huggy wuggy's chase sequences were. i think the new direction they chose to give catnap fits the cat character more, yes, but its just so painfully boring. it reminds me of the whack-a-huggy minigame in chapter 2, except that one was actually fun and didnt overstay its welcome. the playtime devs are definitely able to create fun and stressful minigame situations (especially obvious thanks to chapter 2) but they really missed the mark on its ending which sullies my feelings of positivity for chapter 3.

regardless, it is pretty fun and genuinely very scary when it tries to be. i really admire the direction the poppy devs are taking the series!

I'm not a mascot horror guy, but Poppy Playtime has always been one of the rare ones that I think works. Like, yes, it too is just a brightly coloured vehicle to sell ugly-ass toys to kids (there's literally a dude in the middle of the city I live in that peddles knock-off Huggy Wuggys to people from a little cart, and I think that's the moment I realised we'd be doomed to see this blue bastard for the rest of our lives), but the devs have a simple, effective vision. Creepy, Goose-Bumps-esque stories with some mystery, fun set pieces and high production values. They aren't out here aiming to make exceptional video games. They're out here making heavily scripted rollercoaster rides that largely play themselves but are good fun considering you're going through in one sitting.

But I feel they kinda bit off more than they could chew with this one; the whole thing is just kind of a mess. For the majority of the runtime, it's just playing through boring puzzles and unintuitive gameplay segments which you can tell it knows are unintuitive because you have this whiny ass little kid in your ear overexplaining everything. I feel like the idea was to focus more on gameplay, but Poppy Playtime's gameplay has never really had that much longevity. It's usually just grab a green thing and use it to power up another green thing. In the other episodes, it's to give you downtime between the scary spaghetti lady chasing you, but here, there is barely a spaghetti lady at all, so it's all downtime.

The bread and butter of this series is the scripted setpieces. You've spent a year being like, there's this massive cat guy wandering around that's gonna pull your bones out and play the drums with them. How come I don't get to interact with this dude until the last 20 minutes? Why am I fighting him in the world's most convoluted final boss encounter, where the scariest part is having to telepathically link myself with the devs to figure out what they actually want me to do?

As always, production values: top notch. Looks great, sounds great, animations are... mostly great (sometimes there's a little 'ooooo, spooky moment' but then the spooky thing will just disappear because you didn't stop and admire it for five seconds). But I came for the spooky cat and I got an endless supply of boring puzzles, so maybe give me more spooky cat next time.