Escape From Playtime Preview: Poppy Playtime's Co-op Horror Gets Brutal

We went hands-on with Mob Entertainment's co-op extraction looter Escape From Playtime ahead of its October 1 open playtest. Here's what you need to know.

Ever wondered what it'd be like to be a toy fighting for your life inside a haunted factory? That's exactly the vibe Mob Entertainment is going for with Escape From Playtime, their new co-op extraction looter set inside the twisted Poppy Playtime universe.

The studio recently let press go hands-on ahead of the game's open playtest kicking off October 1, and the takeaway is clear: this is a surprisingly challenging ride. You can't directly attack enemies here. Instead, you fight back using items you scavenge, and each additional shift you take on ramps up the difficulty. You can play solo if you want, but co-op is definitely the way to go if you've got friends.

For anyone new to the lore, senior comms manager Tyler Sanchez was on hand to break things down. The team has put serious effort into making environments, enemies, and tiny details feel accurate to the world fans have fallen for, plus leaving breadcrumbs for lore obsessives. "The community is VERY passionate about the lore," Sanchez said, and a quick scroll through the subreddit backs that up.

So how does a round actually work? Your squad scavenges loot from around the factory and hauls it back to Barry, a googly-eyed cart, without getting caught and killed by the twisted experiments roaming the halls. Different loot carries different point values, and each round (called a shift) has a minimum point quota you must hit before you can escape with the win and move to the next one. Sounds simple, right? It isn't.

Inventory space is brutally limited to just four slots, so you have to be picky about what you grab. Most items double as tools, like glow sticks you can use to mark paths or leave trails. The airhorn is a personal favorite, since it helps teammates find you but also tells enemies roughly where you are. Even with a full squad of four, hitting the quota in one wave is tough, so you'll often double back deeper into the factory.

That's where things get rough. The factory itself becomes an oppressive enemy, full of endless halls, doors, and vertical rooms that invite climbing on practically anything. Hazards pile up too, like rooms flooded with toxic red CatNap gas that you clear by hopping across school desks to flip switches. Then there are the residents: Boogie Bots that patrol and self-destruct, Cat Bees that latch onto you until a teammate throws something at them, and Miss Delight, a fan-favorite menace who wanders the halls like a Big Daddy from BioShock.

Despite some finicky controls and plenty of small bugs, the preview called it challenging in mostly fun ways, with enemy variety feeling sufficient even if limited. The macabre-meets-silly tone really lands, thanks in part to Mob's animation background.

Will you be diving into the open playtest on October 1? Let us know in the comments!