Mob Entertainment is expanding its beloved horror franchise with Escape From Playtime, a co-op extraction looter that drops players into the furry bodies of the factory’s monstrous inhabitants. The game will open to the public through a playtest starting October 1, ahead of a full Early Access launch scheduled for October 21.
The announcement arrives as Mob continues to build on the success of Poppy Playtime, a franchise that reimagines the unsettling idea of sentient toys rebelling against their creators. Rather than casting players as survivors fleeing from monsters, Escape From Playtime inverts the premise by letting gamers embody the very abominations roaming the abandoned toy factory. The studio describes this as its most ambitious multiplayer effort to date.
I recently played several rounds of the co-op extraction looter ahead of the open playtest, finding it surprisingly challenging in mostly enjoyable ways despite some finicky controls and a handful of small bugs. For those unfamiliar with the franchise’s extensive backstory, the game offers plenty to discover as players navigate its creepy yet delightfully silly world.
A Darker Side of Sentient Toys
The Poppy Playtime universe has cultivated a dedicated and growing fanbase across games, film, and other media. Its central premise—shoving sentience into factory products and those very creations turning against their makers—represents a unique take on the concept that toys come alive when we aren’t looking. Mob Entertainment has paid close attention to making environments, enemies, and supporting details as accurate and respectful of this world as possible.
The community is VERY passionate about the lore.
Tyler Sanchez, Senior Comms Manager
This dedication to authenticity extends to leaving breadcrumbs for dedicated fans to uncover. A quick look at the franchise’s subreddit reveals how invested the audience remains, with top threads featuring early concept art and spirited debates about various story interpretations. The studio clearly understands it is working within a passionate community that scrutinizes every detail.
The Night Shift
Once dropped into the factory in teams, players receive a straightforward but demanding objective: scavenge loot from around the facility and return it to Barry, a googly-eyed cart, without being caught or killed by the twisted experiments roaming the corridors. Different pieces of loot carry different point values, and each round—referred to as a shift here—features minimum point quotas that must be reached before teams can extract with victory.
Grabbing loot is straightforward, but inventory space remains severely limited across four slots, forcing players to be discerning about what they carry. Many items offer utility for navigating the sprawling factory, from glow sticks that mark important features to leave trails, to an airhorn that helps teammates locate each other while simultaneously revealing your position to enemies.
The deeper we ventured, the more the factory itself became its own oppressive enemy.
Even with full inventories, squads rarely accumulated enough points in a single wave, requiring teams to double back deeper into the labyrinth. With countless halls and doors stretching endlessly in every direction, plus vertical rooms that invite climbing on practically anything, exploration becomes both rewarding and treacherous.
Hazards and Hunters
The factory conceals numerous dangers that intensify as players venture further. One memorable hazard involved a series of rooms consumed by noxious red CatNap gas, toxic to players who lingered too long. Clearing the gas required hopping from school desk to desk through connected rooms to activate scattered switches—a task made dicey by floaty jumping mechanics.
Four enemy types potentially roam the corridors, though playtesters encountered three distinct threats. Little green Boogie Bots patrol in loops and sound alarms before charging to blow teams apart. Cat Bees float like ghosts and latch onto players, slowly draining their health until an ally throws something to dislodge them. Miss Delight wanders the halls almost like a towering boss threat, radiating such menace that even brief encounters left lasting impressions.
For a game without direct combat, out-maneuvering these foes felt engaging enough that I didn’t miss having the option to just simply bash something to death.
Though enemy variety remains limited, each type demands different counterplay strategies. Players must always maintain quick exit routes from bots while avoiding straying too far from their group due to the bees’ latching behavior.
Survive Together or Die Alone
Escape From Playtime emphasizes co-op and teamwork through its design, featuring puzzles that seem impossible to solve solo. One special room featured giant piano keys requiring players to play a song by pressing them in the correct order—a task far more manageable with friends than alone.
The entire game can be played in single player, but the frustration of navigating everything for minimal loot would make it untenable for most. Communication remains limited to a single contextless ping or proximity voice chat, and without matchmaking, players must bring their own friends or join strangers’ hosted games—a challenge as daunting as facing Huggy Wuggy himself.
Small scope romps with friends can always find a foothold with the right community, and Mob has that in spades.
As players progress through shifts, difficulty escalates steadily. The procedurally generated factory map grows larger while filling with more environmental hazards and enemies. Monsters become better at tracking players, and poisonous CatNap gas begins flooding the halls for those who linger too long searching for loot.
Looking Ahead
Despite its challenges, Escape From Playtime’s kleptomaniacal co-op gameplay proves fun and full of potential. The franchise faces steep competition from an explosion of multiplayer games across all genres, but overnight successes demonstrate that well-crafted friend-focused experiences can carve out their own niche with the right community behind them.
Mob Entertainment clearly possesses that passionate community in abundance, built through years of cultivating the Poppy Playtime universe. Players eager to enter the factory at their own peril should mark October 21 on their calendars when Escape From Playtime launches into Early Access, offering a fresh and terrifying twist on extraction gameplay.
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