A toy factory, a collection of grinning little creatures and a set of instructions that eventually boils down to “Don’t die.” Escape From Playtime doesn’t exactly ease you into its world. It takes the unsettling setting of Poppy Playtime, hands you a group of friends and leaves you to discover just how quickly a straightforward plan can become a complete mess.
I had fun with it. Quite a lot of fun, in fact, especially when playing alongside friends. This isn’t a horror game that needs to terrify you every second to work. Sometimes the best moment is the panic when everyone realises the group has gone in three different directions, or the laughter after an escape that probably shouldn’t have succeeded.
There are some genuinely interesting ideas here too. The Early Access version still has room to grow, but the foundations are entertaining enough that I wanted to go back for another shift.
A very different trip to Playtime Co.
Developed and published by Mob Entertainment, Escape From Playtime launched on Steam Early Access on 21 October 2026. Rather than returning as another human wandering the halls of an abandoned factory, you’re playing as one of the Smiling Critters, those colourful, permanently smiling toys whose cheerful appearances don’t quite match the world they inhabit.
The contrast is one of the game’s strongest visual ideas. Everything around you is a gloomy tangle of pipes, industrial machinery and ominous corridors, but your little group looks as though it has escaped from a particularly deranged Saturday-morning cartoon. There is something wonderfully absurd about a bright purple cat negotiating its way through an environment so determined to be unpleasant.
You don’t need to know every detail of Poppy Playtime to understand the immediate objective. A mysterious Voice has work for you. You must head into the factory, collect resources and get them where they need to go, while avoiding the things that would rather see your expedition end badly. The wider story gives returning fans more to investigate, but the moment-to-moment appeal is surprisingly simple.
Gather loot. Deliver loot. Don’t die. Repeat.
One of the screenshots from our session captures the game’s philosophy rather neatly. A board lays out the routine: gather loot, deliver it to Barry, send Barry, don’t die and repeat. That’s your basic loop, but it leaves a lot of space for things to go wrong.
Each shift sends the team exploring dark areas of the factory in search of useful items. The layout can change from run to run, and you have to manage the practical business of getting yourself and your supplies back safely. Finding something valuable is only half the job. Getting it out when the pressure starts to rise is another matter entirely.
Along the way, there are tools to pick up, opportunities to climb and explore, and little challenges that interrupt the ordinary routine. The aptly named “Floor is Lava” room, visible in our gameplay captures, is exactly the sort of oddball interruption that gives the experience some personality. It is not simply a case of walking down corridors and waiting for something to jump out.
Glowby, the rather cheerful little guide, helps introduce the rules and equipment. There’s a map, a limited number of inventory slots and a clear sense that every trip needs a little planning. None of this is overwhelmingly complicated, but it creates enough moving parts for a group to make its own entertainment.
Friends make the difference
For me, the multiplayer aspect is the reason to play. The game supports online groups of up to eight players, with proximity voice chat adding another layer of uncertainty. A perfectly sensible plan can unravel very quickly once someone loses sight of the others or gets distracted by a suspicious corridor.
There is an enjoyable balance between working together and simply reacting to the chaos as it happens. You want to collect enough resources, avoid unnecessary risks and keep the team moving, but the moments you remember afterwards are often the ones where somebody does something wonderfully ill-advised.
It’s also a game that benefits from not taking itself too seriously. The Smiling Critters are expressive, the factory is suitably creepy, and the contrast between the two gives encounters an entertaining sense of humour. You’re meant to feel vulnerable, but you’re also playing a brightly coloured toy with an enormous grin. That combination shouldn’t work quite as well as it does.
My time with the game was spent in co-op, so I won’t pretend this is a verdict on the solo experience. What I can say is that with friends involved, it has the sort of spontaneous, unpredictable fun that makes another round an easy suggestion.
The early days of an interesting idea
There is a reason this is an Early Access review rather than a definitive judgement on the finished game. At launch, Mob Entertainment confirmed that the core experience would begin with one starter zone and a smaller enemy lineup, with more environments and features planned. The studio has already started responding to feedback, including public lobbies and changes to group balancing.
That matters because variety will be crucial to its long-term appeal. Exploring an industrial corridor is exciting when you don’t know what is around the corner. Once a group learns the patterns and has seen most of what a zone can throw at it, fresh challenges, enemies and places to explore are what will keep those sessions interesting.
The dark visual style suits the setting, although it occasionally makes the factory feel less visually distinct than the little characters wandering through it. More memorable spaces, extra hazards and further surprises would help the game develop an identity beyond the initial joke of cute toys in a deeply unpleasant place.
Those are reservations about how much room there is to grow, rather than reasons to dismiss what is already here. I enjoyed the sessions I played, and the developers have a workable idea on their hands. The next question is how far they can take it.
Final verdict
Escape From Playtime takes a familiar abandoned-toy-factory setting and finds a surprisingly entertaining new angle. The scavenging loop is accessible, the Smiling Critters give the game personality, and a few unusual challenges help it avoid feeling like a completely routine co-op horror experience.
Most importantly, it is fun with friends. There is something very appealing about a game that gives a group a simple task and then supplies just enough danger, distraction and silliness to make carrying it out an adventure.
It still needs more depth and variety as Early Access continues, but I came away enjoying what I played and interested in seeing what comes next. If you’ve got a few friends who enjoy spooky co-op games without needing everything to be deadly serious, there’s plenty here to appreciate already.
What works: Strong co-op appeal; the playful contrast between colourful critters and a creepy factory; accessible scavenging; memorable little challenges; plenty of opportunities for shared chaos.
What needs work: More locations, enemy variety and fresh surprises will be important as Early Access develops; some industrial spaces are visually very similar.
Review access disclosure: Coloured Static Press received three complimentary PC review codes for independent co-op testing, one through PressEngine and two supplied by Renaissance PR on behalf of Mob Entertainment. This has not influenced our editorial assessment. At the PR team’s request, this Early Access review is not numerically scored. Original gameplay was captured by Coloured Static Press on 7 November 2026; other players’ usernames are obscured in the prepared screenshots.
Game information: Escape From Playtime · Mob Entertainment (developer/publisher) · PC / Steam Early Access · released 21 October 2026 · online co-op for up to eight players.