Emily Wants to Play – Guide

The latest horror/strategy title on Steam, Emily Wants to Play, is one confusing piece of work.  Hopefully, this guide will help clear things up.  The game begins with you, a pizza delivery man, arriving at a seemingly empty home.  You walk inside and the door slams behind you.  The clock strikes midnight and a child’s distant giggle begins an increasingly difficult struggle to survive the night.  The game gives you no instructions on how to proceed other than what is written on a white board in the kitchen.  Keep in mind that in order to survive, you must do the exact OPPOSITE of what the board tells you to do.

The game is similar to 5 Nights at Freddy’s.  As each hour passes (over the span of roughly 5 minutes each), more creepy challenges and rules are presented in the form of Emily’s demonic toys.  Your goal is to identify each enemy as they are presented to you and deal with them accordingly.  Failure to do so results in a jump-scare cutscene and you are taken back to the beginning of whichever hour you died on.

There are a total of 3 killer dolls that are mixed and matched as the hours go by, each with different rules to follow.   For the first hour of the night, the only doll in play is Kiki.  A child’s giggle will tell you that she is nearby and your goal is to spot her ASAP.  Once encountered, a brief staring contest will cause her to disappear.  Generally, a good idea is to keep her within your field of vision as you make your way to the nearest doorway.  She’ll continue to appear randomly throughout the game.

By 2am, the Clown enters the fray.  If you see or hear the clown, remaining still will cause him to disappear.  From experience, even the slightest movement of the mouse while the clown continues to grumble at you will cause him to attack.  Unlike Kiki, you don’t need to make eye contact with him.

3am adds yet another doll with another rule to follow.  Chester can be distinguished by his high-pitched, male laughter.  If seen or heard, the player will only have a few seconds to escape the room before he breaks into a sprint.   Between Kiki, the Clown and Chester you’ll find yourself in a game of Red Light Green Light, carefully avoiding areas where Chester may be able to trap you.

Emily herself steps in after 4am, and from then on the game really becomes a challenge.  For this hour, it’s just you and Emily.  In my play through, no dolls were encountered.  A 70 second timer appears at the bottom of the screen, indicating how much time you have to find her before she kills you.  Locating her will add 70 seconds to however much time you had left.  Rinse and repeat.

Once the clock strikes 5 the game turns to chaos, as all of the enemies start doing their rounds.  Follow the rules of each respective doll and search the house thoroughly for Emily.  Around the 5 minute mark, start working your way to the entrance of the house.  At 6 o’clock, the front door finally opens and you only have a few seconds to escape before Emily gets to you.