Set in a fictional pizzeria, the player takes on the role of night security guards Jeremy Fitzgerald and Fritz Smith, defending themselves from the restaurant's hostile animatronic mascots.

[1] Players take on the role of a night security guard who must complete their shift without being caught by the homicidal animatronic characters that wander through the building.

[3] The animatronics include remodeled versions of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy from the first game, their decrepit counterparts, and two new characters called the Puppet and Balloon Boy.

[2][4] The flashlight must be repeatedly shone into the center hallway to ward off Foxy, and the Puppet is subdued by a music box that must be constantly wound up using the camera feed.

[8] An unnamed staff member calls Fitzgerald on the phone each night to provide advice and information on the franchise's backstory.

[3] The employee explains that the restaurant's animatronics feature facial recognition software connected to a criminal database, with the purpose of protecting children from potential harm.

Despite these features, the robots were not programmed with a proper night mode; when they detect silence, they seek out the nearest source of noise to find people to entertain, which happens to be the security office.

The Atari-styled minigames provide insight into the restaurant's troubled past, implying that it was the site of the murder of multiple children by an unnamed purple-colored figure.

On the game's fifth night, Fitzgerald is informed by the staff member that the restaurant has been put on lockdown due to an unspecified incident.

A newspaper shown upon the night's completion announces the restaurant's closure, stating that the newly redesigned animatronics will be scrapped, but their older counterparts will be saved for an eventual reopening.

[8] On September 13, 2014, Five Nights at Freddy's developer Scott Cawthon posted a teaser image for a sequel to the original on his webpage.

[6][7][10] TouchArcade said that the difficulty would discourage players who had not been interested in the original,[3] and Gamezebo felt that the increased number of animatronics made the game feel overwhelming.

[6] Nintendo Life felt that they lost their appeal due to the complex gameplay, contending that the stress of playing made the jumpscares predictable rather than surprising.