Five Nights at Freddy's (2014)

Five Nights at Freddy's was huge. I think we all remember when this little indie horror game was released in August of 2014. I remember Markiplier and other YouTubers milking this franchise to death. Game Theory and other YouTubers would dig and dig at the lore. Needless to say, this franchise changed EVERYTHING. Books, a planned movie, leagues, and leagues of theories... And it all started with Five Nights at Freddy's 1. Does this game hold up?

I'd say... Yeah in ways it does. You are a security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria and well the animatronics are trying to kill you. Unfortunately, this game fails at being scary. Don't get me wrong, the atmosphere is creepy and unsettling. The animatronic designs are uncanny the audio is fitting and I love the easter eggs. Posters with Crying Children, disturbing news clippings, the whole "It's Me" stuff. I love that. When I say this game fails at being scary, I say that the game over relies on Jumpscares. At first, yeah it will startle you. But there are no lasting effects. It doesn't leave much of an impression. Only really 2 Jumpscares are a bit startling. Foxy and Golden Freddy.

But what I love about this game is the gameplay. You don't move. You let the animatronics come to you and it's your job to ward him off. (I also love the irony that a security guard is anything but secure). You use the security cameras to find said animatronics, you use the lights to detect animatronics if they are near your door and you then close the door. And you must conserve power while doing so. Upon losing power, you will be killed by Freddy. Survive from 12 to 6 AM for.... 7 Nights... And you win!

Each Animatronic has a set of rules that must be followed.

Bonnie The Bunny - He can teleport around the Pizzeria. He makes his way to the leftmost door. If he appears, you close the door.

Chica the Chicken - She doesn't teleport. She will make her way to your office one area at a time. Click Clacking is her in the Kitchen. She appears outside your right window next to your door. Close it.

Foxy The Pirate - He sits in Pirates Cove. You gotta check the camera to keep him at bay. If not, he will leave and run down the left hallway and kill you.

Freddy Fazbear - He will kill you if the power goes out. He follows a set path around the pizzeria. He hides in the dark. When he appears at the closest camera to the right door, you close it. Keeping the camera on him keeps him from moving.

Golden Freddy - He very rarely appears. He will appear in your office and cause the lights to flicker and you to hallucinate. You have to open the camera to get him away. If you don't he kills you and crashes your game.

Each night gets progressively more difficult. 4/20 is the ultimate challenge.

Five Nights at Freddy's is a fantastic game. I love it for how simple it is and though it doesn't really evoke fear, it will at least keep you at your toes. Stressful in its own way.

3/10

Would Recommend

I feel like you could write a book about the success of this game or how it hit the YouTube gaming community like how crack hit low-income neighborhoods in the 80s. It is so unfortunate that it isn’t my cup of tea.

I’m going to assume that everyone under the sun knows the gist of these games, so I’m just going to focus on what I think is wrong about it.

My main problem is in the gameplay department. The game banks on the idea of you waiting for the scares to come and managing your resources until then, which sounds interesting but isn’t well designed.

Each animatronic has a set behavior that can be figured out and countered pretty early in the playthrough, especially if you lose and replay levels. So, with that out of the way, the real challenge of the game ends up being the management of energy, since if you run out you lose, and granted it is pretty hard, since the only way to learn the ideal way of saving power is through trial and error (or guides of course).

This process wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that all the levels are basically the same, only upping the difficulty as you progress. Each night is around 10 minutes, if you lose, you’ll have to restart the night from the beginning, increasing the repetitiveness of the task. Eventually, when the frustration sets in, the horror elements start to wear off, leaving only a strict management game with spooky aesthetics.

It’s a shame really because I think the original concept is great, atmosphere and sound design work together nicely and are the stand-outs of the game in my opinion. I also find the character design pretty charming for some reason. And I like the inclusion of a cheat menu, because it allowed me to finish the game lol.

Even though I feel no interest in the rest of the franchise, I still am looking forward to the new entry, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, since it looks more like my type of game than any of the others.

I could also do without the ear-piercing jumpscares tho. You can keep the jumpscares just don’t destroy my eardrums.

Five Nights at Freddy's has great strengths and great weaknesses. For its strengths, it's a solidly terrifying and original premise with an original form of gameplay where you desperately watch and hold back a set of malicious AI from scaring the crapola out of you. It utilizes the slightest of audio cues with the most terrifying scenes of silently approaching automatons. Where is it weak?

Getting the ideas and the style out of the way, Five Nights at Freddy's doesn't communicate how to play the game very well to the player. Given a long night for 6 nights (extra night if you're good enough), you're to find out what makes the four (or five?) automatons tick and halt their advances. How do you know what stops them? Looking at them does the trick, at least for a short while. Or does it? I guess you turn these lights on but does that hold them back? Where do they go? Should I even look at them? When should I close the door? All these questions and more are rarely answered through grueling trial and error. By the time you've figured out how they work, you'll be immune to the jolt of a shaking Chica or sprinting Foxy. Power keeps you on your toes to conserve energy, but more often than not you'll be running out of juice figuring out how things work.

Once you got the pattern down, it's remarkable how specific the strategy is. Each automaton follows a very specific pattern, and just looking it up (cheeeater) reveals how simple the game actually is. Once you get to the more challenging nights (see: Night 6), not even the strategy helps and you feel chained to battling random and unpredictably quick AI.

However, the game has a distinct charm and a creepy enough premise that you'll be in for a decent amount of good frights, something horror games should strive for. Just don't expect to enjoy this game by the time you know how to play it and Bonnie got through the door YET AGAIN so you have to throw strategy out the window and wait for death -