Five Nights at Freddy's

By: Robert Murphy

Did you ever get the feeling that those animatronic creatures at your local fun land were watching you as you walked by or maybe it was just all in your head like your parents said. Well, in Five Nights at Freddy's the robots are in fact very much alive and they're looking to add you to their ranks. The game is set in a small room in the security office of Freddy's Pizza Emporium and you have come here in the hopes of earning a quick hundred and twenty dollar paycheck for each night of work you put in. But, there's always a catch to something being this good and in this case I would rather stay at the job I have now and never trade it for anything in the world. Freddy and his animal pals want to come and stuff you inside of your own human sized bear suit and join in their merry band so you can help them bring smiles to kids faces every day. Yeah, they omitted all that in the newspaper ad. 

The object of FNAF's is quite a simple one when it gets down to it, survive the night from 12AM to 6AM before the doors open and the new day begins. Obviously though there is quite a trick to it though as Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy the pirate fox all come to life and wander the halls of the building and general terrify the living crap out of you. Your only line of defense is the automatic sliding doors, flickering light switch and the security monitors placed throughout the building. Other than that, you're just a simple man, panning your head back and forth waiting for that glorious time clock to tick over to 6AM and you see that paycheck come from the heavens. Power is the key to the whole thing, you start your nights with 100% battery life and it slowly widdles down to nothing the more you use the security monitors, lights and doors. Irregardless of your power saving usage though, the power will still go down do to the flickering light source placed in your security office and the always rotating fan, apparently out of reach for you to switch off. I vote using the power though because the alternative is to sit around waiting for your fuzzy buddies to scare the crap out of you and grab you, ending the night and your life. 

Despite the basic nature of the layout for FNAF's, the whole thing feels like an extremely devilish affair when combining the strategy that goes into planning out your battery usage and the paranoia that comes from hearing every little sound going off around you. This includes the pitter patter of footsteps coming down your hallways, the squawking sounds of Chica the chick and the general rustling that goes on as the four robots stumble about looking for you and looking for trouble. What is even worse than all this though is the false hope that the first few nights will give you, for the most part there isn't too much to fear on night 1 and night 2, if you keep your head on straight. You begin to think the whole thing is a cake walk and that's when you screw up, you forget something, maybe you forgot to check on Foxy in his pirate cove or didn't flash the lights long enough on Bonnie and then you're jumping out of your seat, screaming like a girl and needing a new pair of shorts. 

Each night as I said will get harder and harder, the animatronic gang will start moving as soon as the nights start and you never quite know just whats going to happen the next time around. The whole experience is a bit of a learning experience, in the words of Cleveland Brown "You do a little better each time" and as long as you keep your wits about you, you can make it through with a little pattern recognition. After awhile you start to see what each character is all about, what they like to do and what they will do before they make a move to come in and grab you out of your chair. This though does not make the experience any less terrifying when you think everything is going smoothly and then out of nowhere you're caught. Between that and the breathe taking moment of realization you get from not being able to close one of your automatic doors, Five Nights at Freddy's becomes a real scary affair. 

Overall, Five Nights at Freddy's is a great Indie game for anyone to pick up, whether you love scares or want to test your will power with your friends and see who can make it furthest. There isn't a lot going on in the game and there really doesn't need to be because the simplicity is what makes the game fun. The AI are not super calculating and they will follow stock paths and go through the same things but that does not make the experience any less terrifying because you just don't know when your number is up or whether or not you screwed the pooch in some way. That feeling of paranoia is probably the best feature that I can attribute to FNAF's, while you sit there in your tiny little room, you must wait and wait and wait wondering when and how they'll get you this time. 

Good:

- A paranoia and fear filled game experience

- A simple but fantastic set up as you sit patiently waiting for the nights to end

- Freddie and his crew are truly terrifying when they get up close and personal 


Bad:

- AI patterns will get figured out after awhile


Scully Rating: 8.9 out of 10