Five Nights at Freddy's

Scott Cawthon's first hit game and an icon in the Horror Games genre, Five Nights at Freddy's is a point-and-click with an easy-to-learn concept that had a very strong impact on the gaming community and remained relevant for a long time on YouTube, where reputable YouTubers such as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye made videos that lead the game to become popular in a relatively short time among teenagers. The game's success was due to its simplicity and shallow story (which turned into a complex timeline in the following games), making it a good introduction to horror games. An important fact to note is that Five Nights at Freddy's was the driving force behind other game franchises, such as Hello Neighbour and Bendy and the Ink Machine.

The story behind this game is simple: the protagonist is hired to work as a Night Guard for five nights (from Midnight to 6am) in a pizzeria similar to the American fast-food chain Chuck E. Cheese. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria presents itself as a decaying pizzeria for children's parties where shows are put on by a group of four animatronic robots (Freddy Bear, Chica the Chicken, Bonnie the Rabbit and Foxy the Fox). The protagonist's job (which is controlled by the player) is to make sure that nothing happens to the place during the night, keeping an eye on every room in the pizzeria via a video surveillance system. This is when the "horror" element of the game comes into play: the robots come to life at night and are hostile towards the player, who can only close the office doors to protect himself from the robots' attacks (the "jumpscares"). The use of the office doors, the video surveillance cameras and the torch is limited to a percentage of the battery which, when runs out, leaves the player totally vulnerable. Each robot has a behavioural pattern that becomes more complex as the nights progress, leading the player to have a reaction time of mere seconds in order to not lose the game. The game's narrative is implied by small pieces of paper and objects scattered around the setting, as well as by easter eggs that may appear during each night and through the phone calls of "Phone Guy", the protagonist's supposed instructor who calls at the beginning of each night to explain what we should do (and who ends up revealing some of the events of this reality). Basically, the strategy of Five Nights at Freddy's is simple, with the player simply having to memorise the behaviour patterns of each robot and prevent imminent attacks through the sounds made and the use of office doors and video surveillance cameras, requiring strategy and attention throughout the game.

Despite its simplicity, Five Nights at Freddy's has generated a huge community of fans and had such an influence on POP culture that it has spawned more than 13 games, 28 books and the film that premiered on 1 November 2023. Despite being considered a game with old-fashioned graphics and gameplay, it offers the player a healthy challenge that is neither easy nor difficult. Once the player has completed the "Story Mode" (which consists of the five nights), they can still do the 6th Night (a more difficult night) and, finally, they can choose the difficulty of each robot (from 0 to 20) in the "Custom Night Mode" (where the 4/20 difficulty challenge represents the most difficult way to play the game). All that remains for me to say is that Five Nights at Freddy's is a simple game with a mild level of terror (basically zero for true fans of horror classics) and a good way to introduce the theme of horror games to new players. Although it doesn't offer much in the way of long-term entertainment (it can become repetitive or boring), it can provide a few hours of fun and a lot of satisfaction for the player when they complete each of the five nights. With that, I close this review by giving the game a rating of 7/10.

Five Nights at Freddy's or FNAF as sometimes shortened has taken the gaming world by storm it seems as a breakthrough hit of 2014 and a new darling of the independent scene. The game a simple point and click survival game seems pretty simple but has enough layers of complexities to make it interesting.

With all the buzz and hype surrounding it and a very passionate and vocal fanbase around it, it's no doubt causing enough of the love-it-or-hate it rift among gamers, with some saying this is incredible and other saying it's the worst thing to happen to games. Here is my take. Yes I do enjoy these series of games and this one caught me by surprise.

Survival Horror games lately have been something of a dying breed as the technology of games has improved incredibly the need of suspense has gone with it. Flashy graphics, high quality animations have subverted the need for old time spooky feelings. FNAF however is survival horror at its very basic because all you can do is survive.

While it is easy to write FNAF off as simply a game of nothing more than cheap jump-scares and it has plenty of them, the suspense of the game lies in playing with your auditory senses, before the robots come to scare you and your reflexes as you use only a few basic measures to keep your self alive. You don't walk around, you don't blast away zombies or other monsters, you sit and you open and close doors, check cameras to keep tabs on your foes and hold out enough power. It doesn't sound the most riveting but its the simplicity that captures the imagination. It's a very back to basics form of gaming that's been lost in the era of highly bloated budgeted games.

The scare factor wears off as the nights progress and FNAF becomes less of a scary game and more of a game of luck and stress management, especially when you delve into the extremely difficult mode by setting all AI program levels to max. Your patience and your tolerance for loud screeching sounds will be tested and for someone like me who has never been a fan of purely luck driven games somehow I managed to still find it enjoyable.

FNAF can scare you, bore you or just catch your imagination with the absurd amount of lore surrounding this game. Fans have really elevated a simple concept with a horrifying in-universe back story and Scott Cawthon has been all to happy to oblige by expanding on this and giving just enough taste of mystery and suspense to keep us coming for more.

This one is probably still the best game good animatronic designs. Not to over exaugurated pretty eerie not too scary tho.

As any game should, Five Nights At Freddy's does have a back story. the problem is that it is a complete mess. there is also little to no interaction with the fnaf storyline in the actual games, and the player who didn't buy the books and spent hours searching the internet to find a little closure on the storyline, will not have any idea what the game is really about, other than surviving for 5 nights. i think that the back story was poorly bolted together as the series continued, and ended up being mostly uninteresting and badly handled. this game, for me, masters the main most important aspects of horror that little other games do, and is to me a beautiful example what the perfect horror game should be. I love this game to bits, but i wish more love and attention went into story development.

There's not really mutch to talk about here, because it's a pretty small game. So this is a short review.

Scott Cawthon (Creator) managed to do something special here, the animatronics are creepy aswell as being child friendly animals that you can hug. He took something that all players felt an amount of safety and entertainment around and made that change. The gameplay is unique making you come up with a way to survive yourself, which gives a very creepy atmosphere. It's insane to think about how these games have evolved, and for the most part in a good way. If I have to give one negative it's that the cameras aren't really that necessary since you only have to check Foxy and Freddy, but they're still better implemented than they are in FNaF 2.