Five Nights at Freddy's

Perhaps one of the most famous and infamous of viral sensations to emerge over the past few years is Scott Cawthon's wildly popular media franchise "Five Nights at Freddy's"- a horror series that started rather humbly with the release of this original game only two short years ago.

An independent point-and-click game, the narrative follows a night- watch security guard recently hired at the popular children's restaurant chain " Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." The gimmick of the restaurant being it's highly advanced cast of adorable animatronic animals who have the ability to roam freely, including the titular "Freddy." However, as there is fear that the animatronic's servos would lock up should they stop moving for prolonged periods of time, they are allowed to walk freely throughout the restaurant during the night... And it quickly becomes apparent that should one of these characters discover you during the night, you're in for a nasty surprise! And so, you must use a simplified control scheme to keep watch of the characters on CCTV monitors and try to keep them from discovering you by locking doors around you.

The graphics and controls are extremely simplistic, but that's a big part of the charm of the gameplay. You can't really run away- you're stuck and only have a limited supply of energy to close and lock the doors. It's an elegant and simple mechanic that inherently and quickly generates thrills and chills... being stuck in one place creates an automatic sense of claustrophobia and paranoia that works wonders for the atmosphere. Cawthon's design work is also top-notch, as not only do the animatronic's look true-to-life in comparison to those that exist in the real world (including the obvious reference to a certain mouse-based pizza place/arcade), but they're also quite startling and can quickly turn devious at the drop of a dime. The design-work for the building itself is very nice as well, with the usual "happy" look of a restaurant looking very spooky in the dark.

This is also a game (and a series as a whole) that rewards in-depth plot rumination and analysis. While you can play it simply based on its high-concept (and admittedly somewhat shallow) premise alone, there's a lot of very subtle imagery, suggestions of treachery and even some phenomenal sub-text that is evident throughout that hints of a greater storyline taking place. You can start to piece together the history of the going's on and theorize as to what exactly is causing all of the horror, and it adds a lot to the experience. Especially when played in context of the overall franchise, as each of the games slowly add more and more to the story as a whole.

Were I to lodge any complaints against it, it would be that the gameplay can become a bit monotonous over time (especially towards the end), it can be hard to get a handle on things and sometimes the subtle hints of backstory are... well... way too subtle. But that cannot detract from an otherwise pretty darned fun and entertaining new horror-phenomena. For only a few dollars on your phone's app- store or online, you could definitely do a lot worse. And it's definitely well-worth checking out for horror fans.

I give the original "Five Nights at Freddy's" a strong 8 out of 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.

Five Nights at Freddy's (2014) Plot: 8.3/10 Gameplay: 7.2/10 Design: 7.8/10 Atmosphere: 10/10 Sound Effects and OST: 7.7/10 Graphics: 5.7/10 Scary Factor: 7.3/10 Content: 3.9/10

FINAL SCORE: 7.2/10 (7 stars out of 10) The classic one! The one who started it all, for sure, The king of nostalgia, bringing us back to 2014! The atmosphere is great, remembering to us, how scary the first game was, good lore start and effective scares, but I feel FNAF 1 pretty overrated, because it fails with it's minimum content and non-challenging gameplay (except for 20/20/20/20 mode)

This game has Freddy fazbear, bonnie,chica,andfoxy trying to kill you good jumpscares great graphics and mechanis for the animatronics