In fact, I've probably run my checklist of things that make a horror experience scary into the ground and back out the other side of the planet at this point, so I'll reiterate a condensed version:
- Creepy things in the dark.
- They want to eat you.
- You can't fight them.
In other words: you're powerless. In most true horror games you typically have two options when faced with something that wants you dead: run for your goddamn life, or hide somewhere and hope it goes away. Amnesia and Outlast both make exceptional use of this concept, but what if I told you there was a game out there that further limited your options?
In Five Nights At Freddy's you are the new night security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, an obvious parody of a certain restaurant known for pizza, arcade games and an arguably unsettling band of animatronic animals. Of course, there's no "arguably" about Freddy Fazbear and his friends, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken and Foxy the Pirate.
As night watchman, your job is to...well...watch over the place. At night. The thing is, at night the animatronics get a bit "quirky" as your predecessor puts it in his recorded phone messages that serve as tutorial and background story. In case it wasn't apparent, Freddy and the gang are the creepy things in the dark that want to murder you.
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| I am so far from settled. You don't even know. |
It seems that your predecessor's definition of "quirky" means they think you're an animatronic skeleton with no costume on, and they want to fix that by forcibly shoving you into one. Unfortunately, said costumes are full of electrical wires and sharp metal bits that would make inhabiting one understandably a bit uncomfortable.
Remember what I said about having limited options when faced with an enemy? Open or close the doors to your office. That's what you've got to work with. If someone is coming for you, hit the button and SLAM! Down come some alarmingly thick blast doors to keep them out. "But wait," you're probably saying. "Why would you ever even open the doors at all? If they just stay shut then nobody can get in! Problem solved, right?"
Well, you're absolutely correct. At the start of each night, you can just hit both buttons and be completely safe for the next 6 in-game hours (about 10 minutes in real time).
Except no, that would be a stupid game mechanic and also completely un-scary.
As it turns out, your employers are cheap bastards who shut off the electricity at night and run the entire security system off of a generator. Guess what uses up that generator's power ridiculously fast? That's right. Absolutely everything you do. Looking at the cameras? Turning on the hallway lights? Closing the blast doors? Doing all of those at the same time will completely drain your power in minutes.
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| And if that happens, you'd better be goddamned ready for Freddy. |
Get it yet? You are literally powerless. You have to develop a strategy for paying attention to the locations of the characters in the building and keeping them out when they show up at your doors, while trying to conserve enough power to last until morning, which involves using the provided protection as little as possible.
"Well, so what?" You're saying now because I've already characterized you as an argumentative little shit, and there's no point in changing that now. "All you need to do is watch your doors, shut them if you see anyone, and open up when they leave! Problem solved again!"
Actually, you are partially right this time. Technically, you can make it through the first night without even bringing up the camera screen because you only need to watch out for Bonnie and Chica, who will always appear at your doors before actually entering the office to grab you and therefore give you advance warning and hopefully enough time to shut them out.
But that's only accounting for half of the characters out to get you. There is also Foxy, who lives in Pirate Cove, and of course Freddy himself. They become active on Nights 2 and 3 respectively and demand your attention via camera to be sufficiently kept at bay. Foxy is constantly gearing up for a sprint down the hallway, and Freddy likes to Solid Snake his way through the shadows directly toward your office. Catching them on camera slows them down, but also takes your attention away from Bonnie and Chica who may already be watching you.
But that's only accounting for half of the characters out to get you. There is also Foxy, who lives in Pirate Cove, and of course Freddy himself. They become active on Nights 2 and 3 respectively and demand your attention via camera to be sufficiently kept at bay. Foxy is constantly gearing up for a sprint down the hallway, and Freddy likes to Solid Snake his way through the shadows directly toward your office. Catching them on camera slows them down, but also takes your attention away from Bonnie and Chica who may already be watching you.
This game is a master of using the player's own paranoia against them. There is so much atmosphere that you completely forget the only payoff is a simple jump scare because you're putting so much concentration into holding onto your limited control of the situation. Every sound you hear could just as easily be nothing as it could be one of the characters moving into another room. Footsteps? OH SHIT, BETTER CHECK THE DOORS AGAIN. Okay, it was nothing. Wait- Was that Freddy's laugh? Did he move again? Better find out where he went before-
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| CHRIST ON A BIKE! |
It's incredibly simple mechanically, but has a fascinating backstory that has spawned equally fascinating fan theories, and it still hits all the marks infinitely more complex games have managed to completely miss. My only real complaints are minor technical issues such as a complete lack of options (not even basic volume controls), and that a game about moving your mouse to the far left and right sides of your monitor doesn't constrain the cursor to the game window, meaning if you have multiple monitors you can easily inadvertently click outside of the game and force it to minimize (which in my case, usually means crashing it as well.)
Five Nights At Freddy's easily gets a 9/10.
