Five Nights, Five Animatronics, and Nowhere to Hide: Five Nights At Freddy’s

Who would’ve thought Chuck-E-Cheese turned evil would lead to 30 games, 58 books, and one movie- with a second set to release in December? 

I surely didn’t.

I would go insane digging deep into this franchise, playing all the games, reading the books, and learning the very complicated story, so let's start with the beginning for now. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) created by Scott Cawthon was released August 8, 2014. FNAF is a single-player indie horror game available to play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Windows, and mobile. With a playtime of two to three hours, FNAF is perfect to play in one sitting. 

The protagonist of the game is Mike Schmidt, who’s just gotten a new job as the night time security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. His shift starts at 12 am and ends at 6 pm. During his shift the animatronics- Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy- come to life. Your job is to learn their patterns and try to avoid them all. 

There’s the four main animatronics and a secret fifth one: Golden Freddy. He only appears when a certain action is done over and over. When he appears, you lose immediately and your game crashes.

When you fail to avoid any of the animatronics, you get caught with one of those classic ear-piercing jumpscares that certainly make your heart stop. Any of the animatronics catching you immediately means you’ve lost and you must replay that level. 

Adding to the scare factor is the atmosphere surrounding the player. It almost makes you feel defenseless. The player is confined to one room and subjected to a creepy circus-like music as well as the sounds of the animatronics moving around outside. 

FNAF is broken into five nights- levels. As the player progresses, the nights get harder. Each night your limited power- used to man the lights, doors, and cameras- runs out faster the more you use it. That’s not the only thing that changes, the animatronics get more active and violent the longer Mike works at Freddy’s. 

At the beginning of the first night, the player is introduced to the ‘phone guy,’ who serves as a type of tutorial. He walks you through the mechanics of the game while the animatronics are disabled. The ‘phone guy’ returns at the start of each night with exposition and a helpful hand that progressively gets less helpful. 

As you keep playing you’ll begin to understand that even though the mechanics are simple, the strategy of the game is not. FNAF is a challenging and skill based game that requires the player to learn the patterns of each animatronic and how to manage their power. 

FNAF is one of those games that’s addictive to keep playing just to get a do over, or to get that satisfaction of finishing a night. Something that keeps me coming back to FNAF. 

There are a handful of issues with FNAF and that purely comes from its budget and age. Mechanics can sometimes break and not function properly, which can lead to frustration in a game based on timing things perfectly and relying on patterns. 

FNAF is only the beginning of a convoluted and complicated franchise. The story has layers upon layers of depth and  characters that are all compelling and interesting. The first FNAF may not be perfect or even that good of a game in comparison to its newer instruments but it's the community, the story, and the low budget that makes this franchise and game a classic indie game. 

My Rating: