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Try to survive as a security guard at a fast food joint full of frightening characters

Try to survive as a security guard at a fast food joint full of frightening characters

Vote: (626 votes)

Program license: Paid

Developer: Scott Cawthon

Version: 1.13

Works under: Windows

Also available for Android

Vote:

Program license

(626 votes)

Paid

Developer

Version

Scott Cawthon

1.13

Works under:

Also available for

Windows

Android

Pros

  • Gameplay builds mock suspense
  • Famous jumpscare mechanic
  • Notable characters
  • Easy to pick up and play

Cons

  • Little control over the action
  • More of a movie than a game

Five Nights at Freddy's is a point and click adventure game that offers players a rather unusual setting to explore. The entire game takes place inside of a pizza parlor that's equipped with a series of infamous pneumatic musical animals. Unlike those that have been found in a number of real life attractions for years, these dancing compressed air-driven terrors are all out for blood.

Your player character is a security guard who has to take over the night watch shift at Freddy Fazbear's pizza. At first, you might not even know that you have a series of robotic animals roving the halls. In fact, the game simply presents you with a series of display terminals attached to virtual security cameras that you have to watch at first.

Once you've taken the opportunity to survey your situation, you'll notice that some of the animatronics will begin to move. If measures aren't taken to stop them, then eventually one might come into contact with you.

When Freddy Fazbear or any of the other robot animals approach you, it will try to determine whether or not you're wearing a suit. The animatronics aren't intelligent enough to realize that you're not a misbehaving piece of equipment. As a result, you'll be soon forced into a suit yourself to better resemble one of the robotic animals that you're up against.

When that happens, your game is over since the force of putting you into a suit will actually be enough to kill your player character. Apparently, these robotic stuffed toys are actually quite vengeful. This is perhaps the most famous of all the mechanics and gimmicks used in the game.

FNAF, as fans know it, attempts to build tension over time by presenting you with a dark and brooding atmosphere. Once an animatronic animal appears, it jumps out at you giving some players what are regularly referred to as jumpscares. While mature players of the game are unlikely to actually be frightened by these moments, it's certainly an iconic aspect of the gameplay.

In fact, there's a good chance that you'll find the plot and setting rather humorous. In some ways, FNAF plays out like it was a sort of parody or pastiche of a number of popular stereotypes used to get cheap thrills from people who view horror movies.

In that sense, the game is a huge success. Another area where it does quite well is in terms of exploration, though, and it's this one that might prove the most attractive.

Much of the gameplay in FNAF is little more than essentially watching a film you have relatively little control over. Eventually you might come across an empty stuffed bear head, which you can use to fool the robotic animals into thinking that you're one of them. This gives you at least an increased chance of survival.

However, you still won't have all that much control over the game and you might feel like you're relying more on luck than skill to succeed and get to the end of the work week.

Exploring the game's meta themes will more than likely keep you coming back for more. FNAF has cultivated an entire community surrounding it that's dedicated to nothing but solving a variety of mysteries that are encoded in the game's backstory.

You might find yourself replaying the game repeatedly trying to collect individual clues that can help you learn more about what caused the robots to go insane and why your player character can still get fired even if you complete the game.

That makes it an attractive option for RPG and MUCK fans, in spite of the fact that the core gameplay doesn't resemble either of these models at all. FNAF is essentially a sort of specialized RPG in which you don't do any real leveling up. Rather, all of the action happens outside of the game's code as you struggle to discover little bits of information that the developer left out of the narrative on purpose.

Naturally, this won't appeal to everyone. Some people have claimed that children might be much more interested in this type of introspective research since mature gamers are looking more for actual rewards provided by a title's engine.

If you're open to the idea of plunging yourself into a search for answers that has spilled out onto a host of forum and wiki sites, then Five Nights at Freddy's might be the intellectual and comedic challenge that you've been looking for all along.

Pros

  • Gameplay builds mock suspense
  • Famous jumpscare mechanic
  • Notable characters
  • Easy to pick up and play

Cons

  • Little control over the action
  • More of a movie than a game