Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy's is a perfect example of the insanity of modern gaming, a point-and-click horror indie game that takes place in a pizza restaurant in which you have to ward against murderous animatronics, but it actually is about resource management. It's sounds ridiculous on paper but the actual game is quite creepy and unnerving, which might translate into terror and panic (that is depending on your tolerance towards this kind of games).

It works so well because it's mechanics reinforce the pillars of the horror genre: you are stuck helpless in a small office room, you cannot fight back, you cannot escape, you can just close doors in order to ward against the horrors that wander in the night land. It also is very immersive and atmospheric, you can get spooked just by watching the animatronics move from place to place, and the jumpscares are only the climax of a carefully crafted crescendo in which your death is the result of your own mistakes.

But there is also something very malicious about it, the game is about managing your only resource very carefully (which is energy), but when people are scared they are more prone to make poor and irrational decisions, thus being scared only makes the game much harder. So in order to beat the game you have to be able to fight against your own fear in order to make rational decisions, so you don't get killed by the mascots of a bloody pizza restaurant.

It's a surprisingly good and scary game that also has a surprisingly interesting backstory, at least for those who bother to search for it. It's crazy game made by one person that somehow managed to become one of the most iconic and memorable games of 2014.

Five Nights at Freddy's has something of a rabid fanbase, and equally rabid haters, when it's really just good if flawed. But why does it work so well? There are several components that, when broken down, make this game much better than it gets credit for (from either side).

1) The sound design is spectacular, as the genre (in my opinion) lives and dies on the ability to make you scared of the noises the monster makes before you ever see the monster. The steps through the halls, pots and pans being knocked over in the kitchen, the low buzzing and droning the fan and power... it all works together to create a really haunting atmosphere.

2) In most horror games, when you fight spooky creatures, you'll have some idea of when they're coming. And when the jumpscares come, you rarely anticipate them and are helpless to prevent them. Here, you know when they're coming, and you have to do everything you can to prevent it. Giving the player agency in such a way is a much more powerful tool than I think is granted to this series, and one I wish more games approached themselves with.

3) Its simplicity. You have one goal (survive the night, each night), four things in your way, and some doors and a security camera to keep you alive. That's all you have to do. When thought of as a puzzle, instead of purely horror, the simplicity of your objectives help out greatly. There's no fluff, which makes the game a lot more focused. Of course, in order to accomplish this, there's a difficulty curve that increases fairly quickly (but it doesn't feed you what to do). The results are still good.

There are some issues, of course. The run-down aesthetic of the building you're in isn't particularly engaging except to serve as a set piece for you and the monsters, and the plot (what plot can be inferred, as most of it is kept in the background to mixed results) doesn't have a typical sense of build or climax. The jumpscares are also bound to be constant, and thus they may quickly wear off on you. However, I feel like the jumpscares... are not as big of a deal as people make them out to be. Their sole defining feature isn't to be "scary", and they exist to keep motivating you to do better and adjust to the game.

Future entries in the series would take the elements above and constantly refine and retool itself, to varied results, but this first game is a good foundation for the series, and I think the ambition presented here is what makes it appealing and charming, even if not the best.

I was 14 when I saw this on Steam Greenlight and thought, "holy hell this looks good." I was so hyped for this game I even bought it the day it released on DESURA. For me, it was just one of MANY indie horror titles whose development I had been following rabidly, including Monstrum and One Late Night: Deadline (LOL). Never did I anticipate in my wildest fantasies that this would become one of the biggest cultural phenomenons in gaming history.

Only 1 year after the first game's release, FNAF's fanbase had gotten out of control and the games in the series had seriously declined in quality, but this first game in those early days before the lets players ruined it was truly something special. Playing this game on Desura before anyone had played it, I had no idea what to expect. It was truly one of the most thrilling and terrifying horror gaming experiences I've ever had, and I had this feeling that years of searching for the perfect indie horror game after Amnesia had paid off. I felt like I'd made a discovery. Then, Game Theory came in and ruined the mystery. SIGH.

Five Nights at Freddy's is the creature that was bound to happen. What I mean by this is that because of all the jumpscares, cheap tricks that horror games have done now for nearly two decades is to scare the living hell out of the audience for a split second before everything goes back to the way it was in the game. Unlike the cheapness of other horror games, Five Nights at Freddy's doesn't just transcend the novelty but elevates it through unique design and presentation. Five Nights at Freddy's trick comes in the form of a security guard stuck in the survivallence room never on night duty having to keep watch of the place only to find out that the animatronics in the place are after his blood. Five Nights at Freddy never allows the player to move or hide from the enemies, rather it relies on the conservation of energy by not closing the doors (for some reason) and watching the hallways on the survivallence monitor pad, a flashlight to look outside to see if the enemy is close by so that you may close the door in order for them not to get in. In some sense it's a pseudo-strategy, in which you need to analysis the patterns and behaviours of the enemies in order to prevent them from killing you. What makes the game quite disturbing is the ugly design of the entire game with the almost uncanny valley look of the animatronics that come to kill you. These animatronic can give a very creepy and uncomfortable feeling when playing the game and the sudden notice of them at your doorstep is quite a scary fright! Though what builds up the fear factor is the unnerving jump scares that are provided with the creepy looking face, the constant lookout for them only to have them forcefully pull you out of the surveillance screen screaming bloody murder in your face before cutting to static and back to the menu is purely horrifying. If only it was a one time event, but because of the creepy factor of the game there is this instinct nature inside that wants you to avoid how offputting they are. This is why the game is so frightening, there is no desire nor resistance to the unnerving nature of these jumpscares. Apply it with the addition of the secret backdrop story and the hidden lore behind the game, and it goes deeper than what most horror series do. Five Nights at Freddy's is a diamond in the rough.