TL;DR Specs:
Overall Score: 7
Pros:
- Incredible use of atmosphere and sound
- Visuals are stunning and set the frightening mood perfectly
- The scares are effective and will make you dread clicking on the game's icon
- Game does a great job of extending fear beyond the jump-scares by giving the robots terrifying facial expressions
Cons:
- Developers could have done much more with the concept.
- Background isn't fully fleshed out and leaves the player wanting more
- Once you've died a few times, the novelty of the scares wares off quickly
- Limited content does not sanction the game's $5 price tag
So few unique and inspired games see the light of day in this era, which is why it's so exciting to see a title like this hit the market. Five Nights at Freddy's is a good game. It drops your right in the center of the action, providing simple, yet frightening details about your role. The nightly phone calls provide much needed background and do a fantastic job of getting you in the mood for a scare. There are several plot holes in the game, however, though they are easy to overlook and do not detract from the game's fear-factor in any way. Although you may wonder why a security guard who just barely survived the first night would ever come back for a second.
The pace starts off well, with just one animatronic monster coming after you. This gives you a great chance to build up your twitch-action skills. The terrifying pace of the game picks up quickly as more and more robots roam the area. Essentially, it becomes a murderously fearsome game of "red-light/green-light" if ever played that game as a child. The game provides an interesting take on the "click-adventure-horror" genre, allowing you to have a (somewhat) realistic field of view as you look around.
The game is entirely made up of pre-rendered scenes. This creates a bit of a predictable landscape as you progress through the game, however, and does cause the fear-factor to weaken as the game goes on. The quality of the art is fantastic and really does a good job of recreating the 90's click-adventure vibe. The predictability does lessen the terror, as the murderous automatons always pick the same path to reach you. IT doesn't make the game less difficult, mind you, only less scary.
With the unique setting and exceptionally done atmosphere, it's such a shame that the developers did not choose to do more with this. Being able to move around, for example, would provide even more tension to the game. There is also a missed opportunity for exposition. The environment doesn't change as the days progress, nor does the behavior of your deadly pursuers. Managing power makes adds a lot of tension to the game and forces you to be strategic with your actions. Ultimately, though, the game seems to do so little with its fascinating concept.
The scares will get you and might even make you scream in ways you never knew you could. After a while, however, that initially novelty wares off and is replaced with a desire to have more. You'll feel accomplished after surviving the final night at Freddy's, but no more so than surviving the damn yeti in SkiFree. It's a fun game, and you will likely enjoy it if you are in the mood for a scare, but the limited content and underdeveloped concept doesn't warrant the $5 price tag.