Night Thirty-One

So here we are, the end of my trip through five games, two novels, a guidebook, any number of YouTube videos and a family-themed restaurant with some over-enthusiastic animatronics.

In the end, Five Nights at Freddy's works as a pretty fun introduction to horror video games and horror stories - although the game levels can certainly get frustrating, the tension you build in yourself while listening for movement in the restaurant beyond what you can see on the security cameras can be a lot of fun, and the jump-scares are pretty great too.

Although the deeper mythology of the games was a little trickier for me to get a handle on, I cannot deny the marketing, and as you can see in the picture above, you can get all sorts of things from Freddy Fazbears if you're interested.

A neat little horror franchise I was glad to experience.

That's all folks!

Night Twenty-Four

Trying desperately to make my way through Five Nights at Freddy's 4 I turned to the official guidebook to the series, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Freddy Files.  This book is a game by game guide to successfully passing each game, including maps, character descriptions and fan theories for each game and both novels.

In addition it explains the mini-games, a staple of the series from the second game forward, in which eight-bit style games are interspersed between each night and work to tell the various back stories of each game.

All in all, for a guidebook it was pretty fun, but I do wish there had been a chapter on Cawthon's original creation of the game, rather than simply focusing on in-game strategy and backstory, as behind-the-scenes info can be some of the most interesting.

Although 4 is almost certainly a wash for me, I've still got a few days to try and crack Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location before the month is over.

Night Nineteen

Having just finished the third game, I moved on to the second novel.  Cawthon and Breed-Wrisley's second novel, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones, follows Charlie a year after the events of The Silver Eyes.  Now a student in University, Charlie is finding she may have her own talent in robotics, following in her father's footsteps.

Having destroyed the original Freddy Fazbear's in the previous novel, all of the original animatronics are long gone, except now there appear to be three new giant-sized animatronics on the move, and this time not limited to one location.

As the novel just came out (it's release date was less than three months ago), I don't want to go too deep into the plot, but it was a pretty engrossing sequel and set itself up for a third entry.

Well worth the read.

Night Fourteen

The Animatronics

Over the course of the first three games there are a number of animatronics to deal with.

First off is Freddy himself, a friendly-looking brown bear in a top hat and bowtie, who plays the toreador waltz while he approaches you for the final kill.

Next are Chica and Bonnie, a Chicken and a Bunny who are the most active in the first game and are equally upsetting in how the attack.

Finally, in both the first two games Foxy the Pirate is the most dynamic of the villains, requiring much more attention as well as being the fastest moving of the animatronics you'll have to deal with.

The second game involves puppet, mangle, and balloon boy, and currently I'm working my way through the third game which involves a pretty terrifying rabbit balled Springtrap, who you spend the majority of the game attempting to defeat.

Even though there is virtually no onscreen violence, these creatures do begin as ominous and become threatening pretty quickly.  

Okay, back to my game...

Night Six

Okay, so here's how the basic gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's works.

You check the hallways to either side of the security office, then you scan through the security cameras.  

The problem is the animatronics move when you're not looking.  Also, you can hear footsteps, rustling, and banging going on out in the restaurant proper.

So the gameplay (which lasts about eight minutes in the PC version and four minutes in the mobile versions), has you sitting and waiting in a room you can't leave, while giant animatronic creatures move slowly (and in one case very quickly) towards you.

Even though there is no overt violence in the game; as the monsters move to bite you and then the image immediately gets cut off to static, the jump scares are quite effective, and you're really playing against your own rising tension as the clock slowly moves from midnight to 6am.

As a guy who has played through horror video games ranging from the old Nintendo Friday the 13th and the Playstation Saw videogame, I have to say it took me a pretty long time to make my way through each of the nights - you need the sound to effectively play, but it does dramatically raise the tension levels.

After about a week and a half I completed the first game, survived the week, collected my paycheck and immediately downloaded the sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Night Three

In Scott Cawthon's Five Nights at Freddy's you play an unnamed night security guard at Freddy Fazzbear's Pizza, a theme restaurant that includes a number of animatronic creatures which seem to get up to no good between the hours of midnight and six am.  Your goal is simple - survive five nights.

The game begins inside an office, with little light, a running fan, and a door on either side of you.  You can scan left and right, and before you begin clicking randomly on buttons a phone rings and the following message plays:

Hello, hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine. So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week. Okay?

And so begins the first of your five nights.  Unlike the majority of horror-themed games out there, you are incredibly limited in what you can do - basically your options are

1) Turn on the light to your left

2) Turn on the light to your right

3) Lock the door to your left

4) Lock the door to your right

3) Look through the security cameras

There are only two problems - first, every time you operate the lights or lock a door, your power goes down and eventually you run out, and second, the animatronics appear to be slowly but surly moving towards you...

Night One

When I was a kid there were a number of places that topped my list of perfect birthday party venue.

3) My backyard - nearby, lots of food, no chance of getting lost.

2) The Movie Theatre - going down with a few friends to see whatever the latest action/horror/comedy popular culture had to offer. A little pricier than home, but tasty snacks and a shared experience nonetheless.

1) Bullwinkles. For those not familiar with the chain, it was pretty similar to Chuck E. Cheese, wherein there was pizza, ball pits, birthday rooms and lots and lots of games. Also giant animatronic animals that would sing songs and perform.

So every summer as I start to gear up for my October Theme-month, I begin looking around the horror genre for either an old favourite to revisit or a new topic to take a deep dive into. This summer, while spending a day hanging out with my youngest daughter at West Edmonton Mall, she suggested I look into doing Five Nights At Freddy's, a horror video game series.

Having never heard of it, I asked her what it was about and she immediately took me into the nearest Hot Topic to show me the section devoted to the game.

Doing a little research on my own, I found the game, which takes place at a Bullwinkles-styled establishment, actually has four sequels, two novels and a potential upcoming movie.

So yeah - let's do it! This year I'll be spend October with Five Night's At Freddy's.