Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach
About seven years ago I remembered playing the first Five Nights at Freddy’s; a simple point-and-click horror game that regulated as an indie game. I was at high school at the time and I remembered fondly trying to survive the night from 12-6am (in-game lasting for about 10 minutes each night). More often than not it edged me over my seat to keep all four animatronics out of my office, locking the doors when necessary, checking cameras, and all the while trying to conserve power.
It was an extremely popular game at the time of 2014 - a time where cryptic lore theory videos were imminent and public discourse was haywire, often times to the point where healthy discussion on the lore was inevitably drowned out by low-effort clickbait YouTube videos and taboo furry fanart. Like I said this was seven years ago, so times has since then shifted to something little more on-the-nose than what fanart used to be, at least for the most part.
Fast-forward to now, and the series is still thriving. Of course I’ve since then lost interest to the game just after about the third game or so, but still occasionally check up on the oddball letsplay video when I have the chance to. I decided to purchase the latest game for two reasons:
- I still reminisce the past of the series - a weird, forgotten era where I’ve matured now as opposed to being a kid at the time.
- I was surprised, although paradoxically, at how this game hasn’t been left to die, but rather still going strong.
As I opened up the game, I was presented with an opening of an 80s-esque intro. Weirdly enough it reminded me of a Freddy Mercury music video. The four animatronics are performing on stage to an atrium of an audience, presented as the MacGuffin of the plot for the story. At the midst of the moment, Freddy detects an unknowing high threat, shutting down on stage, thus fading to blackness.
The next cutscene follows as Freddy powers back up again, albeit he is now in his room. A protagonist, namely Gregory, is first introduced by hiding in Freddy’s stomach hatch. He leaps out and begins explaining to Freddy that someone is looking for him, but is not mentioned further who is looking for him.
A string of dialogue later, I now find myself performing a series of errands to survive the night and escape the pizzaplex. I was particularly perplexed at the Sundrop/Moondrop conflict, most notably powering up all five generators after collecting a security badge - being that locating them while being hunted by Moondrop is a daunting task.
I haven’t finished the game yet, but going by my playthrough of the game - I enjoyed the jumpscares and heightened challenges brought forth on me. However I was taken aback at its gameplay/puzzles and overabundance of bugs.
Pointing out now, that navigating though the mazercise while playing trial-and-error on which button triggered what parts of the maze is exhausting at best. At first I was clueless on what the buttons did, let alone what they signified and how to operate the puzzle, then to find myself endlessly pressing buttons to find out if I was able to pass through the maze or not. And me looking up a walkthrough to not cause further brain haemorrhage doesn’t keep me up at night with guilt.
Overall I was actually satisfied with how much it reminded me of the older games, and remains homage to the classic games. You’re at the brink of survival, and yet you’re trying to slip past the night in order to not find yourself cramped inside an animatronic suit. It remains in tone to the original, despite how much has changed through the conglomerate amount of games throughout the series.
Now, as much as I am fond for the older games, observing the discussions going on for the current games is still taboo at best. I don’t have to go into detail about how people now have a reason to whip up a rule 34 fanart of Vanessa after being shackled to furries for years. But alas, now furry art and rule 34 art can both be covered at once.
But nevertheless, I enjoyed the game regardless. If you’re able to move past the lag spikes, crashes, and the like, I’d like to urge people to give this game a try.