Remember when you visited Chuck E. Cheese's as a kid? Remember those incredibly creepy robots that moved back and forth while staring right into your soul? Ever wonder what they might do after hours?
Scott Cawthon preys on this unknown with his incredibly successful series "Five Nights at Freddy's." Up to this point, he has completed four games with no more on the horizon, but only time will tell whether that will hold up. This series creeped its way into popularity by taking the universal fear of animatronics and creating a simple game where you try you best to survive, well, five nights at Freddy Fazbear's pizza. Why is that so difficult?
The game is included in the survival/horror genre, a genre where you are given few tools and expected to survive a horrific experience. Many of the scares come from the intense jump scares that happen when you least expect it. The other part of the horror comes from audio rather than visual cues. The audio keeps you on your toes as you hear the animatronics shuffle around the restaurant, specifically four animatronics. The main animatronic characters are Fred Bear, easily identified as an animatronic bear who wears a top hat; Chica, who is the chicken that wears a bib; Bonnie, who is literally just a rabbit; and Foxy, the pirate fox. Each character follows a unique pattern that is essential to winning the game.
You spend the entire game in the security office of the restaurant. You watch security cameras and keep an eye on the animal mascots. All you can do is look left and right and at the cameras. Switching cameras lets you see only a single angle of every room, adding a sense of helplessness. The doors remain open throughout the game and why not? It takes power to leave them closed and there is no danger, right? Well, it would not be a horror game if there was not a constant threat looming over you. What happens exactly? Let's just say it can cause quite a bit of discomfort and death.
The sequels that followed changed different mechanics of the game while also fixing a few problems as well. While the first is definitely the most successful, the others add an incredible amount to the story and atmosphere of the game. All four entries are definitely worth giving an equal amount of attention.
Overall, the game has reached levels of success far beyond indie creator Cawthon could have dreamed. The story contains more secrets than the world has even managed to find! On average, 4,694 installs are made each day for the game. It is the center of many "Let's Plays" on YouTube and its popularity continues to spread. With a possible movie on the horizon, "Five Nights at Freddy's" is not something to turn your back on as Halloween approaches.
