last name Balls, first name Slobbers All Over

I got these earrings for Christmas last year, but they came with the hoop attachment things that just didn't fit my piercings. so i finally went to the craft store and got some hooks to use instead and replaced them, which wasn't super complicated at all!

I also made a longer chain for the necklace I'm wearing, since it was kinda getting into "choking me" territory.

This is where it all began, though, that’s not entirely true. While Five Nights at Freddy’s is a big franchise, and it started the massive influx of Mascot Horror, I think it would be a lie to say this came out of nowhere. There was already a pre-existing relationship with horror games played by YouTubers and the children who watch them, look at Amnesia or Slender for obvious examples. The trends of the internet were already moving to games like Five Nights at Freddy’s eventually existing, Five Nights at Freddy’s was just quickest to the draw. It’s crazy to think that, less than a month from now, as I type this, Five Nights at Freddy’s will be 10 years old, a whole decade of this franchise, and it’s still seemingly growing ever larger. While I was around for all of the major games in the series, I never played them, which is something I want to change.

First and foremost, this will be something I will do for each of the FNAF games, is that I want to ignore the lore. FNAF as a series is at a time, very reliant on the lore, and most conversation I see about Five Nights at Freddy’s is about the lore. What I will say is that FNAF’s lore, especially early on is really good, it’s hidden well, but never too complicated to where speculation becomes really fun. As the series goes on, things get retconned (despite what Scott Cawthon claims), and the lore becomes overly complicated to the point that what the actual canon is doesn’t matter as much anymore. Because of that, I really only want to look at the gameplay of FNAF, how good are they as games, without looking specifically at the lore? This question will be true for the original Five Nights at Freddy’s, and will continue all of the way up to Security Breach.

I’m going to be clear here from the get-go. As I said prior, I do know about how each FNAF game ultimately plays. I’m not going into any of them blind, I know how they play, but not how they feel. That is to then say that I can easily predict the ones that I will like from the ones that I will dislike. I know which specific games I know I’ll dread playing, but will at least make any attempt to. This is all to say that of the sit-and-survive style of games (FNAF 1 – 6), I think the series peaks at the original. No game after this really captures the magic of the original FNAF game.

FNAF 1 honestly has a great atmosphere. You feel trapped in a little box, as the animatronics roam around trying to find you. There’s that great sting that plays whenever an animatronic is right at the door, and you flick the light. The constant droning and buzz as sometimes you can hear things moving far off in the distance. The atmosphere does well to make you feel tense, and can actually scare you be it with hallucinations, or animatronics appearing at your door when you least expect it. And mechanically I think the game really adds to this. Every action you do costs power, a very important, and very finite resource. But you need to use power either to track and monitor the animatronics, or keep them out. It’s a really good system that keeps you tense throughout the entire game, even if you’re doing everything absolutely perfectly. I never game overed at all, but because of everything I listed prior, I still was on the edge, nervous of everything around me.

But that being said, the nights are just… really long. Funny of me to say that really, each night is only 9 minutes total, and beating solely the main 5 nights would then take only 45 minutes. While the game is noticeably short, the nights also at times feel… noticeably long. It often just led to everything feeling repetitive, having to do the same motions throughout the entire night until it’s finally over. While I think the game’s atmosphere and tension are really good, the game was really easy while being very long. Game overing quickly became a worry not of getting scared, but of “I don’t want to do this again”. I really do think if FNAF 1 was paced more akin to its sequels (6-7 minutes per night, instead of 9), it would genuinely improve my one major issue with it.

The original Five Nights at Freddy’s is a game that I still think stands up in some regards. The animatronic design is really good, it does have some great atmosphere, and the power system does provide a really tense balancing act. I know 9 minutes is a really short time in the grand scheme of things, but each night just felt like they dragged on for such a long time. That being said though, this game does lay a great groundwork for the series, and it’s a pretty solid little horror game. It’s far from the best horror game, but it sure is an influential one and hey, it could’ve been so much worse.

Unleashed emotion, fully embraced
Comm for MakoKenova!