Moosedrool
Honorary Master
Deserves it's own thread so here goes.
The game is a basic point and click style horror with a first person sensation too it, built by Scott Games. You take on the role as a newly appointed security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza which pretty much resembles Chuck E. Cheese's in the USA.
It's one of the fastest growing in popularity and it’s built by a single developer as a point and click style indie game.
I can honestly say that I didn’t expect this when I first heard about it. I like horror games but also to an extent. Most of them just gets ridiculously predictable or cliché. One of my favorite franchises was F.E.A.R. The first one and its expansion actually. Unlike Dead Space, F.E.A.R. placed you in a first person view and relied on a specific scare factor that is barely used in today’s horror games. “What you don’t see is scarier than what you do.” Then some jump scares to have you randomly shoot a couple of rounds at the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately as a hallway based shooter the second time playing it was dramatically less scary than the first because of the sequence scripts just repeating the exact same game over again. But it was definitely a winner IMO.
So how can a point and click game compare and even succeed to the ultimate first person sensation you get in the larger games?
Natural instincts. That is basically what it comes down to. This game is just so unforgiving in all aspects of what is creepy. In dangerous situations the human mind seeks safety. You want to adjust your situation to secure yourself the most in order to prevent damage. Five Nights at Freddy’s completely disallows that. You need to be conservative and keep yourself exposed to the last possible moment with only 2 light switches, 2 door switches and a camera console as your defense. A combination of agoraphobia and claustrophobia is at play here. You’re exposed to the incoming creepy animatronic characters and can’t move from your position in the building. Not to mention the limited control you have in order to defend yourself.
What you don’t see. There are 4 animatronics, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy that wants to forcefully stuff you inside a suit with no space for a human. 11 low tech CCTV camera’s around the building and 2 doors to monitor that are completely unlit and requires interaction to see if there is something with a light switch. The cameras black and fade out from time to time. Sometimes for extended periods, only to recover and have you notice that one of the animatronics moved. Where is he now? You better find out quickly! The limited view on the cameras are horrid, you can only look at one camera at a time and using them drains the power bar. It is the ultimate terror scenario, not to mention the quick motions of these buggers across the building.
Jump scares. Yes, there are a lot of them here. If losing a character in the one camera and finding it directly facing another one eyes rotated toward the lens with the most sinister expression isn’t jump scary enough. Then switch on the light to find it staring at you from the doorway and react with closing the door. The jump scares is pretty much what you’re trying to overcome. But wait, look at the camera and find one missing then look back in the office with the immediate screech accompanied by a fuzbear forcing you into a animatronic suit, face to face. This is not for the faint hearted and the random hallucinations the security guard gets doesn’t help either.
In over your head. The first time you play this it kind of feels like that. The game demands a bit of focus as the characters have no sequential pattern. Sometimes foxy peaks out of the curtain in pirate cove and sometimes not. Chika will attack from the right but can be found in the left areas sometimes. The doors get jammed if you open them to early, the power drops quickly. And Freddy is sitting and waiting for the lights to go out before staring at you in the hallway and play a little jingle with you sitting defenseless waiting for his attack.
Surely the scariest environment imaginable.
[video=youtube;GS-VcKmK7Gc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS-VcKmK7Gc[/video]
Some reactions:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/five-nights-at-freddys/videos/scare-montage
The game is a basic point and click style horror with a first person sensation too it, built by Scott Games. You take on the role as a newly appointed security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza which pretty much resembles Chuck E. Cheese's in the USA.
It's one of the fastest growing in popularity and it’s built by a single developer as a point and click style indie game.
I can honestly say that I didn’t expect this when I first heard about it. I like horror games but also to an extent. Most of them just gets ridiculously predictable or cliché. One of my favorite franchises was F.E.A.R. The first one and its expansion actually. Unlike Dead Space, F.E.A.R. placed you in a first person view and relied on a specific scare factor that is barely used in today’s horror games. “What you don’t see is scarier than what you do.” Then some jump scares to have you randomly shoot a couple of rounds at the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately as a hallway based shooter the second time playing it was dramatically less scary than the first because of the sequence scripts just repeating the exact same game over again. But it was definitely a winner IMO.
So how can a point and click game compare and even succeed to the ultimate first person sensation you get in the larger games?
Natural instincts. That is basically what it comes down to. This game is just so unforgiving in all aspects of what is creepy. In dangerous situations the human mind seeks safety. You want to adjust your situation to secure yourself the most in order to prevent damage. Five Nights at Freddy’s completely disallows that. You need to be conservative and keep yourself exposed to the last possible moment with only 2 light switches, 2 door switches and a camera console as your defense. A combination of agoraphobia and claustrophobia is at play here. You’re exposed to the incoming creepy animatronic characters and can’t move from your position in the building. Not to mention the limited control you have in order to defend yourself.
What you don’t see. There are 4 animatronics, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy that wants to forcefully stuff you inside a suit with no space for a human. 11 low tech CCTV camera’s around the building and 2 doors to monitor that are completely unlit and requires interaction to see if there is something with a light switch. The cameras black and fade out from time to time. Sometimes for extended periods, only to recover and have you notice that one of the animatronics moved. Where is he now? You better find out quickly! The limited view on the cameras are horrid, you can only look at one camera at a time and using them drains the power bar. It is the ultimate terror scenario, not to mention the quick motions of these buggers across the building.
Jump scares. Yes, there are a lot of them here. If losing a character in the one camera and finding it directly facing another one eyes rotated toward the lens with the most sinister expression isn’t jump scary enough. Then switch on the light to find it staring at you from the doorway and react with closing the door. The jump scares is pretty much what you’re trying to overcome. But wait, look at the camera and find one missing then look back in the office with the immediate screech accompanied by a fuzbear forcing you into a animatronic suit, face to face. This is not for the faint hearted and the random hallucinations the security guard gets doesn’t help either.
In over your head. The first time you play this it kind of feels like that. The game demands a bit of focus as the characters have no sequential pattern. Sometimes foxy peaks out of the curtain in pirate cove and sometimes not. Chika will attack from the right but can be found in the left areas sometimes. The doors get jammed if you open them to early, the power drops quickly. And Freddy is sitting and waiting for the lights to go out before staring at you in the hallway and play a little jingle with you sitting defenseless waiting for his attack.
Surely the scariest environment imaginable.
[video=youtube;GS-VcKmK7Gc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS-VcKmK7Gc[/video]
Some reactions:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/five-nights-at-freddys/videos/scare-montage
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