Five Nights at Freddy's, how is it that I've never spoken about this franchise at length before? I mean I've mentioned it in passing but there's never been that one excuse to just sit down and go into exactly what it's all about for the blog. I suppose, that would dictate that I have to start from the beginning, but it almost seemed redundant to go into the history of one of the biggest indie success stories of all time. Then again I'm always astounded by the amount of people who've never even heard of FNAF, so maybe it makes sense for a little recap. This goes especially true since these games have ballooned to such a height wherein the latest game got itself an actual trailer in the PS5 showcase! I mean how cool is that for ol' Scott to rave about!? If I were him that'd be the kind of thing I'd never shut up about, getting his game out there in possibly the single most mainstream manner possible. I mean sure, it was arguably the most bait-ey and eye-rolling trailer of the entire conference, but at least it was there, you know? And though we've very little information to go on for the moment we've still a decently solid idea about what this game is, so let's get into it.
But first, a history. Scott Cawthon was a animator in the early 90's who started to get into indie game development in the late 2000's. He made a few games which were published through the Steam Greenlight program (wherein users play games and determine whether or not it should be continued in development or something, I forget the specifics) but not every title he put out made the cut. In fact one game, 'Chipper and Sons Lumber Co.' was ridiculed for it's lifeless-looking character design which made the beaver protagonists look like animatronics. As the legend goes, which I'm fairly certain is played up for effect, Scott was a little upset with this feedback, along with other issues in his life at that point, and so he promised himself he'd make one final game before putting game development behind him for good. But rather than just forget his past failures he decided he would leverage them, by taking that "They look like animatronics" and "These 'cute characters' look horrific" criticism and turning them into the point of his newest game. Thus was born, Five Nights at Freddy's.
The basic premise behind the games is... well, basic. You are the night security guard in a pizzeria for kids based on Chuck E. Cheese (RIP), meaning that it's aimed at kids and features a cast of animatronic mascots who operate during the day in order to delight the children and bring their restaurant experience to life, or something. (I never got the concept behind Chuck E. Cheese, it's all a mystery to me.) Now life as a night security guard should be pretty boring except for one thing, according to the voiceover the phonecall you get each morning (that provides your orientation because no one here believes in training days, I guess) the Animatronics themselves have a tendency to turn themselves on and wonder through the halls at night. (As you'd expect from ostensibly lifeless robots.) What's more, they have a 'failsafe' built into them that if they happen across anyone in this wander state they will assume they are an animatronic exoskeleton outside of it's suit and thus forcibly try to force that person into a animatronic suit. (Suits which absolutely do not have enough room for an adult human to fit into without loosing a lot of vital organs.) Huh, this lazy night job turned into a survival horror real quick...
So the basic gameplay loop which all the games have come back to for the most part (I see you, FNAF World, you RPG abomination upon man, you.) goes a bit like this, the player must observe the animatronics from the security office over the restaurant's cameras and close the door to their office whenever one comes too close. Although you can't just close all doors and ride it out because the building runs on old electronics and you'll quickly run out of power unless you ration it correctly. (Oh, and apparently the act of looking through the cameras drains the generator. These guys need a decent technician, I swear!) So this is a slowburn survival horror scenario defined by resource management and punctuated with jumpscares when you screw up. Throw in some curious mysteries, a threadbare storyline and a background about murdered children possessing the animatronics and hunting for victims, and you've got yourself a multi-million dollar franchise.
Fast forward through what feels like a decades worth of sequels, spin offs and whatever the hell FNAF World was meant to be, and we get to the game announced (officially) during the PS5 conference 'FNAF Security Breach'. Cue a creepy trailer taking us through possible the most extravagantly 80's location ever made by man, ending with a supremely ineffective jumpscare (seriously Scott, even your games have better jumps than that) and there's the most mainstream debut of the series right there. A niche title touted as a system seller, who'd a thunk it? Okay, to be fair I can name a least one person who legitimately jumped to this trailer, but amidst all of the other indepth announcements this one stood out as a supremely underexplored trailer. Only God of War Ragnarok was less informative but that was just a teaser. Still, as I said, we're not entirely in the dark.
Just as the history of Hyrule was also the history of Calamity Ganon, the story of FNAF coincides with the life and times William Afton. Will is one of the co-creators of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria (the franchisation of Fazbear's Diner) and a lifelong child murderer. I don't know what his motivation is, I don't even know if Scott even bothered to think up a motivation, I just know that William has a history of killing kids and stuffing them in animatronic suits, even long after it became apparent to him that doing so was what led to these suits becoming possessed. (How many times does a guy gotta screw up to learn his lesson?) This time-jumping series has covered his long serial killer history as well as his successful robotics career, and the way that his entire family ended up becoming victims to him in some way or another. Now with Security Breach it seems the series may be stepping forward from him for the first time. (With heavy emphasis on 'may')
This 80's inspired- (you know I don't what this place is. A diner? A disco? What is going on?) was teased first during the run of FNAF's VR game, a game which introduced a new character killer going by the name of Vanny. (Who was a VR character that escaped to the real world through your body or something, I dunno; this franchise is freakin' odd) Vanny, as she is definitely called thanks to the merchandise of her already making it's way to shelves, is dressed in a bunny rabbit suit and will allegedly seek to start a cult in the name of the original killer. How that pans into what sounds like menacing a small child in an empty Fazbear location is beyond me, but there's your backstory.
Ultimately, I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what this game was doing in an event about the PS5. FNAF games are usually best at home on the PC and even then they don't have a reputation for being particular lookers or even being that well made in some early titles. Again, even the trailer was pretty ropey for this title, and I'd say this trailer stuck out next to FFXVI and other games that I've yet to talk about. Yet, I have to concede and say; at least Scott managed to get his indie title to the mainstage. (If it still counts as an Indie game at this point, I'm guessing not.) You can poke holes in the presentation, concept, writing, scripting and everything else of the games, but you can never take that away from them. Good for you, Scott, Good for you.
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