FNAF: Quality Breach

 Bugs always come back

So I'm a tiny bit of a fan of Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, to the degree where I think the original idea was solid, the community it holds captive can be fun and the totally twisted way that 'storytelling' is handled in the series (like Dark Souls but put together by someone who doesn't even know the full picture himself and is stringing along ideas as he goes) is entertaining to shift through. That's why I always have a positive slant towards this series and have kept up with the comings and goings of Security Breach with interest. When it first launched I had a very hopeful blog to write about it, commending the series for crossing the proverbial gap into mainstream appeal and putting out a game visually on par with other big name horror titles. I had just seen the bare basics, but I hoped the game would live up to it's promise and at least provide an experience that was suitably 'Five Nights'. So that's not asking for the scariest jumpscares in the world, but just a little bit of that iconic helpless creep factor. And the results? Umm... yeah the game is a tiny bit of a mess unfortunately, and I want to get into it.

First of all I should address the clear issue here; this was a game that really needed more time in the oven. Steel Wool Studios had some priors going into Security Breach, so it's not as though they're a group of amateurs attacking this project they didn't know how to make, more as if they maybe bit off a bigger concept then they could chew. Scott Cawthon bought the team some time by putting together his own little beat-em-up game whilst the main game was delayed, (I think it was delayed twice, unless my memory fails me.) but with this final game it's looking like they may have needed another whole year on top of that. The game is buggy, the grasp on the world space is loose, the story slips away from the tellers and only the canonical ending of the game is animated, the others feature unvoiced comic-book strips. (Maybe that was intentional in order to highlight the canonicity of the apparent 'true ending', but when combined with everything else it just makes the game look unfinished.) Spoilers will follow, by the by. So look out for that.

First there are the bugs, oh the bugs! This is the first time the FNAF series has given it's players a fully free-roam area to explore and that first-time-nervousness is all over this series' face. Pilot mech suit Freddy was glitching into restricted-to-the-player areas at launch and screwing with basic progression, the PS5 was dropping frames whenever not on performance mode, some old triggers left on the map totally broke narrative cohesion and sequencing, and there was a time where if you pressed the space-key whilst entering Glamrock Freddy, the entire world would unload in an instant and you'd have to hang around in a black void of nothingness whilst the game slowly put itself back together, loading in each asset one-by-one. And that isn't even touching on the crashes and freezing that has plagued this game all over the place. Whilst it's clear that the actual content of the game wasn't finished, it's becoming more and more apparent that the team couldn't even squeeze in the time to finish quality assurances satisfactorily. This project must have really come to the absolute wire for them.

Speaking of 'unfinished', the game really doesn't really feel like it's fits into the whole 'open world model' very well. Security Breach takes place in a Freddy themed mall with diners, stores, a young children's play area, a cinema and more attraction spots then you can shake a stick at. For a franchise that has always featured singular restaurants in past entries, this whole operation seemed on a whole other league, with a jump from depicting an operation featuring maybe a dozen employees to crafting one that must demand hundreds. But it's all just so barren. The actual design behind the world and it's rendering is stellar, and I adore seeing all the different locations and fantasising over how cool it would have been if all of these areas had a chance to actually factor into the gameplay loop, but we're in the current reality where that hasn't been the case and most of this game is just scene dressing. The game's narrative takes you on a couple of routes through the backrooms of the facility, and then offers a little freedom to explore the three key attractions, but there's so much unused space inbetween these sections! The cinema has nothing worthwhile attached to it, most of the diners are totally empty and there's an entire faux-mesa in which it doesn't feel like the enemy animatronics can even spawn in. So why is the area so darn large then?

The narrative, originally proposed to show the story of this new threat for the franchise, Vanny, absolutely drops it's star villain for the vast majority of the story. (And for the 'true' end) The community are joking now about how little she factors into the events of the game, and the fact that, if you get the true ending, she doesn't even show up for the finale. It seems like a big missing story link. In fact, there's a lot of the story that seems to feel like it goes nowhere and achieves little, beyond introducing a couple of new characters to the lore. Don't get me started on how the true ending brings bloody Spring Trap back for the third time only to get burnt to death. Oh, you burned him? The guy who's catchphrase is "I always come back"?, and whom was slain through burning all those times before? Something tells me this time ain't going to be so permanent. So then, what exactly was progressed in the wider narrative by the events of the true ending? More of a story complaint there, but I think it stands.

And then there's the 'fear factor' of the franchise. Now Five Nights at Freddy's has never been a terrifying series, save for maybe it's very first entry when no one had any idea what was going on and sometimes you'd be faced with sudden fourth-wall-shattering events like a random golden animatronic that would show up and crash your game to desktop. This series' concept on fear was mostly just jumpscare scenes powered by the fear of the unknown. Security Breach seems to have delineated that even further to the point where even the jumpscares are easily foreseeable and lack serious impact, just by the simple design switch-up of turning the gameplay into a hide-and-seek affair. The only shock comes from that damn map-bot who feels the need to grab your head and shake you whenever he gets a hold of you. The only scary thing from this entire experience are those robots, the actually cool Music man showdown scene, those Weeping Angel exoskeletons in the basement and the sheer terror of trying to do the finale of the game without any save points. Speaking of-

What kind of crazy, nonsense idea was it to have the finales of the game locked behind extended challenges without the checkpoint system? Since when did this series turn into an Ironman challenge? The last thing anyone wants is to spend thirty minutes backtracking this way and that because they stumbled into a jumpscare spot by accident (and sometimes with little warning); unless you've specifically signed up for it beforehand, no one is inherently on board with wasted playtime. It almost seems as though the team were aware of this staggeringly abrupt design shift and how annoying it was, too, because there is still a bug to totally reset the saving after the endgame has been activated, and it's super easy to perform. Almost as though it was spotted and left in as a backdoor way to make the final moments of the game not so tedious. I understand the idea that 'consequence equals tension', but there are points to which consequence bleeds into more frustration than fun too; a little balance would have been welcome.

And thus are the most glaring issues with FNAF Security Breach, despite being a very pretty and ambitious title for this franchise, it's lack of polish has given away to rust far too easily and often for anyone to easily coat over with hand waving. A few problems here or there would be forgivable, but this many and dripping from every corner, and the game becomes hard to recommend in it's current state. Steel Wool aren't giving up, they want to keep patching the game up, but some of the problems here are fundamental, and even version of this title that plays without a single bug is still going to suffer from an overwhelming feeling of "This world is far bigger than it needs to be", "Why do these certain bits of the design lead nowhere?", "What's the point of collectibles?" and "These mechanics don't feel like they're implemented right." Still, if this is the sort of scale that FNAF wants to build off in the future, then maybe the next game is going to be something very special indeed. (Provided, you know; it actually gets the chance to be finished.) 

FNAF Security Breach

 He always comes back

Indie games are a huge part of the gaming ecosystem, as in it's literally the foundation of its backbone- holding up the rest of the industry on taut and lofty shoulders. I have a feeling that supporting structure is destined to only grow wider and take on more customers as the years go by and more talented chunks of gaming's best break off and start forming studios of their own, likely coinciding with the wider gaming audience slowly being driven further and further away from big studio's thanks to their constant death march towards ideas and systems that ruin everyone's good time. And it would make sense given the absolutely ludicrous heights some of these franchises have grown to, some of which now rival those AAA funded titles that are supposed to be the bread and butter of the industry. Point in case: just look at all the excitement now that 'Five Night's at Freddy's: Security Breach' it out, the latest entry in a ludicrously successful indie swangsong!

It seems almost disingenuous to think of FNAF as an indie series even though that is what it ostensibly is, so as long as you can divorce yourself from the fact that your supporting dollars might end up in the pocket of the next political megalomaniac American moron, (I'm being a little bit unfair there, but I stand by the harsh tone of the sentiment) you too can bask in the mirror gleam of the newest face of this long swinging franchise. I remember the whole journey, all those years ago when this was just an ingeniously different sort of horror game that was contained almost entirely within, I think we're far enough along for me to say it without being struck dead by the omnipotent fandom, a single pretty ugly parallax scroll. Now we've got a much more traditional sort of horror experience, but one with a layer of professionalism that makes it nigh-on indistinguishable alongside many of it's esteemed peers. (sans a few prominent technical difficulties)

And the reach of this franchise has been long- insanely long. There's supposed to be a movie in the works, although Nick Cage already managed to get ahead of that with a parody movie he stared in. There's been countless short stories written on the universe, a continuous book series, more fan games than one person could feasibly play in their lifetime and, of course, a stupid number of mainline entries. One my favourite from the pile of fan games was The Joy of Creation, for the way in which it transported the formula into a sort of minigame gauntlet weaved into a loose horror narrative with meta strings slipped in there. It was simply spectacular as far as I'm concerned, and now that's kind of what the main series itself is getting around to with their most recent games from Sister Location onwards. And Security Breach is absolutely no exception.

Much of the fun of these games comes in the speculation. The months of build-up before the fact where marketing sets up their own online ARGs in order to tease the brainiacs who theorise on the overly convoluted lore of these game. You'll get your screenshots with secrets in them, cleverly put together teaser trailers, and a vague in-universe video series that features strange glitches that, when taken a screenshot of and aligned in a grid alongside every other screenshot in a particular order, makes up the face of the series' newest antagonist, Vanny. (As you can likely tell, I did not make that up at all. These pre-release secrets go wild) In that sense, the release of the game itself is almost like the lesser part of the ride, the destination of the journey now reached, which doesn't quite excite like windingly perilous journey once did. With the express exception of Ultimate Custom Night, which kept itself going for months after launch thanks to the absolutely insane challenge it proposed people complete. (Almost like the end of Hollow Knight Godmaster, which I've only just rocked up upon. Pray for me.)

Security Breach ditches the static camera operator position that almost every other Fnaf game before it has at least made reference to and instead has a full blown exploration of a new eighties-themed animatronic facility in the after hours. For which I must say that the visual design is fantastic, overly neon and impractical, sure, but you just know that if an animatronic restaurant had anywhere near this much revenue to make a real restaurant in this manner, they totally would. In relation to gameplay and exploration, however, I will admit that this latest map is perhaps just a tad too open for it's own good. The main floor in particular just stretches out a bit further than I think is necessary, which isn't a huge problem by any means but horror game environments tend to stick out a lot for their various successes and failures, so it's a nitpick that can stick with you.

The characterisations of the animatronics themselves is perhaps my favourite part of the game, made popular by the almost polar opposite approach to how these versions of the popular animatronics are presented compared to how they were in the origins of this series. Previously the animatronics have been haunted Chuck.E.Cheese style robots with a presentational focus on the mystery rather than how they actually move and react. In fact, in the original game only Foxy moved, the rest where stalking puppets that blinked from room-to-room when you weren't checking on them, which meant that mystery was a big part of who they were. In such a horror-primary setting, it makes sense for these characters to be more scare-delivering devices than actual characters without personalities and the like, that changed when the humour snuck into the game.

Pizzeria simulator was the start, with it bunches of joke animatronics, but since then we've really had the characteristics of these animatronics take front and centre. Now this time around we're seeing their AI play out fully with standouts like the desperately narcissistic Roxy, the bully-girl Chica and the blundering well-meaning Freddie. Although my favourite has to go to the Sun/Moon animatronic who has a split personality depending on which celestial body is prominent on it's dome. The sunny side is overbearing and friendly in a creepy way, whilst the moon side is sinister and altogether traditionally creepy. The voice talent is great around the board but I think these two in particular are just spectacular, I loved their little maze arena just for the vocals alone. (Especially since the task at hand wasn't the most imaginative and fun concept ever devised by the creative team.)

The only drawback is, I think, with the gameplay; not that it's bad, just that it plays things mostly safe. Most horror games are guilty of either this or being obnoxiously slow and obtuse, and I definitely prefer the former over the latter, but there's still a certain individual charm which is missing from the picture here. I enjoy a decent horror title, but I don't see this being the world shattering standard for the genre like the original Fnaf game became after it's stardom. I wonder if future Fnaf games will have that sort of courage to try something new and wild, or if we're going to see things gradually grow trite from here on out until the team get struck by a sudden wake up call in the middle of the night and decided that they simply must cast an 8 ft vampire lady in the next game. Actually... now that I mention it that wouldn't be all that bad, would it? Animatronic Dimitrescu- I can dig it.

FNAF Security Breach

He always comes back

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.