Quick Review: Five Nights at Freddy's 4

I'm at home this time. It can't be as bad as being
in THOSE restaurants... at night... right?

It’s good to shake things up once in a while. The FNAF series seemed to stick to a formula for three games, then had its first major change here. More would come as the franchise would depart from its roots, and not always in successful ways (hello, Freddy’s World), but this marked a turn. It was an outlier in the franchise for a while, trading the security guard for a scared child and the security office for a house, and it’s only with some of the later entries in the franchise that fans figured out its role in the greater plot of the series.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4, released on July 23rd, 2015 (wow it's been almost exactly 5 years!) is about a kid trying his damndest to protect himself from malevolent (literally called Nightmare) versions of the animatronics of Fredbear’s Pizza, which are desperately trying to get into his bedroom. These things have got what looks like seven rows of goddamned teeth, and have never looked more like monsters. And they weren’t exactly angels in the previous three games either, y’know.

This one looks nice. Must again resist desire to boop...
*honk*
Dammit, I'm weak-willed.

Oh no, not you again... well, at least you're
smaller than last time...

The kid has full knowledge of his room, and knows what to do to keep the monsters at bay – sometimes, merely closing doors will suffice. And holding them closed, too! What’s that in the closet? Foxy? Begone, demon! Are those little Freddies on the bed? I must flash them with this trusted flashlight. And moving to stop one of them exposes him to the others. I’ll get through these nightmarish nights even if it’s the last thing I do! Just gotta… gotta hold on for… a couple nights. Yes… If my life depends on it… I can survive a little longer…

One of the smartest (and most devious) ideas Scott had for this one is that you must always pay attention to the sounds you hear, as they’re the only way the protagonist has to figure out what’s coming. This is in contrast to previous games, in which one could play without sound if they liked, as long as they knew how to deal with each animatronic. No sound = weaker jump scares, amirite? Here, the sound must be turned on.

Oh, you just KNOW something's about to come out.

As usual, between nights, scenes delivered in an 8bit style show more of this kid’s story, also explaining how he wound up in this dire situation. Why these things seem so dead-set on killing him within the confines of his own home, where he cannot escape. There ought to be some interesting subtext in there.

Once again, I’ve been a bit too much of a chicken to see this one to the end. I’m of the type that prefers to read up on the lore of this series, rather than experience it myself. However, I do appreciate the attempt at something different. All of the later games would play around with the base idea of the pizzeria populated by pernicious personages, further developing the story – but this is where Cawthon started breaking out of the formula, and later games only turned out better for it. (Again, except maybe Freddy’s World.)

To think this franchise has a movie in the works, and more games are still being made with both VR and AR as new playgrounds. By this point, you’ve got to wonder if it’s ever going to end, or if it’s going to go the way of “Jason X: Jason In Space”. Let’s hope the series will actually, y’know, conclude someday.

Christ, these particular animatronics have more teeth
than an entire school of manticores.

FNAF 4 is available on Steam for about 7.99$.