Five Nights at Freddies, the best designed indie horror game of recent memory?

[Mirroga]

Pretty much the best thing IMO about this cliche horror game is that it is easy to pick up and play, even by non-gamers since the whole game can be played mouse-only. Not to mention you can really get immersed in the paranoia and drear of the situation.

I find it weird that this "small" indie game has become very popular very fast to streamers in twitch and those who play horror games on Youtube. Although once the novelty wears off it'll slow down to a halt. Can't wait for possible mods though.

 

[xaszatm]

I think this game could be classed as comedy horror while Amnesia is just horror. Overall, yes, the demon-animatronics look a bit silly, but they also look rather creepy in the right light. The bloke at the start is humourous, but it's dark humour and helps build the atmosphere. The message essentially comes down to "You'll be fine, there's nothing to worry about ...apart from the killer animatronics that move around and want to shove your head inside a spare suit full of wires which will crush your skull, but you'll be fine!"

This sets the player up with the attitude of "wait, what? You mean...oh you've got to be kidding me!" which I think was the attitude they were going for. There are a few plotholes, I will admit. The one about "why don't you just put on a suit" is the main one being discussed here and it's pretty hard to defend. This is my reasoning for it:
Why doesn't he put on a spare suit?
Not designed for humans, he would die.
Why doesn't he put on a suit designed for humans that looks like one of the animatronic suits?
I think if it wasn't a suit they recognised, they would go for him, and he wouldn't be wearing a suit they recognised because Freddy's are cheapskates.

The other main plothole is the doors. Why are the doors electronic? Why not have manual vault doors to save even more power (and hence money for the company? My guess is the following:
If the doors are shut through the night, the creatures will go straight fore the exit and leave Freddy's (you are bait, remember). However, the doors must be strong enough to protect you. As such, if they were manual, you couldn't close them in time. As such, they have to be electronic.

The whole idea of being trapped with creepy animatronics isn't new, but as others have said, the idea of not being able to run and hide is rather novel. What did amnesia get right to make the monsters scary? You can't fight back, so your only option is flight. This game removes flight. You are trapped and the monsters are after you. They are coming for you and you have to watch them and throw up your defenses at the last minute. But, you have to balance everything, because it all runs on the same energy. Even if this thing isn't that scary when it comes out, you can at least say that the idea is good! I just don'rt hope we have a Purge situation on our hands (inventive premise, but bad execution).

Actually, both are explained by the fact that

Spoiler

They aren't malfunctioning robots but evil spirits. At the third night, the caller tries to give other hints on how to escape the wrath of the animals. When the call is finished, an empty bear costume just appears in front of you and the screen (regardless if you're looking at the cameras or not) starts to get static and "It's Time" starts flashing all over the screen.

Also, the doors are electronic because Foxy can break them down. In fact, on the sixth night. The game becomes almost impossible to beat because Foxy can break down the doors and Freddy can enter via a hole in the wall behind the giant poster if you aren't keeping tabs on him. Add to the fact that Freddie now has the ability to lock the light and door switches and you have an impossible scenario

 

[Spooky Scary Skeleton]

I recently played this, and I only have one thing to say.
This game if fucking terrifying.
Allow me to explain why.
1. You have limited battery, which forces you to conserve energy.
2. The animatronics are freaky as hell.
3. Their movements are completely random, so you don't know when they're going to move.
So, yeah, this game is really scary, it's concept is surprisingly original, and it's got a great balance of stress and fear.
Obviously, it has some plotholes, but what game doesn't? I give it 8 spooks our of 10.

 

[Lilikins]

After seeing a few vids about it and admitting that I would absolutely love to play this game, I have one thought in the back of my head.

Why in all that is holy...does your chap keep going back? Maybe this is explained somewhere and Im blind? My only thought would literally be that 'nope nope nope nope' meme. IF by the offchance I survived the first evening, theres a snowballs chance in hell you'd get me to go back there. Yes I do understand the concept of being 'bait' but.. after surviving one night they can go look for someone else to be bait.

Mind you, Im not trying to overanalyze it, its just something that is an elephant in the room for me and Im checking if it has a 'reason'.

Nevertheless, looks like a barrel of laughs to play with a couple friends, so Im defo grabbing it hehe.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's mostly that this game has you stuck in one spot, trying to just keep things from getting to the room you're trapped in.

Kind of like Night Trap, for example.

They use a constantly-draining meter that you have to use efficiently to survive to effectively raise tension. I really can't remember a game where you do that (not counting air meters, anyways).

Ummm...resource management is the big horror innovation you're going to lead with?

 

[lacktheknack]

They use a constantly-draining meter that you have to use efficiently to survive to effectively raise tension. I really can't remember a game where you do that (not counting air meters, anyways).

Ummm...resource management is the big horror innovation you're going to lead with?

Resource management of this type? Sure. Not all resource management is the same.

Unless you're going to tell me that Outlast's batteries are analogous to a death countdown.

 

[Something Amyss]

Resource management of this type? Sure. Not all resource management is the same.

Unless you're going to tell me that Outlast's batteries are analogous to a death countdown.

It's a new coat of paint on the same idea (perhaps not with outlast, because I don't know what you're talking about).

 

[lacktheknack]

Add to the fact that Freddie now has the ability to lock the light and door switches and you have an impossible scenario[/spoiler]

Actually, I watched Raedwulf's playthrough of the game, and the locked switches happened to him several times on multiple nights via multiple baddies.

I think what actually happens is that if a costume gets into the security room when you're not looking at the screens, it won't pop out, it will just freeze the door controls. It will only pop out at you if you look at the security cameras again.

Basically, it's possible to win the night if you don't look at the cameras again and Foxy doesn't get pissed off, since they're the only one that can enter the room and kill you if you're looking at the doors.

I'm not sure if this is a glitch or a feature and there's an anti-exploiting mechanic I missed.

Also, Raedwulf managed to beat night 6 in only a couple of tries, which unlocks Custom Night, which I think is brilliant.

 

[lacktheknack]

Resource management of this type? Sure. Not all resource management is the same.

Unless you're going to tell me that Outlast's batteries are analogous to a death countdown.

It's a new coat of paint on the same idea (perhaps not with outlast, because I don't know what you're talking about).

Everything's a new coat of paint on something else. The best we can hope for in innovative terms is a new color and pattern we've not seen before.

Five Nights At Freddy's is that: a really nifty coat of paint with tight designs on it.

 

[Reaper195]

I played it for about five minutes and then NOPEed so hard that I haven't gone back to it. The exact kind of horror style that can fuck right off. I'll sit here and play with my teddy bear instead. He won't move the moment I look away and scare the living shit out of me.

 

[DeimosMasque]

I played it for about five minutes and then NOPEed so hard that I haven't gone back to it. The exact kind of horror style that can fuck right off. I'll sit here and play with my teddy bear instead. He won't move the moment I look away and scare the living shit out of me.

Or will he?

Da da Dum!

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Yeah, it's a pretty scary flippin' game.
I bought it the other day and have been waiting for the screen to fix itself, it seems to be a bit chopped off to the left for most people, including myself. I found a sort of fix and will play it tonight. That's right, to-NIGHT.
Anyway.
I saw Markiplier play it and thought "Alright, I gotta play this game," that was the first Markiplier video that was scary just to watch; I've been hit by the jumpscares in videos, but I was constantly scared just watching Mark play it.
Generally I don't watch LP's of games I want to play but then I noticed that it cost money and thought "eh, I'll just watch." Then as he progressed I thought it was too good to pass up. Good news is he hasn't finished it, so I can at least do that much.

I'll sit here and play with my teddy bear instead. He won't move the moment I look away and scare the living shit out of me.

Funny story about that, I have this little Xenomorph plushie, the kind from ThinkGeek, I stood him up against a couch and I was pacing around, decompressing from watching a Let's Play and the little alien happened to lose his balance and just roll over. I kind of turned his direction right as he did and I jumped pretty high, and learned that I gasp when scared I don't scream.

 

[Poetic Nova]

As someone before me said, this is pretty much "holding of the screamer" the game. Not my cup of tea since I personaly like atmospheric horror that doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares.

 

[Reaper195]

I played it for about five minutes and then NOPEed so hard that I haven't gone back to it. The exact kind of horror style that can fuck right off. I'll sit here and play with my teddy bear instead. He won't move the moment I look away and scare the living shit out of me.

Or will he?

Da da Dum!

Whoa there, Satan. Back off.

 

[Mirroga]

As someone before me said, this is pretty much "holding of the screamer" the game. Not my cup of tea since I personaly like atmospheric horror that doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares.

Please suggest such games you're describing since I want to play some more games. Right now, I don't even know of any horror games that doesn't try a few jump scares.

 

[Poetic Nova]

As someone before me said, this is pretty much "holding of the screamer" the game. Not my cup of tea since I personaly like atmospheric horror that doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares.

Please suggest such games you're describing since I want to play some more games. Right now, I don't even know of any horror games that doesn't try a few jump scares.

-Amnesia: The Dark Descent
If you're ok with fps's that rely on tactics I can highly recommend:
-Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat. Don't let the fact that its a FPS fool you, the deeper you delve into the story the more it can work on your nerves.
While not a horror game perse it does create a similar atmosphere in my opinion:
-Killer 7 (it's more of a story heavy game but the Heaven Smile creep me out)
-Cry of Fear (There is one jump scare in the beginning but the rest of the game has a good, creepy atmosphere) This one's completely free, runs in a highly modified Gold Source engine. It's more action horror and I can only recommend this one if you can stomach the topics it touches on (Can be downloaded via Steam).
-System Shock 1 and 2, sci fi horror, first one's free to download (it's abandonware) and the second one is pretty cheap to find on Steam.

Killer 7 is exclusive to PS2/gamecube, the rest is for PC.

Edit: hopefully fixed my typo's by now...

 

[Mirroga]

snip

Oh. Forgot about horror games which rely more on being able to see the threat but looking at them to long is a bad idea. Thanks.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Okay, after reading this thread, I might break down and watch a few minutes of a let's play. I need to see how scary this game really is.

The problem I have is that nothing scares me! The last two times a piece of media got to me were when I saw the first Paranormal Activity (the sequels are shit) and The Ring, the latter of which I saw in the theater when it first came out. Recently I watched Orphan, The Conjuring, Mama, [Rec], and The Grudge among others. Every single one of them bored the crap out of me. Sinister was good, but nothing special. V/H/S and the new Evil Dead deserve to rank among the best horror movies of all time, but they didn't scare me either.

(On a side note - as if this whole post hasn't been a side note - there's an excellent low-budget horror movie that you can find on Netflix called Haunt. As someone who isn't fazed by horror movies, I HIGHLY recommend this one for people whose fear thresholds aren't as thick as mine, and who want a horror movie that I firmly believe would really scare you.)

P.P.S. - I watched The Gravedancers and Coffin Baby today. Stay clear the hell away from those two. They're friggin' awful!!!