So, you decide to find a job as a night watchman inside a dilapidated and mostly haunted replica of a "Chuck E. Cheese" that they call "Freddy Fazbear's". Your job is simple; to make sure you watch the camera to ensure everything is in its working order. But that's where the real fun begins. Inside the wretched building, four animatronics are out to haunt you. They slowly find their way into your office, and your only way of stopping them is to make sure you close your metal doors.
Five Nights of Freddy's suspends the regular survival horror strategy of weapons or the place to hide and run, and instead puts you in the spot of a night watchman. There is nothing to help you defend against these eager, yet creepy animatronics. All there is inside your office comes with a fan that seems to be constantly running, a monitor, two metallic doors that prevents animatronics from entering into the office, and two lights. The premise of the game is to save up power, while preventing these animatronics from entering your room, but each light and the monitor will consume your power, until the building itself shuts off all of its power.
Each night lasts six hours, from 12 AM - 6 AM, and it progressively gets more intense and unnerving as the shift moves on. Night 1 is usually never difficult, and that gives you some time to get used to the controls of the game until the real game begins to unfold. At the start of every night, you are given a brief recorded message about the history of "Freddy Fazbear's" as well as the gist of the game's mechanics.
The real terror that lies behind the game comes when all is not well. The game offers a game of "hide-and-seek", and you're it. You must check your camera constantly to make sure that these animatronics are where they should be. And when they're not, this is where your reign of terror starts. You constantly flick through each room to perceive where each animatronic is. And what's even more frightening is when all three, in the backroom, are unleashed. This psychological fear of the unknown whereabouts of these animatronics makes it all the more atmospheric and scarier. And Five Nights at Freddy's strikingly does this exceptionally.
As you progress further into each shift, the animatronic creatures begin to become more active. They start to become wackier, and further mechanics are introduced. A fourth animatronic is introduced, who lives behind the curtains of the location over at Pirate Cove, and it is seemingly the only animatronic to have a running animation. Then, you begin to hallucinate. New items appear on the east walls, while at random intervals of the game, you spot a fifth animatronic. He appears golden yellow, and seems to be slumped over, as if it was sitting on a table. I often found myself flicking back at the monitor accidentally because I had never seen it before.
Much of this psychological fear is also helped by the fact that there is no music throughout the game, past the main menu. All you hear are the sounds of footsteps of the animatronics as they walk, the random laughter, the flicking of the security lights, the humming, and the doors closing. These fine details of Five Nights at Freddy's are unique and satisfyingly the main cause for stress and tension. Each little bit of broken silence builds up the tension as the night progresses on, making it seem like the night appears slower than earlier. And I like it.
But, as with every game, Five Nights at Freddy's is flawed in different aspects. The animatronics appear extremely predictable. Every night, the animatronics seemingly walk into the same rooms. This drags down the scare factor, and while the tension and atmosphere is extraordinarily displayed, this makes the animatronics seem less daunting. For a survival horror, Five Nights at Freddy's biggest flaw comes with its length. Once the game is over, it will leave you wanting to know more. This is brought up by the lore behind the game, and how each piece of information builds up to the full story.
Five Nights at Freddy's is a game that has its downs, but also appears to recover from these downsides. What it does in its main concept is done exceptionally well, so that the issues that floats around the concept will eventually fly away, and what it does is that it reveals a satisfying return to the survival horror genre.