It’s quite uneasy to relax playing a game like Five Nights at Freddy: even if nothing happens for a long time, completely dark corridors, flanking doors and tight paths make the playing quite tense as you are waiting for a scream or a scary face to appear. The exact feeling of nightmare is created by the expectation of someone suddenly jumping out at you as you click the mouse and repeat your action again and again. You never know when it will happen and that is what makes the game true horror.
The composition of the game is simple: the hero has to stay five nights eight minutes each in a room while trying to avoid sudden and quick death by falling into the clutches of some creepy FNAF monsters, something between mechanical toys and robotic animals. Determination won’t be the worst weapon in this game: constant observation and blocking any possibility to escape – that’s what your enemies have prepared for you. The visages of terrifying animatronics, animals’ snouts and unpleasant squeals contribute a lot to the overall horrifying atmosphere of the game.
It’s almost the air of Kubrick’s movies recreated by the talent of the game’s developer Scott Cawthon: not a rationalistic horror, but readiness to meet an enemy in surrealistic atmosphere. The game’s fundamentals stay the same and are very familiar from the previous parts: we can enjoy the reprise with the same main antagonists: Bonny, Foxy, Chica and Freddy. In the FNAF 4 we again use doors as the primary defense mechanism.
The FNAF new location replaced the good old pizzeria. Now it is presented as a kid’s scary bedroom. The child who has lived here substitutes the security officer and is a main character in the fourth part. He establishes his phobia of the friends of Freddy. We can also see the camera being removed quite often, which of course doesn’t stop us from the checking the place around and escaping the attacks, running up to a door, looking out and turning the flashlight on. This time, thankfully, it has an unlimited battery.
As in the previous games, to stay alive and win you have to learn the behavior of each FNAF animatronic. The last series gave the clues with camera tracks, now there’s possibility to follow the sounds: footsteps, kitchen pans tinkling or somebody’s breath behind you.
The game is worth playing just for its atmosphere: each detail is made to make you finally scream, even after you have experienced the previous 3 parts.