Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNaF) is a video game created by Scott Cawthon. It’s one of the most popular survival horror games globally, with its eight installments captivating gamers, and recently, inspiring viral TikTok videos. TikTok fame will surely attract more people to the game, but there’s a problem: FNaF’s ‘survival horror’ genre might scare potential players away before they even try it.
FNaF is based on a restaurant chain named Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. It gained popularity due to its mascot, Freddy Fazbear. However, a series of unusual nighttime incidents have prompted the owners to hire a security guard (the player) to monitor the restaurant at night.
FNaF’s jump scares in the first installment will scare you
Freddy’s has four animatronics that start acting weird when the restaurant closes for the night. They aren’t exactly thrilled that the owners have hired someone to watch over them, so they decide to murder the security guard (the player).
You have to keep these murderous robots from getting close to you via the two doors offering access to the security room. The player must monitor the cameras to track the four animatronics.
If you lose concentration, one of the animatronics sneaks in, and the game initiates a jump scare. The jump scare means you’ve lost and have to start again. There’s no blood or gore involved, but the image of an animatronic suddenly appearing on your screen and letting out a shriek will scare you.
There’s one more contraption that you should be worried about: Golden Freddy – his lifeless, hollow shell appears in the room randomly, making him far creepier than the others.
Golden Freddy doesn’t attack like the others. His presence alone makes everything go haywire: security doors and lights stop working, making the player more vulnerable to attack.
He strikes cold fear into the player, but he’ll leave after some time if you are lucky. However, Golden Freddy’s appearance usually signals death in the most brutal fashion: he has the worst shriek of all animatronics in FNaF.
FNaF gets scarier as the series progresses due to the lore
By the time you complete the first game, you’ll be immune to the jump scares. However, FNaF’s story gets creepier as the game progresses, making it scarier as you proceed.
You learn that the animatronics are murdered children stuffed in suits. One employee lured them to the back of the restaurant, murdered them, and stuffed them into the animatronics to hide the evidence.
The atmosphere gets terrifying as you move forward. In FNaF 3, the game makes it harder for the player by limiting the oxygen in the security room. Managing the oxygen adds a different dynamic and an extra layer of difficulty.
If the oxygen levels go too low, the player starts hallucinating different animatronics. It’s possible to play through the hallucinations, but you’ll get it wrong the first couple of times. The fact that you can’t differentiate between a real and fake contraption makes the inevitable jump scare a bit more chilling.
The unusual events at Freddy’s started with the bite of ’87: a boy stuck his brother’s head in a Fazbear’s suit as the bear’s mechanical jaws shut, crushing the boy’s head. The sound of the crunch coupled with the silence signaling loss of life sends chills down one’s spine.
In FNaF 4, the player is the boy who allegedly suffered the bite of ’87. The game reveals this fact slowly, and as you put the pieces together, the dread gradually builds. The introduction of new, frightening characters makes FNaF Sister Location very creepy. Each night features different animatronics, making the game exciting and petrifying.
After FNaF 4, the game relies on the creepiness of the animatronics to scare players. Ennard is by far the creepiest animatronic in the game: He is a bunch of wires with a head but no outer shell.
Other animatronics consume the player, trapping the player’s soul inside of them. Ennard has no outer skeleton, so he possesses the player, controlling him from inside.
If you follow the lore, FNaF can get really scary. However, after FNaF 4, there’s nothing much to scare you.
Most players opine that if you can make it past FNaF 1 without quitting, you’ll easily make it through the rest of the game.
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