Five Nights at Freddy's

Perhaps one of the most famous and infamous of viral sensations to emerge over the past few years is Scott Cawthon's wildly popular media franchise "Five Nights at Freddy's"- a horror series that started rather humbly with the release of this original game only two short years ago.

An independent point-and-click game, the narrative follows a night- watch security guard recently hired at the popular children's restaurant chain " Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." The gimmick of the restaurant being it's highly advanced cast of adorable animatronic animals who have the ability to roam freely, including the titular "Freddy." However, as there is fear that the animatronic's servos would lock up should they stop moving for prolonged periods of time, they are allowed to walk freely throughout the restaurant during the night... And it quickly becomes apparent that should one of these characters discover you during the night, you're in for a nasty surprise! And so, you must use a simplified control scheme to keep watch of the characters on CCTV monitors and try to keep them from discovering you by locking doors around you.

The graphics and controls are extremely simplistic, but that's a big part of the charm of the gameplay. You can't really run away- you're stuck and only have a limited supply of energy to close and lock the doors. It's an elegant and simple mechanic that inherently and quickly generates thrills and chills... being stuck in one place creates an automatic sense of claustrophobia and paranoia that works wonders for the atmosphere. Cawthon's design work is also top-notch, as not only do the animatronic's look true-to-life in comparison to those that exist in the real world (including the obvious reference to a certain mouse-based pizza place/arcade), but they're also quite startling and can quickly turn devious at the drop of a dime. The design-work for the building itself is very nice as well, with the usual "happy" look of a restaurant looking very spooky in the dark.

This is also a game (and a series as a whole) that rewards in-depth plot rumination and analysis. While you can play it simply based on its high-concept (and admittedly somewhat shallow) premise alone, there's a lot of very subtle imagery, suggestions of treachery and even some phenomenal sub-text that is evident throughout that hints of a greater storyline taking place. You can start to piece together the history of the going's on and theorize as to what exactly is causing all of the horror, and it adds a lot to the experience. Especially when played in context of the overall franchise, as each of the games slowly add more and more to the story as a whole.

Were I to lodge any complaints against it, it would be that the gameplay can become a bit monotonous over time (especially towards the end), it can be hard to get a handle on things and sometimes the subtle hints of backstory are... well... way too subtle. But that cannot detract from an otherwise pretty darned fun and entertaining new horror-phenomena. For only a few dollars on your phone's app- store or online, you could definitely do a lot worse. And it's definitely well-worth checking out for horror fans.

I give the original "Five Nights at Freddy's" a strong 8 out of 10.