Given it’s nigh impossible to live in the first world and have not heard of this game, I won’t go into a lengthy introduction. Let’s just jump in. I played on mobile, normally a downgrade in terms of atmosphere and immersion. It doesn’t really make a difference here though. The game is simple in depth and mechanics enough that as long as you have relative peace and quiet for sound cues you’ll be ok.

As somebody who likes to take risks, this game was still VERY tight on the power management. To the point of annoyance. The first three nights of the eponymous five nights was nothing crazy. Check the cams often enough, but don’t be glued to them. Use power very sparingly and you’ll be good give or take a death or two. The fourth and fifth night on the other hand felt like huge jumps in difficulty. The fifth night especially. I’m not exaggerating when I say that within ten seconds every single time on the fifth night at least one animatronic would be at your door with Foxy not far behind. And if they didn’t get you then power-lossage was a very real possibility. That’s taking into account a near-ideal optimizations for power saving too, with delaying door closing as much as possible, opening them as soon as possible, and still the times were extremely close. Believe me when I say RNG is both your savior and your condemner. Random in-game button glitching, cams going down to let the animatronics move, or having the animatronics just straight up refusing to leave outside your room can easily be a ticket a quick trip to frustration land.

It’s that poorly managed RNG paired with shallow mechanics that provide little player expression that made me put the game down before I could beat the final night. You could be the best FNAF player in existence, perfectly optimizing battery usage and yet if RNGESUS doesn’t bless you, you’re not going to make it. Full stop. And after so many deaths the repetitive jump-scares became less suspenseful and more prohibitively drawn out.

It’s hard to believe this game would be the catalyst for the absolute WAVE of “mascot horror” we would continue to see a decade later. My advice if you want to finish the game? Take breaks, getting stuck in failure loops (like I did) will make you burn out very quick in a game like this. As a success story I admire this game. As a game it’s missing a few key elements, such as balance and interactivity, making it too punishing and too boring to see it though till the end. In terms of idle observer games, not a terrible start for a franchise from a one-man band, but I want to see more risks taken in future installments.