Five Nights at Freddy's (video game)

Five Nights at Freddy's is a horror game with a simple premise on paper: you are the newly employed watchman over at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and are tasked with surveying the restaurant after hours via security camera to make sure no harm whatsoever falls upon the animatronic characters who perform for the visiting children during the day. Sounds easy, right?

Well, your employers didn't quite tell you that the animatronics need to roam around at night to prevent their servos from locking up. Understandable, right?

Well, you also weren't told that the animatronics have screwy AI that causes them to think that any humans spotted after hours are bare endoskeletons, and will react by following restaurant protocol by getting you in costume. And by "getting you in costume", I mean shoving you into an empty Freddy Fazbear costume that is filled to the brim with sharp metal components, wires, and crossbeams that will basically act as an iron maiden. Well, that's no big deal, right? After all, there only two doors that can lead to your office are easily shut with a press of a button. No big deal right?

...It looks like you've been kept in the dark about a lot of things, huh? Your doors are connected to a small power source that uses up energy every time you shut your doors. This same power source also taps into the hallway lights and camera feed, and if you use up all of your power, well, you're kind of screwed. The restaurant's owners are cheapskates who refuse to put in tons of money for a reliable power source, which means that if you use up your power, you're basically a sitting duck waiting in the darkness for the titular Freddy Fazbear to kill you. Oh Crap.

As you can likely tell by now, Five Nights at Freddy's is no mere horror game, it's also a resource management-based strategy game. If you wish to survive the night, you need to make sure that 1: No animatronics get into your office and murder you, and 2: you conserve power as best as you can from 12:00 to 6:00. Each animatronic (Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and the titular Freddy Fazbear himself) has their own pattern of movements and triggers, which is important for you to observe so you can make sure that you don't end up with an animatronic screaming in your face. While the game seems like it gets its horror factor from jump scares, the true scariness comes from how frantic and paranoid you get trying to keep tabs on all the animatronics and managing your power, if anything the inevitable jump scare is more of a relief if anything.

The game can be purchased on Steam, Google Play, and Desura for PC users, as well as the iTunes App Store for mobile devices.

Since the game was an unexpected smash hit, it was natural for a sequel game simply titled Five Nights at Freddy's 2 to be made, and it was released during the month of November during 2014. A third game was announced officially on January 26th and is currently in development.


 * Adult Fear: While children absolutely love them, adults are unnerved by them, and for good reason..
 * In fact, let's look at the fact that
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: According to Phone Guy, this is the reason why the animatronics brutally murder anyone they see after dark, they think that they're stumbling upon a naked endoskeleton and are simply putting it back in its costume. However, the animatronics act in ways that can't be chalked up to rogue AI such as leering evilly into the cameras, Freddy teleporting into your room if both doors are shut, and Foxy rushing straight at your position if you don't look at Pirate's Cove enough. There's something very wrong at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza,.
 * Alone with the Psychos: There's absolutely no friendly presence aside from the phone messages left behind by a former employee that play at the beginning of each night: it's just you and four bloodthirsty killer animatronics.
 * Antagonist Title
 * Apocalyptic Log: Well, kind of. You're not in a doomsday scenario or anything, but you do receive messages each night from a former employee who informs you about the behavior of the animatronics and how you can deal with them
 * Arc Words: IT'S ME, a phrase you will be seeing a lot of during hallucinations later on in the game.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The reasons why you're
 * Artificial Stupidity: The animatronics don't suffer from this as they're quite adept at slipping into the office whenever you're distracted, but at the end of the day, they will always enter from a certain door: Bonnie and Foxy through the left, Chica and Freddy from the right. If you close one door, it will be impossible for two to get in, though one of the other two remaining will kill you from the other while Freddy will flat out murder you if you shut both.
 * Bait and Switch: All promotional materials for the game made it seem like you'd only have to be dealing with three animatronics: Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy. Come Night 2 however, you're going to start needing to keep tabs on Pirate Cove on a regular basis, unless if you're ready for the unexpected fourth animatronic Foxy to bum rush you. And as a truly nasty surprise, he's able to show up on Night 1 in case if you thought you could cheese the night by simply never checking your monitor because unlike Bonnie and Chica who only attack once you look at and lower the monitor, Foxy will attack no matter what.
 * Bear Hug: This is Freddy's jumpscare whenever the power's out.
 * Behind the Black: Whenever you're looking at your security tablet and put it down, if you weren't being careful you'll find Bonnie, Chica, or Freddy waiting to scream in your face. Somehow you weren't able to see them get in despite the fact that realistically, you'd be able to see them while looking at your tablet as double tasking isn't hard.
 * Big Bad: Freddy Fazbear himself is this, of course. He does nothing for the first couple of nights and isn't all that active on Night 3, but from Night 4 onwards, Freddy cuts the shit and gets serious, and proves to be THE hardest animatronic to deal with. And should the power go out, he's always the one who will confront you, leering at you from the darkness while his damnable music box plays before swooping in for the kill.
 * Bigger Bad: As mentioned in several newspapers that replace the Rules For Safety sign at random intervals explain,
 * And the sequel revealed
 * Black Comedy: Let's face it, as terrifying as your fate at the hands of the animatronics should you screw up is, it's pretty amusing to hear Phone Guy discuss it cheerfully and nonchalantly in that charming Midwestern accent of his.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: Whenever Freddy attacks you when the lights are on, his eyes appear to be pitch black. This is also how they look anytime he leers into a camera whenever he's on the move.
 * Ditto for Bonnie, who not only gets a pants-shittingly terrifying screen where he's staring directly into the storage room's camera, but there's also a rare screen that shows up whenever you die where he is sporting these before they light up at the center...
 * Black Speech: During Night 5,
 * Bloodless Carnage: While the ultimate fate that befalls you should you get attacked by an animatronic should be incredibly bloody and gory, there's no blood in sight on the game over screen, and the only gore is your eyeballs and teeth having popped out of the costume you were stuffed in, also with no blood in sight.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The job description for the pizzeria seems pretty innocuous, as it mentions your work hours (12:00 AM to 6:00 AM) and your job description (Protect the equipment and animatronics)... but then, there's the warning stating "Not responsible for injury/dismemberment.
 * Brain Food: Back some time in 1987, an animatronic chomped down on someone's skull and tore out their frontal lobe. This incident was dubbed The Bite of '87.
 * Brutal Bonus Level: Whenever you beat all 5 nights, you get a 6 one added that has the difficulty ramped up considerably. Should you wish, you can make Night 7 even more brutal by setting the AI of the animatronics at the most difficult settings.
 * Camera Screw: Sometimes when you look at the cameras, the words IT'S ME will flash on screen, as well as various other hallucinations like Bonnie's eyeless face among others.
 * Catch Phrase: "Hello, hello!" Courtesy of Phone Guy.
 * Controllable Helplessness: The entire game revolves around this as its main gameplay mechanic. You're basically stuck in your tiny little office unable to leave or move around (not counting you turning your head from right to left) and with no way to fight back against the animatronics should they approach you. Sure, you can shut the door on them... but ultimately, what good will that do? You're just delaying an inevitable confrontation and should the power go off.
 * If you don't shoo away Bonnie or Chica away and leave the door they're hanging around open for too long, they'll disable the door and light buttons. At this point, you may as well cover your ears and shut your eyes because you're basically waiting for a jumpscare at this point depending on what you do: you can look at your tablet and put it down to have Bonnie or Chica scream in your face, do nothing and allow Foxy to charge in from the left door, or instead have Freddy creep in and pounce from the right.
 * Should you run out of power, EVERYTHING stops working and leaves you in a darkened office. Freddy will then show up and play his music box tune before rushing in and killing you. If you play dead and don't move, you could theoretically make it to 6:00 AM depending on how far you were into the night as Freddy will take longer to kill you. If you move though, the music will stop sooner and he'll attack you that much quicker.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: The person in charge of the pizzeria can be interpreted as this: despite the fact that, someone was chomped on by one of the animatronics, and night guards are regularly slaughtered by the killbots, they've partaken in numerous cover-ups and have done all they can to get people on their side so the restaurant can stay open.
 * Cosmetic Award: Should you beat Night 5, Night 6, and Night 7 at its highest difficulty setting, you'll get one star on the main menu for each night beaten. Originally there were only stars for Nights 5 and 6, but the third was added after someone successfully cleared Night 7 with all animatronics set on the highest difficulty level, a feat that the creator Scott Cawthon though was impossible.
 * Cower Power: Whenever the power goes out and its a bit later than 5 AM, you should do as Phone Guy suggested and play dead by not moving at all when Freddy shows up. Doing so will cause him to play his music box longer and thus may get you to wait out the clock.
 * Crapsack World: Let's face it: whenever you've learned about the pizzeria's dark past and realize that it's still open despite that, you really wonder if there's any justice in this world.
 * Creator Cameo: Phone Guy's voice is provided by none other than the game's creator himself: Scott Cawthon.
 * Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Thanks to how the animatronics are designed (Their eyes are attached to their endoskeletons which can be seen through eyeholes in the costumes), they appear to have these.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: The result of getting caught by any of the animatronics is you getting stuffed in a Freddy Fazbear costume with all the sharp metallic bits inside, a gory, slow, agonizing death that takes you out iron maiden style. Unfortunately,.
 * Cutting the Knot: Foxy doesn't do as the other animatronics do and leer at the cameras and mosey around the pizzeria before getting into your office, he simply makes a mad dash to your location if you don't check up on Pirate's Cove often enough.
 * Dangerous Workplace: Given that your workplace is home to four killer animatronics who will grant you an agonizing death via iron maiden Freddy costume, it's safe to say that calling Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria a dangerous workplace is the understatement of the century.
 * Darkness Equals Death: You better hope to god that you're getting close to 6 AM if you squander all of your power. If not, then you're completely and utterly screwed.
 * Daylight Horror: The Bite of '87 was this, seeing as how it happened during broad daylight.
 * Death Glare: Pretty much every animatronic sports one of these at one point or another, but one moment that will really stick out in your mind is a rare screen where all three of the main animatronics are on the show stage, glaring malevolently at you with their teeth bared.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: So you're feeling fine after muscling your way through the first couple of nights and have the animatronic's movement patterns and triggers committed to memory, eh? Well you better wipe that smug grin off of your face, because
 * There was a rumor going around for a while that if you set the animatronic AIs to 1-9-8-7, you'd get access to a secret ending. In order to quell any rumors, Scott later programmed in a Golden Freddy jumpscare to scare off anyone trying to get the non-existant secret ending}}.
 * Difficulty Spike: There are two of these that happen to coincide with the introduction of the other two animatronics who aren't active on night 1: Foxy and Freddy. On Night 2, you now have to check Pirate's Cove at regular intervals because Foxy will rush your way if you don't while on Night 4, Freddy becomes active and will actively work against any strategies you've employed in the past.
 * Digital Piracy Is Evil: If you decide to pirate a copy of the game, it will be fully playable.. but the caveat is that closing the game will cause a jumpscare.
 * Dramatic Disappearing Display: While it's obvious that shit is about to hit the fan if your power shuts off, your power and usage HUDs as well as your clock and day number disappearing out to drive it home.
 * Digital Piracy Is Evil: If you decide to pirate a copy of the game, it will be fully playable.. but the caveat is that closing the game will cause a jumpscare.
 * Dramatic Disappearing Display: While it's obvious that shit is about to hit the fan if your power shuts off, your power and usage HUDs as well as your clock and day number disappearing out to drive it home.