FNAF 4: The Hype

For the past several months, I’ve been had the fever: The Five Nights at Freddy’s fever.

It’s not as scary if you image he has Mario’s voice.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Five Nights at Freddy’s is an indie, survival-horror game quadrilogy created by the super talented Scott Cawthon.  On the surface, it centers around a Chuck E. Cheese-eque pizzeria with you playing as the night guard who has to survive the haunted animatronics until 6 a.m. for 5 (or 6 or 7 if you are brave enough) nights.  As those who have read my Comic-Con blog know, I’m a big fan of Markiplier.   It was his Let’s Play of the series that initially got me hooked.  At first, it was just the jump scares and his reactions that reeled me in. However, as I learned more about the story through subtle clues and as new consecutive games came out, I was hooked.

I started watching MatPat’s Game Theory videos and other Let’s Plays and reading fan theories on Reddit.  When it came out on mobile, I downloaded it and played it for myself.  It scared me and it fascinated me.  The hidden secrets and story beyond just the main premise of the game intrigued me.  I love murder mysteries or mysteries of any kind.  Give me a good “who dun it” story and I become obsessed until I know all the answers.  And I expect all of them to be answered.  None of this Inception ending crap.  Tell me what happened at the end; don’t leave it up to my imagination/interpretation.

When FNAF 3 came out, we all assumed that it would be the final installment into the series. But it wasn’t long until FNAF 4: The Final Chapter was announced on Scott’s homepage for Halloween 2015.  Scott isn’t really good with release dates though.  Just a few weeks ago he announced that the game would be coming out early on 8/8 with free DLC on 10/31, but then the actual game just came out Thursday, July 23rd.  It was unexpected, but it brought at lot of hype.

Per the norm, I’ve already watched 4 different people play, beat and analyze the game.   I’m still watching and waiting for the entirety of the playthrough from Markiplier and the final theories from MatPat, but that will keep the buzz going.  Once the DLC comes out, which I suspect will be out before 10/31 if the main game is any indication,  we will finally (hopefully) have the full picture of the horrible and scary things that went on in the Freddy Fazbear’s Entertainment establishments.

The release date is a lie.

I won’t say too much in case you fans out there haven’t gotten a chance to see or play it yet, but I will say that the bite of ’87 is involved and there are lots of easter eggs in this game for fans of the series.  You just have to look and listen closely, much like the mechanics of this 4th game.  It’s unlike any of the 3 games before it. It’s more intense, frightening and in a setting we haven’t seen from this series before.  The game is packed with more story-filled minigames  and a minigame that can give you a leg up on the next night, if you are skilled enough to beat it.

I cannot wait until this drops on the App Store.  I wish my computer could handle FNAF on Steam, but (sadly) it cannot.  For me though, the fun comes not from the jump scares and the actual playing of it, but from the community and story that surrounds the game.  It’s morbidly magical, fun and always interesting.  How often do you have to scour teaser images and videos for clues?  How often do you have to ‘inspect element’ on a website to find out secret hints about the game’s release, setting or theme?  I love that stuff.   I look forward to the DLC completing the story, but I think I’ll be sad to see it end.  Hopefully, some other super awesome game will come along and snatch my attention.

Until then… FNAF 4!!!!!!!!  Woooooo!

-Gretchen