FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 4

In 2015, just as I was getting into this series, THIS was the game released, only months after the previous game that people deemed "not scary enough" - well no surprise, there's nothing scary about a dead guy in a bunny suit wheezing at you. Maybe gross, but not scary. But this, it's polarizing, you have one half like that disgraced YouTuber that thinks it's not scary at all, then you have ones like me who probably should see a cardiologist before playing this game! Seriously, my heart rate goes WAAAAAY up the minute I click on the EXE file.

In Five Nights at Freddy's 4, now the minigames come first, and the main gameplay AFTER. Now it tells the story of some poor child with some serious trauma being traumatized by his brother even more, until he dies, while in between, the primary gameplay sees us as a child now, with a flashlight, in a bedroom with doors on both sides, being chased by the most horrific, abominable, terrifying versions of the animatronics ever seen. These, tall, grimacing, wartorn, spiky, toothy monstrosities that come to our doors and "breathe" or sneak into the closet and rise up from a "Plushie". The Nightmare Animatronics....seriously, I thought I was the only person to come up with stuff THIS delusional, but these guys take the cake. To some this was uber-predictable and not-scary, but for me, one who had similar things for nightmares as a kid, it was like reliving a childhood nightmare playing this. But to add insult to injury, you had to LISTEN very closely to the doors, and this meant if a jumpscare happens, you were going to be startled on a level unlike any game I've plpayed before or since. (puts ear to door) (huff huff) (hits wrong button)

(GROWLING AND SCREAMING!!!)

If only they could have used this in this SNL Sketch, LOL.....

The game was the first one to have a DLC add-on, in the form of Halloween Edition, that just put Jack-o-Lantern setups on Bonnie and Chica, while adding some new nightmares to deal with. While not considered "canon", it was a nice touch.

in the end, FNaF 4 has gained my respect because of it's s ability to be so frightening to me that I still get a spike in heart rate at the friggin title screen. It seems I'm not alone in this.

How To Launch a 34 Year Old Man into a Rack of Strats - My Experirences

FNaF 4 was the first game I truly owned and played from the series. The fact PewDiePie does not find this one scary is pretty much proof he lacks a soul. Christ on a bike, Nightmare Bonnie sent me flying into the guitar rack first off. I swear, if we had taped my first sit down and play of this, I would have been right up there with Markiplier and BlasphemousHD for my freakouts. I basically had a Fender headstock in my back at the end of it. Good show, good show.

Think about it. Sure, I'm a big, tall, 6'4" tall guy, who can shoot a gun, wield a machete, and off-road a truck, but something about how this game was put together really tugs at the "wild predator vs. prey/defense" sense in me, the whole "fight or flight" trigger. See, the environment is too familiar - the creepy, uncanny mid-80's house you are in, oddly dark, during a creepy, dark night, where everything is ever so slightly "cartooney" - like a dream/nightmare - and now you have these toothy monstrositites roaming the hallways looking to eat you...not for sustainance, not for sport, just because they can. I'm just imagining when the poor kid gets eaten, a stream of blood and guts fills the floor in a puddle around the animatronic's feet. Death - for no reason. And it hits close to home, as I've had a lot of nightmares like this in my life. But unlike in my own nightmares, where I'm able to sometimes escape the situation through means not offered in game - I'm limited to one of three actions: Listen, close door, flash flashlight.

Clicking on that EXE gives me that sinking dread, and my heart rate shoots up. I had a fitbit on, I was already running at 3/4th throttle by the time I was at the title screen. So this is not one I play that much. It still does this - to this day - even though I'm pretty well over FNaF. That said, it is a good computerized cardio workout, my heart must be in good shape, it drops revs like a Toyota MR-2 with a fiberglass flywheel.