CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S
4 REVIEW
aka. FNAF FROM THE ADULT PERSPECTIVE - PART IV: THERAPY!!!! I NEED THERAPY!!!!
It was 2017, and of course, we get yet another FNaF release, but the verdict was out among us all on whether this was a legitimate FNaF game, or a Simulator game like "Sim City", where you make your own pizzaria. The answer was BOTH.

So Scott trolls us yet again and puts out a game in 8-bit where you make your own pizza and throw it at kids, it glitches, and glitches....

Now were sitting at what looks like a mafia interrogation of an Animatronic, by playing it sound effects form what sounds like a cross between a Walkman dropped in the soapy dish pan with Tomita's Firebird tape in it, the Captain and Tennille Muskrat song "Muskrat" solo, and Legion of Rock Stars performing at the Jack Daniels factory with unlimited free samples.

....and then BAM - THERE'S that Corporate cynicysm I loved so much about the first game. Yes, we're lead into a 1980's style powerpoint presentation comeplete with Fazbear clipart teaching us how to be a Franchisee of Fazbear Entertainment. The entire thing reeks of 70's-80's style Guidance Councilor Office booklet artwork - that's somewhat unnervingly realistic yet mockingly cartooney at the same time.

When this game came out, FNaF was losing it's lustre a bit though.


THE HISTORY OF FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S PART VI: THE FALSE SIMULATOR, A GAME REDEEMS ITSELF

PLOT: 8/10
So the plot of FFPS is that you are an unwitting hire-ree for Fazbear Entertainment, getting to start your own franchise, and so you do. However, there's a secondarly undertow to the plot that Henry - William Afton's assistant, wants you to entrap the last surviving members of the Animatronic family in this place, to be burned, freeing the souls to go to heaven/hell/purgatory/ghostie-land, and putting an end to this infernal shark jumping festival of SciFi Horror. YAY!

So basically, on one hand, you're thinking you're just supposed to start a good resturant, on the other hand, you're supposed to be salvaging animatronics so they are "All in one place" on Friday for the "Burning Robot" event - which means, in order to properly complete the game, you need to get all of the salvage mascots into the maze, and survive one more night with them after 5 nights, to get the real ending. That said, there are multiple endings for this game including one that has you institutionalized for purchasing a file server, one that gets you fired for doing nothing, one that gets you arrested IIRC, there's numerous endings for this game based on your actions, which makes it a bit deeper than the previous installments on multiple levels.


GRAPHICS: 9/10
Fairly typical Scott Cawthon Graphics work, which is excellent. The guy developed his own style prior to the franchise and uses it effectively. I never saw Cawthon as the kind of guy to do uber-realistic graphics, but rather, as a guy whose style rides that between realistic and cartooney, with a dash of humor. And that fine line makes it easier to be believable. That said, the cartooney-ness got dialed up a little more from this point onward, whereas it's obvious in the first four games that he was shooting for believably realistic graphics (and achieving it). But here, that cartooniness I think was a function of developing a "look" for the franchise vs. just trying to make things look realistic.
SOUND: 8/10

GAMEPLAY: 7.5/10
The GamePlay has you going through five phases: Salvage, Business/Legal, building Your Resturant, and then Taking Care of tasks in the air ducts while surviving the night, then going home to watch soaps and eat popcorn - in that gameplay loop.

Salvage - you sit across from an animatronic that looks haggered as heck like you're interrogating it for stealing the clockmond diamond, while you listen to a tape recording of some sounds and a man with the voice of an FBI agent giving you instructions and playing audio cues that sound like a tape player thrown in a dish pan full of soap! You have to look down to scribble down the results, and hope the electronic critter does not move while you do. If it does, you have about 4-5 chances to zap it with a taser before it loses it's scrap value. Once you have it, it of course, will be roaming the HVAC of your establishment so you have to fight it off every night.

Legal/Business - a little pastel Freddy named "Helpie" will help you with your taxes, profit, revenue, and let you know how many lawsuits you got - which is based off the liability rating of your resturant. This is a way to subtract money from your establishment and add an element of challenge.

Building the Resturant - Now you get to spend that profit in a series of catalogs to purchase stages, cutlery, animatronics, attractions, games, and whatnot. You also get 10 "FazCoins" to play various minigames as a form of "PlayTesting" video games and various attractions. When you playtest these, your "FazScore" goes up, and you will earn more money the next night. You also earn some money from your playtesting as well. There are various video games that also try to expand upon the lore including a Jujifruit game with a poor blonde girl and springtrap visible in the screen reflection, a racing game where you can take a detour off the track and follow the "Cheetoman" around, and a few others.

Nightly Duties - Basically, cleaning, prepping Pizza, ordering more party supplies, and apparentlty this guy's computer rig is an 8088 XT, because it's SLOW, has a dot matrix printer that sounds like it's on it's last legs, and that power supply fan must never have been dusted in 40 years. During this time, you have vents on each side of you that you need to flash a light down, and/or turn off various things to cut down on noise, scare away your salvage robots, and/or lure them away. You also have to watch the temperature as well. Oh, did you get some sponsorships? Well....looks like they're going to be adding to the noise pollution and animatronic attraction to your strangely placed HVAC vent office.


OVERALL