FNAF Spin-Offs Prove Five Nights At Freddy’s Needs To Go Back To Its Roots

screenrant.com:

is an iconic horror game franchise that has spawned countless books, fan games, and even an ongoing movie series since its first game in 2014. The games have humble roots in point-and-click horror, but in recent years the series has moved on to entirely different genres, like a racing game () and a side-scrolling shooter (. To bring the fear back to Fazbear Entertainment, needs to go back to the beginning.

hasn’t been scary in a very long time. A series that should take place in a gross, outdated pizza restaurant with decaying animatronics has become too shiny and fresh for true horror to take root. To keep the identity of the games,needs to take away player mobility and return to point-and-click gameplay.

Games like and its DLC,, are fantastic games. They’re bigger in scale than anything ever seen in the games, with great takes on classic characters like Glamrock Freddy and Chica, butthey’re just not as scary. Being able to control a first-person protagonist throughout a 3D space takes away from the stationary horror that defined the earlier games. What makes any of the series' classicgames truly horrifying is the sense that the player is completely trapped, while also figuring out what twisted lore is hiding inside the game.

While there are tools at the player's disposal to protect themselves, like a solid metal door or a flimsy Freddy mask, the fact remains that they are stuck in one place until the clock hits 6 AM. The gameplay focus on keeping something out gives a unique sense of fear that is unable to replicate, except for during the occasional missions inside a control room. While players, as Gregory, are technically trapped inside the Fazbear Pizza Plex,the building is so ridiculously large that there’s never a true sense of claustrophobia.

Another major feature that newer games lack is being grimy. For, this effect is surely on purpose, as having shiny new animatronics slowly degrade into broken versions of themselves is a major part of the game.