This game is very interesting to me for a lot of reasons. It's pretty different from the original, for better, and for worse. The original FNAF relies on its unsettling atmosphere to keep the player on edge, while this game relies on overwhelming the player and stressing them out. Rather than four animatronics to keep track of, this game has ELEVEN. The game is a scramble to keep all of them away while they have different methods of doing so. It's anxiety inducing in a different way and I can appreciate the new approach.
Unfortunately though, this game has the issue of feeling extremely repetitive. You will eventually realize there is ONE strategy you can use for the best odds at survival. There is literally zero reason to look at the cameras, ever. Simply stay on the puppet's camera to wind the music box, close the camera, put on your mask if an animatronic is in the office, flash the lights, repeat. This doesn't change until nights 5 and 6 where the animatronics can actually force you out of the camera and completely catch you off guard, and you have a fraction of a second to react and put the mask on. This is where the game is its scariest, and also most frustrating, because the RNG elements are super obvious and sometimes dying just feels like bullshit.
Sometimes you will be forced out of the camera over and over again to the point where you can't wind the music box and die no matter what. Sometimes your flashlight will stop working at just the wrong time and guarantee Foxy kills you. Sometimes one animatronic will hang out in a vent for way too damn long completely screwing you over. If stuff like this keeps happening it quickly feels less scary and more annoying.
Also, Golden Freddy is an actual animatronic with AI in this game, which is really cool! The way he's implemented is stupid though. If he's in the office, put the mask on and he leaves, just like the others, ok that makes sense. If he's in the hallway, you'd think to flash him with your light like EVERY OTHER ANIMATRONIC IN THE GAME, BUT NO! You're supposed to ignore him to make him leave, for some stupid reason. The game never teaches you this either since he's only in Night 6, but it can still cause stupid deaths.
With all that out of the way, there is one aspect about this game that I don't think gets enough praise, and that is the lore and easter eggs. FNAF 1 had the newspapers to dissect and Golden Freddy, but that's kinda it. This game has atari style mini games you can encounter that play up the mystery about the story in a way that's super fascinating. Yeah all the game's after this do the same thing, but I honestly think it was executed the best here! When this game came out there was so much buzz around dissecting all the secrets and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. And of course there's the shadow animatronics which don't add anything at all but are just there as a fun easter egg, I like stuff like that.
So yeah, while this isn't as good as the original in my opinion, I do think it's fun in its own way. It's just frustrating sometimes from a gameplay perspective, and it's definitely not as scary as it should be given the game it's following up. I still enjoy it for what it is though.
Unfortunately though, this game has the issue of feeling extremely repetitive. You will eventually realize there is ONE strategy you can use for the best odds at survival. There is literally zero reason to look at the cameras, ever. Simply stay on the puppet's camera to wind the music box, close the camera, put on your mask if an animatronic is in the office, flash the lights, repeat. This doesn't change until nights 5 and 6 where the animatronics can actually force you out of the camera and completely catch you off guard, and you have a fraction of a second to react and put the mask on. This is where the game is its scariest, and also most frustrating, because the RNG elements are super obvious and sometimes dying just feels like bullshit.
Sometimes you will be forced out of the camera over and over again to the point where you can't wind the music box and die no matter what. Sometimes your flashlight will stop working at just the wrong time and guarantee Foxy kills you. Sometimes one animatronic will hang out in a vent for way too damn long completely screwing you over. If stuff like this keeps happening it quickly feels less scary and more annoying.
Also, Golden Freddy is an actual animatronic with AI in this game, which is really cool! The way he's implemented is stupid though. If he's in the office, put the mask on and he leaves, just like the others, ok that makes sense. If he's in the hallway, you'd think to flash him with your light like EVERY OTHER ANIMATRONIC IN THE GAME, BUT NO! You're supposed to ignore him to make him leave, for some stupid reason. The game never teaches you this either since he's only in Night 6, but it can still cause stupid deaths.
With all that out of the way, there is one aspect about this game that I don't think gets enough praise, and that is the lore and easter eggs. FNAF 1 had the newspapers to dissect and Golden Freddy, but that's kinda it. This game has atari style mini games you can encounter that play up the mystery about the story in a way that's super fascinating. Yeah all the game's after this do the same thing, but I honestly think it was executed the best here! When this game came out there was so much buzz around dissecting all the secrets and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. And of course there's the shadow animatronics which don't add anything at all but are just there as a fun easter egg, I like stuff like that.
So yeah, while this isn't as good as the original in my opinion, I do think it's fun in its own way. It's just frustrating sometimes from a gameplay perspective, and it's definitely not as scary as it should be given the game it's following up. I still enjoy it for what it is though.