truly if five nights at freddys as a franchise is defined by Anything, its seeing how far u can stretch something obviously flawed on the strengths of the high level aesthetic experience...not just visually , but the core Feeling of Existing Within The Confines Of The Interactive Object. for the scott-created games, this mostly manifests in the fact that theres no Perfect Universal system for the fnaf gameplay loop...every game has different little imperfections and half baked ideas. what allows each game to be compelling, esp taken as a collective whole, is the wide range of appeals they offer, scratching different itches of interaction and atmosphere. they cover for eachothers weaknesses very often...if fnaf 1 isnt exciting enough for you jump to fnaf 2, if the lack of camera usage in fnaf 2 bugs u jump to fnaf 3, if fnaf 3 isnt tight enough jump to 4,,,all this means that none of the games are rly Towering Masterpieces, but they cover so much ground that theres probably at least One that is For You (ik i have my favorites!)
security breach rly takes this to its absolute breaking point...with previous fnaf games the individual entries were simple and polished, some rough edges but for the most part if u didnt like them it was due to a disagreement with the fundamental concepts rather then incompetent execution. security breach has no such armor to hide behind...it is full of flatly bad ideas, and full of flatly bad execution of those ideas. even playing the most patched and functional version of the game yet to exist, the seams come apart pretty often...but they stay together long enough to make it clear that even without that, this is not a good attempt at adapting fnaf to a 3d free roam environment. plays mostly like an absolutely trivial stealth game with occasional gimmicks and some needless frustration from undercooked player-hostile design like the save system. it took me nearly half the game to realize that when i was playing it as a trial and error stealth horror game, i was taking it far too much at its word...i had to stumble into a series of revelations of how weak and easily beatable the ai is, how useless the cameras are, and how generous your stamina is. and all this before getting an item to stun everyone! it was a conflicting disappointment...by taking the game seriously, and assuming it was capable of enforcing the intended playstyle, i had created friction and texture and tension and all the other stuff the game was clearly supposed to have, but i had also made it needlessly frustrating because even if u opt into the slow and steady route, the game barely holds it together anyway.
and yet...once i realized that i Wasnt playing a slow and frustrating stealth horror game, but instead a somewhat annoying but largely stress-free frictionless exploration game, i started to have genuinely tons of fun. whatever steelwool failed at, their misguided division of attention and resources paid off in the places that actually got focus...vibrant visuals and character designs, a wholly enveloping and instantly recognizable aesthetic identity, all spread across the absolute feat of Dreamy Architecture that is the pizzaplex. designed as full scale childhood wish fufillment to create The Coolest Possible Place To Have Your 10th Birthday Party first, a compelling place to explore and discover second, and an arena for stealth gameplay an astronomically distant third. but those first two pay OFF,,,,if nothing else, im sure ill come back and replay this game because i know i have so much more left to see in the pizzaplex, and im sure ill just miss the feeling of being in it. the commitment to making u a small and agile child running up and down this extremely appealing and lavishly lovingly rendered world might as well be the most vivid aesthetic appeal this series has yet managed...only rly surpassed by the Other fnaf game where u play as a child, but while 4 is a nightmare, SB is pure soaring dreams. in being so unsuccessful at subverting its cheery and colorful exterior for real horror, it simply inherits all the advantages of a cheery and colorful exterior.
it rly is just endlessly lovable, full of relentless charm and character, and what is achieved there intentionally brings a more likable levity to the numerous problems. it is pure ambition and energy without experience or temperament...ideally it could have everything obviously, but its hard to be angry at a game that just wants to blow yr mind this badly. so idk, why should i care that the fun game that i played isnt the one they meant to design! its there, i experienced it, and while im not soooo forgiving that i can overlook everything, this is almost certainly the entry in the series i am most inclined to go back to someday. as apt an illustration as anything of the limits of looking at game design as a formula to be solved by the developer, rather then an experience to be absorbed and reckoned with by the audience. much good is to be found here, you need only be willing to see it.
and besides which, are u rly telling me this is worse then sister location????? aint no way !!!!
security breach rly takes this to its absolute breaking point...with previous fnaf games the individual entries were simple and polished, some rough edges but for the most part if u didnt like them it was due to a disagreement with the fundamental concepts rather then incompetent execution. security breach has no such armor to hide behind...it is full of flatly bad ideas, and full of flatly bad execution of those ideas. even playing the most patched and functional version of the game yet to exist, the seams come apart pretty often...but they stay together long enough to make it clear that even without that, this is not a good attempt at adapting fnaf to a 3d free roam environment. plays mostly like an absolutely trivial stealth game with occasional gimmicks and some needless frustration from undercooked player-hostile design like the save system. it took me nearly half the game to realize that when i was playing it as a trial and error stealth horror game, i was taking it far too much at its word...i had to stumble into a series of revelations of how weak and easily beatable the ai is, how useless the cameras are, and how generous your stamina is. and all this before getting an item to stun everyone! it was a conflicting disappointment...by taking the game seriously, and assuming it was capable of enforcing the intended playstyle, i had created friction and texture and tension and all the other stuff the game was clearly supposed to have, but i had also made it needlessly frustrating because even if u opt into the slow and steady route, the game barely holds it together anyway.
and yet...once i realized that i Wasnt playing a slow and frustrating stealth horror game, but instead a somewhat annoying but largely stress-free frictionless exploration game, i started to have genuinely tons of fun. whatever steelwool failed at, their misguided division of attention and resources paid off in the places that actually got focus...vibrant visuals and character designs, a wholly enveloping and instantly recognizable aesthetic identity, all spread across the absolute feat of Dreamy Architecture that is the pizzaplex. designed as full scale childhood wish fufillment to create The Coolest Possible Place To Have Your 10th Birthday Party first, a compelling place to explore and discover second, and an arena for stealth gameplay an astronomically distant third. but those first two pay OFF,,,,if nothing else, im sure ill come back and replay this game because i know i have so much more left to see in the pizzaplex, and im sure ill just miss the feeling of being in it. the commitment to making u a small and agile child running up and down this extremely appealing and lavishly lovingly rendered world might as well be the most vivid aesthetic appeal this series has yet managed...only rly surpassed by the Other fnaf game where u play as a child, but while 4 is a nightmare, SB is pure soaring dreams. in being so unsuccessful at subverting its cheery and colorful exterior for real horror, it simply inherits all the advantages of a cheery and colorful exterior.
it rly is just endlessly lovable, full of relentless charm and character, and what is achieved there intentionally brings a more likable levity to the numerous problems. it is pure ambition and energy without experience or temperament...ideally it could have everything obviously, but its hard to be angry at a game that just wants to blow yr mind this badly. so idk, why should i care that the fun game that i played isnt the one they meant to design! its there, i experienced it, and while im not soooo forgiving that i can overlook everything, this is almost certainly the entry in the series i am most inclined to go back to someday. as apt an illustration as anything of the limits of looking at game design as a formula to be solved by the developer, rather then an experience to be absorbed and reckoned with by the audience. much good is to be found here, you need only be willing to see it.
and besides which, are u rly telling me this is worse then sister location????? aint no way !!!!