I need to be very clear from the outset that this is a review of the Playstation 4 version of the game, which I picked up while on sale recently out of morbid curiosity. Being the fifth installment in a series of PC point-and-click horror games, I had to know first hand how they adapted the controls to console. The answer: not well! BOO!
The left analog controls the mouse, with L2/R2 providing a secondary slowed down mode to make more precise selections. I am going to tell you right off the bat that this game is impossible to beat without jumping into the menu and altering every single movement option on a per-night basis. The first three nights are more or less manageable, but nights 4 and 5 play like total dogshit. Night 4 finds you trapped inside a suit with ten dials that must be wound or else the suit will close shut and kill you. Complicating matters are two animatronics that are attempting to sneak into your suit from the left and right in an attempt to spook you. They must be shaken off, but shaking causes the dials to move as well, and as the night progresses the dials begin to tick away faster and faster... The only problem is, the controls can only be tuned to be too slow or too unweildy, and the only way I was able to effectively navigate the puzzle was by checking a box to allow screen wrapping that is unchecked by default.
Similarly, night 5 requires you to input a randomly generated code into a number pad. The slightest error or delay results in a scare, but the pad is microscopic in size and a total pain in the ass to navigate with a controller. I imagine on PC both puzzles are challenging but fair, as a mouse would mitigate a lot of the issues I have with lack of precision and movement speed, but on console these puzzles simply are not timed to the default controls and require far too much fine tuning in menus to be enjoyable.
Adding to my agony is a hyper-fixation on story and some truly atrocious checkpointing. I'm not 14-years-old, so I don't give a crap about the lore of Five Nights at Freddie's. Having to sit through five minutes of whispered dialog just to get to three minutes of actual gameplay is bad enough, but when failure sets you back to before that dialog, forcing you to listen to it alllll over again, jump scares stop being scary and start eliciting groans. This is what broke me in particular. Going for the hidden ending requires you to lumber through a room, solve the keypad puzzle (which, I must reemphasize, sucks), lumber to another room, then endure 9 minutes of Five Nights 1 gameplay. Fail at any point of that and you're going all the way back.
This hidden ending is further locked behind a 2D platforming minigame that appears randomly (though it can be accessed from the extra menus after seeing the normal ending.) You need to shoot cupcakes at kids until they're happy, pick up an ice cream cone, then go all the way to the start of the level. You're under a very tight time limit and your character loves to catch against platforms, which doesn't make the very specific routing through the level any easier. Your game controls like shit, Scott!
The more self-serious stretches of story did not resonate with me whatsoever, but I do like this games sense of humor. There's some pretty funny stuff in here! Really, Five Nights has always been at its weakest for me when it focuses on serial killers and the supernatural, but excels when being a dark comedy about shitty part time jobs.
Sister Location is also a much more linear game. Each night is centered around a different specific puzzle with only one real solution. The conditions for solving the puzzle are tight and the game builds its horror through stress and anticipation. I appreciate that they're trying something new with this installment and I do think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I played on PC, but due to the aforementioned issues I had and the fact that each night really only has one specific solution that just needs to be executed upon precisely, Sister Location loses a lot of its power fast.
If you do decide to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and skip getting this on con-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
spooked ya!
The left analog controls the mouse, with L2/R2 providing a secondary slowed down mode to make more precise selections. I am going to tell you right off the bat that this game is impossible to beat without jumping into the menu and altering every single movement option on a per-night basis. The first three nights are more or less manageable, but nights 4 and 5 play like total dogshit. Night 4 finds you trapped inside a suit with ten dials that must be wound or else the suit will close shut and kill you. Complicating matters are two animatronics that are attempting to sneak into your suit from the left and right in an attempt to spook you. They must be shaken off, but shaking causes the dials to move as well, and as the night progresses the dials begin to tick away faster and faster... The only problem is, the controls can only be tuned to be too slow or too unweildy, and the only way I was able to effectively navigate the puzzle was by checking a box to allow screen wrapping that is unchecked by default.
Similarly, night 5 requires you to input a randomly generated code into a number pad. The slightest error or delay results in a scare, but the pad is microscopic in size and a total pain in the ass to navigate with a controller. I imagine on PC both puzzles are challenging but fair, as a mouse would mitigate a lot of the issues I have with lack of precision and movement speed, but on console these puzzles simply are not timed to the default controls and require far too much fine tuning in menus to be enjoyable.
Adding to my agony is a hyper-fixation on story and some truly atrocious checkpointing. I'm not 14-years-old, so I don't give a crap about the lore of Five Nights at Freddie's. Having to sit through five minutes of whispered dialog just to get to three minutes of actual gameplay is bad enough, but when failure sets you back to before that dialog, forcing you to listen to it alllll over again, jump scares stop being scary and start eliciting groans. This is what broke me in particular. Going for the hidden ending requires you to lumber through a room, solve the keypad puzzle (which, I must reemphasize, sucks), lumber to another room, then endure 9 minutes of Five Nights 1 gameplay. Fail at any point of that and you're going all the way back.
This hidden ending is further locked behind a 2D platforming minigame that appears randomly (though it can be accessed from the extra menus after seeing the normal ending.) You need to shoot cupcakes at kids until they're happy, pick up an ice cream cone, then go all the way to the start of the level. You're under a very tight time limit and your character loves to catch against platforms, which doesn't make the very specific routing through the level any easier. Your game controls like shit, Scott!
The more self-serious stretches of story did not resonate with me whatsoever, but I do like this games sense of humor. There's some pretty funny stuff in here! Really, Five Nights has always been at its weakest for me when it focuses on serial killers and the supernatural, but excels when being a dark comedy about shitty part time jobs.
Sister Location is also a much more linear game. Each night is centered around a different specific puzzle with only one real solution. The conditions for solving the puzzle are tight and the game builds its horror through stress and anticipation. I appreciate that they're trying something new with this installment and I do think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I played on PC, but due to the aforementioned issues I had and the fact that each night really only has one specific solution that just needs to be executed upon precisely, Sister Location loses a lot of its power fast.
If you do decide to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and skip getting this on con-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
spooked ya!
Weatherby
2 years ago