So this will be a pretty interesting review as it is my first time doing a review, I'm not really that good at doing some of these, but I have faith in myself that it will turn out good... hopefully.

For someone who has been on this site long enough, you would think that I would know how to work it and add multiple images in here like other posts, but everyone forgets to take into account that I'm not only stupid, but this site kinda sucks sometimes. So I'm just going to wing it and if it doesn't turn out well, learning experience and I can move on with my life.

I'll try and make this as entertaining as possible without straying too far into familiar territory of most reviews on this site and the world because I'm sure we all know what Five Nights At Freddy's is, at least the first game lmfao. Five Nights at Freddy's, or Fnaf, or FNaF, or FNAF, or however you go about abbreviating or saying it, is one of the most popular indie horror franchises out there, with many trying to follow in it's footsteps and try to replicate what made Fnaf as cool as it is today. Most failing but some actually managing to stand their ground...

For better or for worse...

Anyway, I won't take up too much of your time. A brief history about Fnaf, the creator of the franchise, Scott Cawthon, was a man who was working at a Dollar General and making games on the side. These games include slot machines games, small games, and sometimes big games such as The Desolate Hope and Chipper and Sons Lumber Co. Both of these would later on get the respect they somewhat deserve (somewhat I'll say). However, at the time, they were panned by critics alike, especially Chipper and Sons. One of the complaints was that the characters looked like "Creepy Animatronic Characters" so Scott took that idea and made his own game out of it, Five Nights At Freddy's, my favorite horror franchise.

This review will be split up into a few sections: Gameplay and Mechanics, Jumpscares, Atmosphere, Story, and Closing Thoughts. Maybe more sections will be added later on but for right now, I want to do these four sections. So with all that said, let's see the Scariest Game In Years! (Get it, cause... cause Markiplier).

Gameplay and Mechanics:

Five Nights At Freddy's is a very simple game with fairly simple mechanics that I don't need to explain, but I will anyway for the sake of clarification. You, a security guard, are supposed to survive five nights (with a bonus sixth and custom night) in a dingy and cramped office with a poor generator and two doorways to your sides. Your mission? Shut the animatronics out and not run out of power. Sounds simple right? You also have a camera system to help you survey the building and explore it, keeping an eye on the animatronics and making sure they don't get too close. The monitor and the doors are used surprisingly well in my opinion, even if the mechanics are simple.

Power is also surprisingly difficult to balance out. There were times when I was actually very close to dying thanks to the power running out and me waiting for six am while Freddy does the Toreador March. Maybe I just suck at the game because I know people can beat 4/20 mode with like, twenty percent of power left. I can't do that lol, I can barely do custom night as it is, what makes you think I can do 4/20? I am not a skilled gamer (though I wish I was).

Now, with a large variety of characters, there must be a diverse set of them, right? Well... let's go down the list.

Freddy Fazbear:
Freddy is the big man himself, the one that has probably the scariest mechanic out of all of them. Freddy will progress to your office from the main stage and when he is in the East Corner hall, you have to shut the door to send him back to the East Hall in general. Of course, you can cam stall him and if you are good enough, you can cam stall him all night, basically making him a threat that can be cheesed. Or you know... just wait till he gets to the corner and then cam stall him.

Bonnie the Bunny:
You won't believe this one guys... shutting the door on him when he leaves the West Corner hall... and then he will leave. WOW! Very interesting mechanic... except when he doesn't leave, classic Fnaf 1 AI. Don't really complain though, I kinda like that he and Chica can just stay at your doors, makes it a lot more nerve wrecking, especially when you are low on power.

Chica the Chicken:
Just like Bonnie, once she leaves the blindspot, shut the door on her. She is slightly easier than Bonnie though. Bonnie goes to the door itself, making you watch for the silhouette of Bonnie rather than just looking at the window. Of course, if you didn't know this, you would have to open up the door to check for Bonnie. Here, Chica actually goes to the window, giving you a clear indication of when she is gone.

Foxy the Pirate:
You have to watch for him on the cameras to keep him from running to your office. If he runs to your office, your dead. You can stop him by closing the door on him, resulting in him banging on the door with his hook and draining the power. Each time he runs out, the power drain is bigger. It's important to keep watch of him and Freddy, though, just having your camera up can also stall him, which is interesting.

Now, all of these mechanics sound... simple and boring. Fair enough, but honestly, I think they work super well. This is the first game in the series, I'm not expecting top tier gameplay and such diverse mechanics like we do nowadays. I think the mechanics fit the bill of the game since it's the first one, sure, some things could be better, but I think people overexaggerate when they say Fnaf 1 doesn't have the best mechanics. The mechanics are fine, just simple.

Jumpscares:

Jumpscares are important for this game, since you're just sitting around, you need good jumpscares to scare the player, that and the Ambiance, which I will get too in a minute. This section should be short because I am overall happy with the jumpscares of Fnaf 1, they're short and quick, energetic and the jumpscare scream makes them scary. Hell, I actually still jump to some of these today, specially Freddy's.

Giving Freddy two jumpscares as well made him stand out. Bonnie and Chica's are good...

Foxy's is the worst. I think you all know why.

Rather than the headshaking and flapping jaws of the others, he just comes in and screams, opening his eyepatch. He doesn't even come in all the way, what? Is he stuck? Does he need help getting into the office? If I were to change the jumpscare of Foxy, I feel that it would be similar to Tails jumpscare from Five Nights at Sonic's 1. He would run in and then look at you before jumping at you with his jaw moving and his head shaking. That might have been hard to animate, but in Fnaf 2, we see characters jump all the time. So it couldn't have been that hard. Oh well, Foxy is the only bad jumpscare in the game so meh.

(Also for some reason, the monitors show the map of the pizzeria, at least the walls for some reason. I think it has stayed like that for all versions, even the console ports. It's just synonymous with Foxy now ig.)

Atmosphere:

I think Fnaf 1 has one of the best atmosphere's of the entire franchise. Playing Fnaf 1 again and just hearing everything in it was... it still scares me to this day. Fnaf 1 and general can still get me unsettled. The dead look of the animatronics in certain cameras, the way they stand in the darkness, the easter eggs some of them have are creepy as hell. The atmosphere of this game just gives off that unsettling vibe that you are alone, trapped with only a limited supply of power as these animatronics hunt you down, determined to shove you into an animatronic suit and leave you for the staff to find you in the morning.

Pretty disturbing, not to mention the circus music that can sometimes play, distracting you from the main job and having this unsettling feeling of joy in this building during the day, music that would be playing during the day... but you aren't there during the day.

I love Fnaf 1's atmosphere, I think it's perfect for this game.

Story:

That last section will be pretty short, and so will this one as well. I have always been really interested in Fnaf's story, even as a kid, and I still am pretty interested. Hell, it's inspired me to write my own AU's of it as well as get into writing myself, ain't that swell? Fnaf 1, despite not having much of a story, I feel is worth mentioning here because of how big Fnaf's story is, and if I'm going to be mentioning the story of these games, I have to mention the story of the first one as well.

While not much there, I do want to discuss the Easter Eggs of the game, specifically the newspapers.

These posters reveal a lot of what happened to the building surprisingly. Children going missing on June 26th, the animatronics having an odor and what looked like blood and mucus coming out of them, a suspect convicted, and a pizzeria going to shut down by year's end.

With these newspapers, we can establish a timeline, a man used a mascot costume to lure away five children, killing them and shoving their bodies into the animatronics. He was caught on camera luring the children, but since the bodies are never found, he was let go. Now, the pizzeria is going to shut down by years end. It's interesting that all of this is here, of course, people have made theories about it and what it could mean, resulting in later on of "Mike Kill All" my favorite of the early theories.

But wait! Five children, and four animatronics, what happened to the fifth child?

Meet Golden Freddy. A rare easter egg that has a lot of chances of jumpscaring you, or just put in 1987 in the custom night to get the jumpscare. He is a very mysterious character that I will dive into more theories when I get to Fnaf 2. But I really like this character, being one of my favorites in the series. He is pretty synonymous with "It's Me", a phrase thrown around in the game when it comes to hallucinations.

That's all the story for right now, well, outside the basic Mike Schmidt story and Phone Guy story. I think everyone knows that by now. I will want to discuss Phone Guy later, but that will be at a later date. I think everyone knows the stories of Mike Schmidt and Phone Guy. Mike Schmidt gets a job and listens to Phone Guy eventually die on Night 4, getting stuffed into a suit.

Closing Thoughts:

Five Nights At Freddy's is actually one of my favorite games in the series. While it doesn't have the best mechanics and the story is fairly simple for the game, it is very interesting to see what it became from just a simple game. And I really like this game a lot, it's still an S tier game. Of course, people will disagree with me, and that's fine! But I still think Fnaf 1 gets a lot of hate, I still think it's fun and pretty scary, even now. People can try and capture the feel of Fnaf 1, some succeed, some surpass it, and some fail. Fnaf 1 truly left an impact on the horror franchise as a whole. I can't wait to get to the other games.

This has been my review of Five Nights At Freddy's! Hope you enjoyed and I can't wait to do more soon!