Five Nights at Freddy’s. If you’ve been on the internet at all over the last year (and then some), you at least have half an idea what this is. I mean, you should. It’s been a straight-up phenomenon. You’d have to have a pretty empty Twitter feed to not even have heard of the franchise. Seriously. Get with it already.
Ugh. Fine. If I have to spell it out for you, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a video game. It’s about animatronic animals that wander around a pizza parlour (think Showbiz Pizza) at night and brutally murder you if you don’t close the doors at the right time. Also those doors require power to stay closed for some reason. I don’t know why, and this isn’t an in-depth analysis of pizza parlour technology, so we’re not going there. The game made a huge splash on YouTube and took over the internet. Three sequels, each changing up the gameplay to some degree, were released within a year’s time. Warner Bros announced that a FNAF movie is in the works, and there’s even an official novel. I have read said novel, and despite it seeming like a terrible idea, I quite enjoyed it.
If I may be excused for a moment, I feel like I ought to mention before we go any farther that I am a huge FNAF fan. I can’t play the games because I can’t handle the tension, but I love the world-building, the lore, and the characters.
Alright then. Moving on.
Flash forward to January 2016 (or, go back in time? I don’t know, I’m all mixed up already), to the day that FNAF creator Scott Cawthon decides to release his newest game, FNAF World, a little more than a month before its intended release date. This surprises absolutely nobody, because that’s just the kind of guy that Cawthon is. He gets all excited about what he’s made, and then publishes it right away instead of waiting for the day he had previously set and polishing it up in the meantime. It’s happened for every other FNAF game, why would FNAF World be any different?
Nobody expected any different, and many fans were initially overjoyed that they didn’t have to wait that extra month. But this time, there was a bit of a catch. None of the traditional FNAF games had any glaring issues, because they were all just variations on the same gameplay. No big deal, you know. Pop some new graphics and AI routines in and call it a day. Drop it onto the Steam store, and then roll around gleefully in the pile of money that it generates almost instantly. FNAF World was different though. While it was built in the same engine as the rest of the series, it is not a monster-avoiding spook-em-up, but rather a turn-based RPG.
You can see where things might go wrong.
FNAF World, in its initial release, was clearly not complete. Or, maybe it was “complete” as it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but there were (and still are as of this writing) some key features missing. Features that one might expect in a game of this genre, what with it being so old and so common. I mean, every time I poke around on the Steam store, it seems like I have to fight off samey-looking retro-styled RPGs at every turn.
And therein lies the advantage that the spooky FNAF games had: they were in their very own genre. There were no games like Five Nights at Freddy’s before Five Nights at Freddy’s. I still don’t quite know what you’d call them, but they didn’t exist before 2014, so nobody would have ever known even if FNAF was half-baked. There was no precedent. Not like when you dip your toes into an existing genre, and people have expectations.
I suppose it would be a bit presumptuous to list off the things wrong with FNAF World without first talking about the game in general. So you have a bit of a base to understand why the missing parts make for such glaring errors.
So then. RPG. It means role-playing game. The term has been mangled over the decades, and has mostly lost all meaning. But generally it’s about you leading a character (or group of characters) around a world while battling monsters, talking to people, amassing items, and gaining experience points to grow stronger. Typically there’s a stronger focus on narrative in RPGs, which often leads to hundreds and hundreds of text boxes to click through while your patience wears thinner and thinner.
One of the more surprising things about the Five Nights at Freddy’s games is that they have a fairly rich backstory that’s mostly shrouded in mystery; told in broad strokes through normal gameplay, with the most interesting facets hidden away in background details that only the most observant and obsessive players are going to pick up on. There are plenty of FNAF story analysis videos on YouTube if you’re interested, and I’ve watched more of them than I care to admit.
FNAF World has a story too: all the animatronic characters live in a happy computer world, but lately there seems to be something causing glitches and mucking it up! And that’s about it. On the surface. There’s definitely more to it, but I haven’t played that thoroughly, and haven’t really done any looking into it otherwise. Honestly, I think it’s mostly because there so much less potential for an interesting story here. I mean, who cares that much about these little virtual robots? It’s harder to relate without a point-of-view character. I love the FNAF characters, but not… not in this scenario. They just don’t do anything for me when they’re little packets of data instead of terrifying mechanical monsters that are < SPOILERS REDACTED >. Now that’s a plot that I can sink my teeth into!
Uh, sink my brain into? My brain teeth? I don’t know. Leave me alone!
Anyway, while the surface story isn’t all that interesting, and I have no idea what kind of hidden depth it has, the gameplay is absolutely… hmmm, what’s the nicest way to put this… traditional. It consists of you walking around the map, fighting random battles and tripping plot flags so that you can keep moving the story forward. The world map is fairly small, but has a bunch of secrets to find, and a few weird landmarks here and there that don’t seem to be relevant to anything besides creeping you out. There are no dungeons to speak of, but separate areas (forest, cave, swamp, etc) that you progress through as you go along your way. Also strewn about are a number of shops that sell defense boosts and items that aid you during battles.
And those battles… that’s where a lot of things go wrong. For one, they move at lightning speed. This isn’t too bad once you pin down the rhythm, but you should never be struggling to figure out what’s happening in a game like this. What really complicates this matter is that when the game initially launched, it did not provide any sort of description for what any attacks do. They came in different colours, but that’s it. You had to watch carefully to figure out what (if any) effects your skills were having on the battlefield, and the frantic pace didn’t help.
The aforementioned battle items, which came in the flavours of “chips” and “bytes”, were also left without descriptions, leaving you to suss out what they did based on your observations and their names. Chips have passive effects, like increasing the attack power of your party or making you immune to certain status effects. Bytes are little floating guys that show up on the battle screen, and most of them deal damage to enemies, but some have other effects, like reducing damage or healing your party. Needless to say, it was a bit easier to figure out what all of these helpful items do.
Fortunately, people started complaining about these missing descriptions right away, and Scott was on the case immediately. A same-day patch added in attack descriptions (which could still be somewhat vague) and the very next day a second patch was released that let you know what the exact function of each chip and byte is.
These were a great boon, but there was still one massive flaw: there was no character status screen. In a game with 40 playable characters to choose from, it would be nice to see how they all stack up against one another. Or, you would think so anyway. Having played through the game, stats aren’t really that important anyway. Mostly, you just want to choose a party of characters who have a diverse selection of skills and high HP. I traveled the bulk of the game with just the initial four of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy (the four main animatronics from the first FNAF) without too many problems, and only swapped in the “Withered” versions (alternate versions from FNAF2) of each near the ending. The only time you ever need a specific character is the final boss, who you literally cannot defeat without a particular skill.
Aside from the omitted informational bits, there are a few other questionable choices In FNAF World. For example, battles run on an ATB-like (active time battle) system, but there are no gauges to see when a character is going to have a turn, so you’ll be sitting there waiting for a command prompt with no indication how long it’s going to be. You also cant swap characters whose turns have arrived: you must use them in the order that they become available. It’s a little frustrating when you want to save your only healing skill, but don’t want to be completely inactive until then.
Some things on the world map could be improved, as well. Some bosses are completely invisible, which is a little annoying, as accidentally triggering one when you aren’t prepared can cost you a good chunk of time if you haven’t saved recently. A nicer map feature would also be helpful, as the current map is just a squashed-down version of the actual world map, and it’s hard to tell what’s what with all the pixels smooshed together. There are blobs all over the screen which could be one thing or another, and you really don’t have any clue! Really, you should be able to tell the difference between a treasure chest and a torch. That’s just good sense!
Unfortunately, nothing besides the item and attack descriptions ever got fixed. Scott, in a fit of embarrassment and humility, decided to yank the game from Steam before fixing it any further. Like the champ he is, he also said that he would allow anyone who purchased it apply for a full refund, regardless of whether or not they were entitled to one based on Steam’s usual refund criteria. Also, once it was complete, he would re-release FNAF World for free. What a swell guy!
I, personally, didn’t apply for said refund. Despite the fact that I could really use that tenski, I felt like I’d enjoyed the game enough that I’d feel bad taking the money back. Whatever. It’s like one less box of sugary cereal for me. I think I’ll survive. …Probably. My blood is likely around 70% sugar at this point. (The other 30% is coffee.)
Aaaaaaanyway, That’s the gist of the story behind FNAF World. You couldn’t get yourself a copy right now if you wanted to, but then I wouldn’t really recommend you do so anyway until the fixed version is released. The game was half-baked for sure, but it’s got a decent foundation in there. The gameplay isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s got enough charm and mystery to drag you through. With a little more polish, it could easily be worth playing. The real question is when we’ll see it reappear. Based on Cawthon’s history, I’d suggest sooner rather than later, but I think there’s real potential for him to have learned his lesson about jumping the gun.
Personally, I think I’ll probably wait for the next version to be released before I dive back in to search out all the secrets. I liked the game well enough in its almost-done state, but not nearly enough to play through it more than once. That and I’m eager to find out what else Cawthon might change, because these are the kinds of things that a pathetic drip like me finds exciting.