Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach Goes Full-On Survival-Horror
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach is a major leap from the “point and click” survival-horror format that it’s known for. Honestly, this new installment of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games is an organic move for the series. The potential was always there and the developers over at Steel Wool Studios saw what they had and greatly expanded on it. This installment of Five Nights at Freddy’s is a follow-up from Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. This franchise has now reached a bonafide survival-horror territory that goes far beyond being locked in a security room looking at monitors and minigames. Now, players are able to freely explore the entire Fazbear Entertainment Pizza complex in all its glory from a first-person perspective.
This is the thirteenth installment of the Five Nights at Freddy’s lineup of games and it is certainly the most ambitious entry, yet. Players take control of a kid named Gregory who ends up getting locked inside the sprawling pizza plex on a fateful night. Even though this game is titled Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, this game doesn’t take place in “five nights,” but only one. In any case, This entry borrows a plot element from Terminator 2: Judgement Day and lets the main antagonist from the previous installment, Freddy, becomes a companion for the protagonist this time around. He is a major component of the overall gameplay mechanics of this title. Even though this game is going full-on horror-survival, it’s also respecting its successors and continuing its ever-expanding story arc.
Fight the Night
This game aims to be as practical as possible with its gameplay mechanics. Gregory is just a kid who, by default, doesn’t really have any combat training. So, there’s really no fighting in this game of any kind, rather, it’s strictly a survival experience. Games like Amnesia, Outlast, and even Alien: Isolation, to some degree, are good examples. The core DNA of the Freddy games is still intact here. Generally, managing power consumption is a key factor to surviving the night. Thus, Gregory is able to tap into the security cameras and scout areas for stalkers. Yes, there is a fairly robust roster of stalkers constantly roaming the complex. This also includes a human security guard, Vanessa, and Vanny, who is a deranged woman in a bunny suit. Managing power for Gregory’s flashlight will be a constant chore which, by the way, can be upgraded to help out players.
Luckily, there are several different ways to keep recharging Gregory’s resources throughout the game, which keeps things interesting and fresh. The entire complex seems well-designed and it feels like an actual place. Everything is interconnected and fully explorable. Gregory can interact with pretty-much everything throughout the facility. Sliding down tubes, jumping into a pool of plastic balls, playing on the jungle gym, and even playing games in the arcade. The arcade games are fully playable and they unlock minigames for gamers to try out. There are collectibles to find throughout the game. Some are there for unlocking new features in the game and others are actually upgrades. This provides an incentive to explore this vast environment, which by the way, requires quite a bit of backtracking.
Freddy at the Ready
Therefore, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach has a feature where Gregory can crawl inside Freddy Fazbear and freely roam the area. He also provides intel for Gregory and kind of guides him through the game such as giving hints to shortcuts, warnings, and advice. This comes in handy when it’s time to go back to a certain area that’s already been explored. It’s a good way to save time and the annoyance of being captured by S.T.A.F.F. robots patrolling the area. The S.T.A.F.F. robots are generally just drones used in the game that fill in the empty spaces of the complex. Of course, the true menace of this game is the animal animatronics for which the Freddy games are known. Roxanne Wolf, Montgomery Gator, and others are all sniffing the corridors hunting down Gregory throughout the entire course of the game. They’re the true stars of this title and they all bring distinct personalities, behavior patterns, and challenges to players. There is no auto-save feature here, either. Players will need to find certain spots that are peppered through the complex and manually save their game. Some players love it, others hate it but, it’s a part of this game nonetheless.
Gregory can hide in lockers, bins, and boxes to avoid detection. He can also throw objects to distract them and sneak around threats. It’s standard survival horror mechanics that seem to gel pretty well with this series. Furthermore, Gregory is equipped with a “Faz-Watch” which he can use to check his mission progress, hack into cameras and pinpoint his location on the map. It’s basically used as the watch on Goldeneye. As a last resort, there are ways to stun enemies with the use of a “Faz-Cam.” Additionally, this can be upgraded into something called the “Fazblaster” which is a little more difficult to use, but ultimately more useful. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach does indeed come with multiple endings while offering a myriad of different ways to escape the oversized pizza joint. Therefore, this game offers a fairly good replayability factor which gives it a lasting appeal for fans.
Electronic Evil
Everything seems to have reached a certain peak with the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. Even though Freddy Fazbear himself is helping out during this entry, does he have ulterior motives? Is there something he’s hiding? The ideal way to find out is to play Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. This installment may have its quirks, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for this series. There is no doubt that this title has come a long way from its humble beginnings. With that said, players who enjoy the survival-horror genre might get a kick out of this game. Especially since it has a very unique, colorful aesthetic which is a nice change of pace from the brooding, gothic atmosphere that these games are known for.
