Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (also known as Five Nights at Freddy's 4: The Final Chapter and simply FNaF4) is an indie point-and-click survival horror video game developed and published by Scott Cawthon. It is the fourth installment of the Five Nights at Freddy's series, and chronologically the first game, making it a possible origin story. It was originally planned for release on October 31, 2015 however the game was pushed forward to August 8, then down to July 23 when it was unexpectedly released on Steam.[1] It was released for Android devices on July 25, 2015, and for iOS devices on August 3, 2015. A Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One port was released on November 29, 2019.[2]

Five Nights at Freddy's 4
Steam storefront header
Developer(s)Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)Scott Cawthon
SeriesFive Nights at Freddy's
EngineClickteam Fusion 2.5
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
iOS
Android
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
  • WW: July 23, 2015
Android
  • WW: July 25, 2015
iOS
  • WW: August 3, 2015
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
  • WW: November 29, 2019
Genre(s)Survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player

Announced in mid-2015 under the working title Five Nights at Freddy's: The Final Chapter, the game is considered a departure from the previous games, which took place in a security office. Instead, the game takes place in a child's bedroom, placing an emphasis on timing and auditory warnings to complete nights.

Upon release, the game received polarizing reviews from critics; praise centered on its unsettling atmosphere, while others were divided over the game's new mechanics. Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is the only game in the entire series that has no spoken dialogue. The fifth installment, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, was released on October 7, 2016.

Gameplay

Unlike previous Five Nights at Freddy's games, the game is not set in a security office, but in a child's bedroom. There are no security cameras and instead of "Phone Guy", the player is given on-screen instructions to help the player during the game.[3] The player is equipped with a flashlight, similar to the second game, although the light has unlimited power.[4] It can be used to ward away any animatronics seen down the hallway; however, if the player hears either Nightmare Bonnie's or Nightmare Chica's breathing at the door or they see Nightmare Fredbear or Nightmare upon turning on the flashlight, they must immediately close the door. Despite this, the door will eventually open ajar as the player walks away. The player must also monitor the closet to avoid getting attacked by Nightmare Foxy by closing it if necessary, similar to the first game, as well as shooing three miniature animatronics (nicknamed 'Freddles' by the Five Nights at Freddy's community) off the bed before they, once all three are together, summon Nightmare Freddy to attack the player. The closet and bed must also be checked when Nightmare Fredbear or Nightmare is active. If the player is not careful in shining the light towards the hallways or leaves the doors, closet and bed unattended for too long, the player will be jumpscared, leading to a game over.

After beating each night, the player may play a timed minigame titled "Fun with Plushtrap" (In Halloween update, Plushtrap is replaced by Nightmare Balloon Boy) in which a plush edition of Springtrap, the central animatronic in Five Nights at Freddy's 3, must be lured to the top of an "X" marked on the ground within a specific amount of time. If the player succeeds, the player will start the next night at 2:00 A.M. (1:00 A.M. in challenge modes) Like the nightmare animatronics, this timed minigame becomes more challenging as the game progresses. The time bonus does not apply to the unlockable modes. Additionally, if the player gets a game over, the bonus is no longer valid for further plays of the same level.

Like previous games, the game's main storyline takes place over five increasingly-difficult nights with unlockable extra levels. The first four nights will put the player against four animatronics: Nightmare Freddy, Nightmare Bonnie, Nightmare Chica and Nightmare Foxy (Nightmare Mangle in Halloween update). Nightmare Fredbear, who combines the scare tactics of the previous four, is the sole attacker on the fifth night. Completing all five nights will unlock a star and an additional sixth night, where the four animatronics will haunt the player until Nightmare Fredbear takes over when the clock hits 4 AM. Completing the sixth night will unlock another star and the "Nightmare" (seventh) night, where the animatronics are very persistent and Nightmare Fredbear is replaced by the highly aggressive Nightmare, who has a unique game over screen compared to other animatronics, 4 AM onwards. A third star and secret code will unlock an eighth night or called as 20/20/20/20 mode based on the Custom Night modes from the first two games, which sets the A.I. of the animatronics to maximum difficulty. Completing this will grant the fourth star. Other unlockables include galleries of the various animatronics and jumpscares, as well as behind-the-scenes looks at the 3D-modelling process for Fredbear and Foxy.[5] The extra menu also includes the Fun with Plushtrap and Fun with Balloon Boy minigames to play. It also has a cheat menu and a challenges menu, which includes 4 challenges, which have their own stars.

As in most of the previous entries of the series, the story of the game is revealed in interactive Atari-style minigame sections between nights. Each of the minigames are set in a time frame corresponding to the five nights, beginning with "5 days until the party", up to "0 days until the party."

Plot

The game starts with a minigame which shows a boy who is locked in his bedroom with plush toys, which he calls his only friends.[6] After the player survives the first night, the boy's Fredbear plush tells him that "he" (the boy's older brother) is hiding in the house, before the boy is jumpscared by him, who is wearing a Foxy mask.[7] After the second night, the boy is abandoned at the pizzeria (implied to be the Fredbear's Family Diner briefly mentioned in the second game), only to be warned by the plush Fredbear's voice that "he" is coming and that he must be brave; however, since the boy is afraid of the animatronics and costumed mascots, he ends up bawling. An easter egg during this scene briefly shows William Afton from the second and third games fitting someone into the Spring Bonnie suit.[8]

After the third night, the minigame reveals that other children tease the boy, calling him a coward and crybaby,[9] and that there are rumors of the animatronics coming to life at night and attempting to murder people.[10] The boy sees his plush toys as his only friends and generally eschews interaction with other people in favor of them. Another easter egg in this minigame establishes the time period, via a commercial or TV show named "Fredbear and Friends" dated 1983. After the fourth night, it is revealed that the boy was once locked in the building's parts and services room as a prank.[11] If the fifth night is completed, the boy is shown crying at his birthday party in the pizzeria, with his brother (alongside other bullies) wearing the masks of the animatronics to terrorize the boy.[12] The bullies, deciding to prank the boy, grab him and try to get him close to the Fredbear animatronic's mouth for a "kiss,"[13] and end up stuffing the boy's head into the animatronic's mouth.[14] Suddenly, Fredbear, who was in the middle of singing, forcefully closes his mouth, and crushes the boy's head while his brother and his friends stare in sheer horror, realizing their mistake.

After the sixth night, the boy hears his older brother apologizing to him[15] as the Fredbear plush promises him that no matter how many times he "breaks," he and the others will always be there to "put him back together" and will always be his friends.[16] The characters then fade out one by one, and the faint sound of a heart monitor flatlining can be heard, indicating the death of the boy and ending the minigames. Following this, the player unlocks Nightmare mode, which is the same as the sixth night with the exception of a new animatronic, Nightmare, a more aggressive version of Nightmare Fredbear.

If the player completes Nightmare mode, an image of a locked metal trunk is displayed; if the player wiggles the padlocks, the game states that "Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now."[17] Cawthon remained cryptic about what is inside the trunk, and eventually announced that he would not disclose what was in it. He gave only one clue: "What's in the box? It's the pieces [of the franchise's story] put together."

Throughout the game, if the screen is brightened or the player looks closely enough, the progression of the fate of the child can be seen through objects next to the bed. When the player turns to the bed, looking to the left of the Freddy plush, three objects appear at different points in time: a bottle of pills, an IV drip, and a vase of flowers.

But it is not known if the events of the game and the minigame coincide, and the protagonist is same. Nightmare Fredbear's drawing from Survival Logbook belonging to Michael Afton heavily implies him being the protagonist, though it has not yet been confirmed whether Michael is the game's older brother, or the crying child himself. The nightmare animatronics are heavily debated on their actuality. They are generally regarded as nightmares, but an Easter egg in the next installment reveals the places in this game in a CCTV footage (although not the animatronics). In the novel series, the Twisted animatronics, which are similar to the Nightmares, are shown to be merely normal animatronics who are perceived as monstrous as the result of "illusion discs", which might be same for Nightmares. Furthermore, Nightmare is also shown on the cover of Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones.

Development

Beginning April 27, 2015, Cawthon posted images on his website teasing at another game in the series, originally known as Five Nights at Freddy's: The Final Chapter. The images, featuring the characters from the series, cryptically teased at a release on Halloween.[18] A trailer was released on July 13, 2015, hinting that the game took place in the main character's house. The subtitle, The Final Chapter, was dropped.[19][20]

A demo for the game was released to select YouTubers on July 21, 2015, with the full game being released on July 23, 2015.[1] The game was released for Android devices on July 25, 2015,[21] and for iOS devices on August 3, 2015. On October 31, 2015, two updates for the game were released. One consists of a set of cheat options, challenge modes, and an altered version of the "Fun with Plushtrap" minigame that uses a nightmare version of the character Balloon Boy (from Five Nights at Freddy's 2) in place of Plushtrap. The second is a "Halloween Edition" that makes cosmetic changes to Nightmare Bonnie and Nightmare Chica, and introduces nightmare versions of the Five Nights at Freddy's 2's characters Mangle and The Puppet, (known as Nightmarionne in-game) the former replacing Nightmare Foxy and the latter replacing Nightmare. Nightmare Chica's cupcake is also replaced with a Jack-o-Lantern.

Reception

The PC version of the game received an aggregate score of 51 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 6 reviews.[22]

Destructoid criticized the gameplay as being too confusing, and gave the game a review score of 4 out of 10.[4] The Escapist gave the game a positive review score of 4 out of 5 stars saying that they liked the reworked mechanics, darker and emotional storyline, scary jumpscares, and sad ending but noted the game's bugs and glitches.[26] Nadia Oxford of Gamezebo gave it 4 out of 5 stars in her review praising it for its intense environment, creepy sounds and graphics, and jumpscares. She criticised the game for being difficult to survive in certain environments when relying on audio cues and the Android version not containing the story-centric minigames.[23]

References
  1. "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Jump-Scares a Surprise Early Release". Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  2. Romano, Sal (November 27, 2019). "Five Nights at Freddy's 1, 2, 3, and 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch launch November 29". Games Radar.
  3. Hernandez, Patricia (July 24, 2015). "Everything We Know About Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (So Far)". Kotaku. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  4. Rowen, Nic (July 24, 2015). "Review: Five Nights at Freddy's 4". Destructoid. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  5. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Extras menu.
  6. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 1 prologue. Boy: These are my friends.
  7. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 2 prologue. Fredbear: Now he is hiding again. He won't stop until you find him.
  8. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 3 prologue. Fredbear: You're too late. Hurry the other way and find someone who will help! You know what will happen if he catches you! You can find help if you can get past them. You need to be strong.
  9. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 4 prologue. Boy 1: Aren't you the kid who always hides under the table and cries? Hahaha! No one else is scared! Why are you? Stop being such a baby!
  10. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 4 prologue. Girl 2: You'd better watch out! I hear they come to life at night. And if you die, they hide your body and never tell anyone.
  11. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 5 prologue. You: Please let me out. PLEASE! Please let me out...
  12. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 5 epilogue. Your Brother's Friend: Wow, your brother is kind of a baby, isn't he? / Your Brother: It's hilarious.
  13. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 5 epilogue. Your Brother: Why don't we help him get a closer look! He will love it. / You: Please! / Your Brother: Come on, guys, let's give this little man a lift. He wants to get up close and personal! / You: No! I don't want to go! / Your Brother: You heard the little man! He wants to get even closer! Ha ha ha!
  14. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 5 epilogue. Your Brother: Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss! On THREE! One...two...
  15. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 6 epilogue. Voice: Can you hear me? I don't know if you can hear me. I'm sorry.
  16. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Night 6 epilogue. Fredbear: You're broken. We're still your friends. Do you still believe that? I'm still here. I will put you back together.
  17. Scott Cawthon (July 23, 2015). Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (PC). Scene: Nightmare epilogue.
  18. Hillier, Brenna (April 28, 2015). "Five Night's at Freddy's 4 teased for Halloween release". VG247. Videogaming 247 Ltd. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  19. Campbell, Colin (July 13, 2015). "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 trailer gets its first creepy trailer". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  20. Gallagher, Danny (July 14, 2015). "Freddy follows you home in trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's 4". CNET. CBS Corporation. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  21. Jim Squires (July 25, 2015). "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Is Now on Android". Gamezebo. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  22. "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Corporation. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
  23. Nadia Oxford (July 30, 2015). "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Review: Hey! Listen!". GameZebo. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  24. "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Review on PC Gamer". PC Gamer. August 5, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
  25. Musgrave, Shaun (August 10, 2015). "'Five Nights At Freddy's 4' Review – The Latest Freddy Gets The Worst Port Yet". TouchArcade. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  26. Angelo M. D'Argeno (July 28, 2015). "Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Review - Change, Improve, Jumpscare". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
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