Five Nights at Freddy’s has been around for a long time now, giving people massive jump scares and laughs. If you think you can handle the chaos, terror, and anxiety that FNAF brings, you’ll have to give the VR version a try anyway, for old times sake. From Steel Wool Studios, This version of the game will take you down memory lane and give you a feeling unlike any other, while still adding new things to do.
Right away, wearing a VR system and feeling out of your element makes standing there a little anxiety ridden. Once you get into the actual game however you come to see Freddy, Chica, and the rest of the game in the main menu. This all seems familiar, but you are now standing in the party room and the prize corner is off to the side as if you were actually in the pizzeria. You can play with all of the buttons and switches of course and look for little prizes like coins.
The gameplay is mostly what you’ve all come to know, almost like getting to play the games in a new interactive way. A few categories such as the Vent Repair and Dark Rooms are additions. These are a lot like the mini-games from the larger playthroughs but they offer their own independent sections.
Now, this all sounds pretty run of the mill so far but it’s the actual VR part that makes everything so much more terrifying. Not only are you standing in the office in front of what feels like a real phone and real computer, but you are also dealing with mega-sized stuffed animal animatronics. The actual gameplay is the same in order to survive the nights here at the pizzeria, it’s the physical action that feels weird and chaotic. If you happen to get caught or forget to wind your music box, you’re met face-to-face with whoever is there at the time, like Mangle. That’s the terrifying part. Anxiety is through the roof with this game and players are quick to end a level, take off the set, and sit down to breathe. PC never offered this type of thrill before.
Each level, FNAF 1, FNAF 2 and FNAF 3 offer 4 nights of terror. You have to survive each night to complete the whole section. During each game, there is a chance to find coins. Right now it’s unclear what happens when you collect them all, but with the ones you find, you can go to the prize corner and pick something out. This is just a fun extra thing to do, like being a kid at an arcade.
One of the strangest things to note so far in the game is the presence of a possible animatronic watching you from the darkness. There appears to be no threat for the most part but the more you play, the more the character appears. Maybe this is a boss? The whole backstory here is unclear with this shadowy figure.
From the beginning of the game, with the narrator, my general thought seems to be that the game is trying to convince people that the story of FNAF was blown out of proportion. There’s mention that some incidents happen but all of the gore and crazy animatronics were nothing but a made-up story. This is leading me to believe that this version may have some different story if it fits with any fan theories at all. Maybe we’ll figure this out at the end.
Overall, here’s what I know. Playing in VR automatically turns on the tension and anxiety of the player. Dealing with what feels like life-sized teddy bears trying to eat your face is nothing the scoff at. The extra games are fun for their added puzzles and different direction compared to what we already know. This version of Five Nights at Freddy’s should be played again because the feeling is something completely different.
9/10
Available on PS4 and PC
