Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Scott Cawthon, Scottgames
Released 7th October 2016
Despite FNAF 4 being marked as the "final" mainline game in the series, it didn't take long for Scott Cawthon to retaliate with a "There was never just one.", in fact, it took around 6 months. As the first game to feature professional voice acting, not be released within the span of a year like the others and feature greater production value, it's hard not to say that Cawthon aimed for a title that not only redeemed FNaF World's shortcomings and acted as an ambitious redemption for the main instalments in the franchise.
Story
The lore is by far the best in the series. While it suffers for having the convoluted weight of FNAF 4 dragging it down, it makes up for it by not only being the bridge between connecting the books and the games but also giving us, the players, a near-final answer to the story (well, before the next game/book come out). Sister Location's premise is that you're hired as a new employee of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, an underground facility and sister location to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, featuring animatronics that are rented out to children's birthday parties. Theories and speculation summarise that you play as Michael Afton; the son of the Purple Guy, the son of the killer who began this children-possessing-animatronics mess. The game continues to be less of an arcade game with hidden lore like previous instalments, but instead more of a story experience. This time around, there's pacing and events that differ from the night before, like in the format of story-telling. I prefer this so much more than the previous FNAF, as not only does it give a narrative for the player to follow and speculate on the spot, but it's enigmatic enough that it lets them dive deeper into the background via the community's theories online.
While you're not being frightened, the game is intertwined with some comedic moments which serve perfectly as breaks from near heart attacks and when you get thrust back into the unknown horror from your short relaxation breaks, the tensity gets refreshed. The game still struggles as it tries to relay back the misconceptions of FNAF 4 while still offering new missing lore and piecing together the previous games - a tough, yet accomplishable task.
Gameplay
The gameplay is great. Instead of being stuck in a mindless loop that gets reinvented each time, you're placed into multiple different forms of gameplay. From crawling onto the ground to tightening the screws in a spring lock suit, you are tasked with survival in numerous formats. I enjoyed this so much, and I appreciate this game not ending up being another sitting-while-waiting-to-die simulator. However, as much as I enjoyed this change of pace, numerous problems occurred. The first is the RNG being insanely active on Night 4. This is not only the reason FNAF 2 and 4 suffered gameplay-wise but also made it unfun, extending the playtime, way past the needed amount. The second is no mastery being available. When 20/20/20/20 mode was beaten back in FNAF 1, that was due to the expert gameplay and understanding of the game. FNAF 3 excels in gameplay by the player being able to recognise situations and adapt to them while remaining in the mastery loop. With constant switches between tasks, there's no way to master the gameplay and feel genuinely good at it, but instead, lucky. This could've been fixed with more than one or two tasks being given per night, however, then the nights would've been too long and the game would suffer from that.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is tense and gives off a sense of dreadfulness just like the original. While I'm still saddened by how there are no cameras to look at to see the haunting expression of the animatronics, the game still delivers this lethal tension by having you in the same room as the animatronic, being one wrong mistime click away from getting chomped to death. The ability to move around while the animatronics are hot on your tail is not only the closest we've gotten to a free-roam FNAF but also is 10x more frightening, knowing that they can come to life at any moment.
The soundtrack (specifically the menu theme) also does the game a favour with the error-like notes bouncing around the spark sounds and horror tune, as it compliments the game's ambience and sound effects which, like always, are done great but not well enough to give an auditory sense of pleasure. However, this game falls back into its jumpscare vaccine days of FNAF 2 and 3. This is disappointing to see after FNAF 4 really nailed that edge-of-your-seat feeling, but, unfortunately, that wasn't carried over to this title.
Story- 8/10
Gameplay- 6/10
Atmosphere- 8/10
Good
Sister Location is the much-needed revitalisation that the FNAF series needed before the story and gameplay got drenched in monotony, and the atmospheric value dispersed with later entries.
