Have you ever played Night Trap? It’s an odd game where you’re running some security cameras and trying to keep sorority girls from being killed by vampires whose costumes have been designed by someone who has no idea what a vampire is. It is dumb, and the visuals, which are live-action, are awful, but the concept of having to keep an eye on a place with security cameras and systems is kind of neat. Not so neat that I thought anyone would ever do something cool with it, but then along came Five Nights at Freddy’s from Scott Cawthon. Not only is he making something interesting, but he’s adding in the creepiness of animatronics to boot.
You’re the night watchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and your job is to keep the predilections of its animatronic staff in check. The various robotic bears, bunnies, and ducks seem to have something quite wrong with them, and you have to watch them with security cameras and lights. With a limited power supply, you have to be careful about how you do it, as I doubt you want to be left all alone with these things in the dark. Or ever. Why did adults ever think children would be delighted by the creepy looks and stilted movements of animatronic creatures? Oh right, because adults are insane and sometimes produce things like this.
It’s a neat, creepy concept that I want to be playing, although its creator seems oddly difficult to find outside of his Greenlight page for the game (Go vote for it etc…). Scott Cawthon has worked with robots in his games before with The Desolate Hope, and has an interesting art style and flare all his own when it comes to weird looking machines. Having seen that his Kickstarter is down, I’m worried about the game’s status, but I really hope I will be running from animatronic bears sometime in my future.
