Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is a point-and-click survival horror game.^[1] Like previous games in the series, the player is tasked with surviving from midnight to 6:00 a.m. against homicidal animatronics, of which this game features four "nightmare" animatronics. Unlike previous installments which took place in restaurants, the player takes control of a young child alone in his bedroom, and the animatronics wander around their house while targeting the bedroom.^[2][3]

The player is able to run around the bedroom, going between the closet, bed, and two doors. The player's only means of delaying animatronic advancement is a flashlight, which can be flashed down the halls.^[2] Unlike previous games, the player does not have access to a network of security cameras, and must take advantage of audio cues in order to track the movement of the animatronics.^[4][5] The player can also temporarily hold one of the doors shut at a time. If an animatronic enters the room or if the player encounters it directly at the doors, the player will be jumpscared and killed.^[3][4] On the fifth night, the enemies are replaced by a single animatronic known as Nightmare Fredbear, which will instead become more aggressive when flashed with the flashlight.^[6]

In-between nights, the player can attempt a minigame similar to red light, green light against a character named Plushtrap. If the player is successful, two hours are removed from the next night.^[2][4] Additionally, Atari-styled minigames are also playable, which provide insight on the lore of the series and is the source of the game's plot, though these are absent from mobile versions of the game.^[4]

Playable minigames in-between nights tell the story of a young boy in 1983, presumed to be the player character.^[7][8] In the first minigame, he is locked in a bedroom with plush toys that he considers to be his "friends". Throughout the minigame, a plush based on the animatronic Fredbear appears constantly teases and torments him, which strengthens his fear of a family restaurant near his home. Through the next minigames, the boy is terrorized by his older brother, being deliberately scared, abandoned at the restaurant, teased, and unwillingly locked in the restaurant's parts and services room. Throughout the game in the kids bedroom, a bottle of pills, an IV drip, and a vase of flowers can be spotted at different moments.^[7]

In the sixth minigame, the boy is tormented once more by his older brother and several other bullies, whom take advantage of his fear and place him into the animatronic Fredbear's mouth for a "kiss", which subsequently bites down on the boy and crushes him as the bullies watch in horror. On the seventh minigame, the boy is shown in a dark area surrounded by his toys, and is told by an unknown voice that they will "put you back together". The toys slowly fade out, and soon the boy does as well, while the faint sound of a heartrate monitor plays, implying the boy has died after being bitten by Fredbear. If the player beats the game on the Nightmare mode, a closed metal box is shown to the player. The box can't be opened, and if the player attempts to open it, the text "Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now" is displayed. The contents of the box or its meaning is never explained or elaborated on.^[7][9]

On April 27, 2015, an image was uploaded to Scott Cawthon's website that teased a fourth game in the series, advertised as "The Final Chapter" with a planned release date of Halloween of that year.^[10] In July, a trailer for the game was released, and the release date was later pushed forward to August 8, 2015, which marked one year since the release date of the first game.^[11][12] On July 23, 2015, Scott Cawthon announced that the game was finished, and released it early on Steam.^[13] The game was released for Android on July 25, and iOS on August 4 of 2015.^[14][15] An update for the game released on Halloween of that year, adding additional content for those who had completed the game such as a cheat menu.^[16] On November 29, 2019, the game released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One alongside the first, second, and third games in the series.^[17]

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, assigning the Windows version a score of 51 out of 100.^[18]

The gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 received a mixed response. Some reviewers felt that the franchise and its gameplay were becoming stale, such as Nic Rowen of Destructoid and Omri Petitte of PC Gamer.^[2][3] The former described the game as a "bone dry" repeat of Five Nights at Freddy's, recommending people not play the game, and the latter wrote that the gameplay had little variety or strategy, and that it was too much of a chore to interest him.^[2][3] Contrarily, Angelo M. D'Argenio of The Escapist praised the reworked game mechanics and story, describing it as "perfect" for fans of the series, though criticized the glitches present within the game.^[23] The removal of the story based minigames from mobile version of the game was criticized by Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade, whom wrote that the removal of the story was detrimental to a game advertised as the final chapter.^[22]

Response towards the atmosphere and sound design of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was positive, though some aspects were criticized.^[21] The game was described as being the most frightening in the series by Mitch Vogel of Nintendo Life, though he also described the game's jumpscares as being jarring, and that it made the horror elements feel "unearned".^[19] Nadia Oxford of Gamezebo praised the game's sound design, though criticized its gameplay for being too reliant on sound, theorizing that those in loud spaces would've had difficulty playing the game.^[5] Matt Purslow of PCGamesN praised the game's atmosphere design, but commented that the reliance on audio cues made him feel a lack of control, and that it was difficult to tell which sounds indicated the animatronics were approaching, and which were just for atmosphere.^[3]

Bibliography edit

• Cawthon, Scott (2017). Five Nights at Freddy's: The Freddy Files (1st ed.). New York, New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 978-1-338-21441-3 – via Internet Archive.

• Five Nights at Freddy's 4 at IndieDB