Review: Five Nights At Freddy's: Into The Pit — A Tired Formula Reinvented
August 18, 2024
Just in time for the ten year anniversary, the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise has released its newest installment: Into the Pit. A horror game in the style of a retro, pixelated adventure, Into the Pit brings to life the first and most popular book in the Fazbear Frights series. Following a young boy named Oswald trying to save his father from the series' main villain, Springtrap, Into the Pit introduces a whole new world for the FNAF franchise that we've never seen before. From time traveling ball pits to the more standard jumpscares, this game has both everything and nothing we've been looking for from this iconic horror series.
Into the Pit is a good game. Its unique gameplay style (for the series), beautiful visuals, and spot-on sound design place it as one of the strongest games in the FNAF franchise. On the other hand, it suffers from a lot of the issues that modern video games, especially games in this category, deal with. Mired by a repetitive and sometimes frustrating gameplay loop and bugs that haven't been patched out yet, you can see that this game had a lot of love put into it but it could've stayed in the oven for a little longer.
Enjoyability: 10/12
While there are a few issues with the general bugginess of the game, the actual gameplay is fun. The constant threat of an animatronic looming just off screen keeps the game exciting and never lets your attention slip. Not only that but the game is genuinely funny during the calmer moments, with the franchise's dry and youthful sense of humor on full display.
For as much as the game sticks out to me compared to the other FNAF games, it's not the strongest as a standalone game. The music doesn't stick out to me as much as the gory and creepy sound effects do. And as much as I love the pixelated-style of the game, the depth perception and character movement can feel a bit clunky. It's a fun game, sure, but there were definitely times where all I wanted was to move onto the next part of the story. Constantly getting inconvenienced by the likes of Chica and Springtrap loses its allure pretty quickly.
That being said, there is a mode before the gameplay starts where you can choose to stay more focused on the narrative part of the story. That's a great option to have in terms of replayability, especially if you're like me and get impatient with all the hiding.
Gameplay: 9/12
FNAF as a franchise is all about gameplay loops. It practically invented its own genre which has been copied hundreds of times over. Switching things up like they have with Into the Pit is no doubt a positive in terms of staying fresh. Like I've mentioned before, the game is fun and the story is interesting; however, the gameplay loop can be irritating and sometimes it can just completely kill all motivation to keep playing. It's satisfying when you succeed — when you finally move on to the next part of the story or complete whatever task that was being asked of you. Failure is most likely going to be part of your journey, though. And it will totally rain on your parade.
It feels like everything you do you're doing for a reason, and it makes sense in the context of the story why you're going back and forth looking for the next objective. You're never left aimless, which is appreciated since wandering around the pizzeria is my main gripe with the gameplay.
You simply have no real way of defending yourself besides hiding, which is my biggest issue. You spend so much time hiding under tables or in vents or chests while the animatronics wander around you. While you wait for them to leave your section of the restaurant, there's nothing for you to do. All you can do is wait. Then, wait some more. Then, you can finally play the game again. I also have a personal grudge against Chica for being the biggest tattle-tale on Earth. She also happens to serve no other purpose despite how much she lingers around so...just leave me alone, Chica.
Atmosphere: 11/12
This is where the game really shines. It's a great game to look at, with its nostalgic pixelated style and beautiful atmospheric lighting. Whenever you hit an important point of the story or you get killed, you get a short animated cutscene in that pixelated style which usually features one of the animatronics; all such animations are expertly done. I appreciate the new direction that they took with this game, given that it's such a hard switch from the last installment, Security Breach. I do think it's a stylistic improvement, honestly. It gives the game character and left me wishing for more locations to explore just so I could see how they would be designed in this old, rickety style of Into the Pit.
The sound design is also something to enjoy. While the music in and of itself is forgettable, there's something to be said for the creepiness that the sounds bring to the game. Springtrap's raspy breathing whenever he's close and the trapped children screaming for help was effectively scary, and the atmospheric sounds of the animatronics moving around you are actually important, gameplay-wise. It's the kind of game that can't be played silently.
Design: 8/12
There's something to be said about the level of engagement of the game and while I do think it's worthy of being played through in its entirety, there's not much behind the surface. There's no depth when it comes to the gameplay and not much strategy besides hiding in a convenient spot and utilizing the sound items to attract animatronics around the restaurant. The replayability is there, especially with its multiple endings, special collectibles, and hidden achievements. But that all depends on you wanting to actually play the game again.
There are changes made to each night that add on to the complexity and difficulty of navigating the pizzeria. As the nights progress, more animatronics are introduced to you. Where have I seen that before...This means that you have to be mindful of more gameplay elements as you progress through the game. You'll first get introduced to Chica and then you'll slowly go through the list. They're not all made as equally as relevant, though, so the actual evolution of the gameplay is pretty lackluster, to put it kindly.
Direction: 10/12
In my experience, I do think that there's enough there storywise to carry the game through to the end. The main objective of finding Oswald's father in the pizzeria is something that kept me engaged the whole time and kept me wanting to continue playing. Additionally, each night you spend part of the time in the pizzeria saving other children who've been trapped there by the animatronics; I think that was a successful and satisfying way to keep the player engaged and it does make you feel like you're making progress.
There's always a clear objective to complete, some more complicated and thought provoking than others, but I think it always generally encourages players to keep going. There's not much room to get lost. Also, I think the general FNAF motif of there being five nights in each game gives the player a pretty clear ending that they can aim for. The overall objective is never forgotten and Oswald reminds the player of their purpose in the pizzeria more than frequently. That continues to drive the point home that if the player gives up now they'll never know what really happened to Oswald's dad on the day he was taken.
