Last week, I shared my rather…interesting experience with FNAF: Into the Pit, in which I explained how I may or may not have accidentally downloaded a version of the game not intended to be seen by the public…  Long story short, I was unable to complete the game due to a glitch in night 4 that has blocked all Switch users from finishing it.  With that said, I can’t hold the game’s glitches and performance issues against it because, again, I downloaded an unfinished version of the game that was not meant for release.  So the following review is going to ignore those issues and just talk about the game itself.  So get yourself a slice of pizza and jump into that ballpit.  Provided you don’t get pink eye, you’ll be seeing my review below!

FNAF: Into the Pit was released for the franchise’s 10-year anniversary and is unique in many ways.  For one thing, it’s the first official game to be based off the books, this one retelling the story bearing the same name from the first Fazbear Frights.  In it, a boy named Oswald decides to hide from his father in an abandoned ballpit in Jeff’s Pizza.  Rather than find any manner of horrifying things ballpits often hide, he instead finds himself in the past, in the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria that occupied this very same building decades ago.

As weird as the idea is, it works surprisingly well, and more backstory is told throughout as you follow Oswald’s life over the course of five days.  I was very surprised to find that the game is not merely confined to the pizzeria, with substantial gameplay taking place in Oswald’s house, alongside shorter visits to a few other locations, including his school.  I really enjoyed the story being told and became very invested in Oswald’s plight to save his dad.  As far as FNAF game children go, Oswald is way more likable than Gregory from Security Breach, tying for first place with Ruin’s Cassie.

Visually, the game looks great, with some detailed pixel art and a good atmosphere.  Just Oswald’s design and animation alone is fantastic, especially his constantly anxious expression, which gets increasingly horrified in intense situations, really making his character come to life.  The designs for the animatronics look good, too, and the ambience and spooky noises in the background really make for a creepy experience.

Because yes, this game is much scarier than Security Breach.  (I know that’s not saying much, but still…)  Every time I entered a new room, I felt tense, as I had no idea if I was going to run into Spring Bonnie.  And when I inevitably did, it was stressful waiting in your hiding spot and hoping you won’t be found, whether it’s watching Spring Bonnie’s feet pace back and forth as you hide under a table or seeing him peek into a cabinet you’re currently tucked away inside.

One interesting idea is how different hiding spaces have different mechanics to avoid being seen.  Sure, sometimes you can just hide and that’s that, but other times, you’re tasked with holding the correct button to swat away spiders or hold your breath when Spring Bonnie peeks inside.  I also appreciate that, as more animatronics start to roam the pizzeria, each one has different mechanics, so it’s not simply a case of a bunch of enemies chasing you around.  This makes the experience less redundant, and it keeps the main antagonist of Spring Bonnie as the biggest threat and prevents the other animatronics from stealing the spotlight.

Aside from stealthily sneaking around and hoping you’re not spotted, gameplay also involves finding items lying around and trying to figure out what to use and where, so there’s a bit of puzzle-solving involved, which I generally liked.  Sometimes this could be a bit confusing, however, in the case of a hidden key whose sparkle I never saw until I looked up the location online and a door I was supposed to check that did nothing the first few times, leading to me assuming it was not where I was meant to go.  The power goes out frequently in the pizzeria, as well, which got a bit annoying after a while, though it does force you to move a bit more quickly so you can make as much progress as possible before you’re inevitably shrouded in darkness once more.  And while you do have a flashlight, you’ll need to find batteries lying around to use it, so I often just walked around in the dark.  I have no idea how limited batteries were, however, so I’m unsure whether or not I really needed to be this frugal.

Again, I can’t really speak on the game’s glitches or performance for the Switch because I got an early version that was not meant for release.  There were certainly mistakes, glitches that forced me to restart the game to progress, and the game frequently froze up for brief periods of time, even crashing twice.  Hopefully these issues will be fixed by the time the console version is officially released to the public.

In general, I really enjoyed the game and have very few complaints, but there are a few areas in which I think the game could have been improved.  For one thing, for two of the five locations, you can only visit the outside.  It feels like just a bit more should have been done with these locations…then again, I guess it keeps the gameplay more focused on the pizzeria.  Sometimes, the game also gave very little direction on what to do.  For example, on one of the nights, you try a door (which, again, did nothing the first few times I checked), then you get more guidance on what to do.  But on the next night, you’re just supposed to find a key for the door you need to enter, with no indication whatsoever that it’s really that simple.  It would have been nice if some of the puzzles required a bit more thought, as well.

In general, Into the Pit is a really solid entry into the FNAF franchise, and I would recommend it to FNAF fans who’d like something a bit different from past games and are hoping for a better atmosphere than what Security Breach provided.  Though keep in mind that the game is fairly short (I took roughly five hours to reach the part where I got stuck due to an impassible glitch, and I was very close to the end at that point), but at least it somewhat makes up for that by being packed full of Easter eggs, along with multiple endings, some good and some bad.  The game sells for $19.99 and is currently available on Steam, though it’s supposed to be available on all major consoles, including PS4, at the end of the month.