As we do every year, it’s about time we chose our top game released in 2024! Okay, so here’s the thing…I don’t usually play games until long after their release. So I literally have one option for Game of the Year for 2024, and that is Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit. Fortunately, I also think it’s a pretty good game and an interesting entry into a mega-popular series. Based on the Fazbear Frights story of the same name, Into the Pit stars a boy named Oswald who must enter a time-traveling ballpit and rescue his father from the old Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria from the 80’s after he was kidnapped by an animatronic yellow rabbit.
As you may have already noticed, Into the Pit has a pretty odd premise. But it works surprisingly well, considering how bizarre it is and the fact that it’s adapted from a book. (Making a book or movie into a game is not always an easy feat, as I can’t say I was particularly fond of the game adaptations of The Hobbit or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, despite loving the books that spawned them.) Over the course of five nights, Oswald must visit the past, encountering Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, alongside the ever-present yellow rabbit, Spring Bonnie. The game is a bit of a puzzle game, with Oswald collecting items and using them in certain locations to progress, plus Into the Pit does a good job of building upon the world outside Freddy’s and establishing our main character’s life and relationship with his family in a way that made me really care for his plight. (In contrast, I really didn’t like Gregory in Security Breach, nor did I truly understand why he was in the Pizzaplex or what his motives were.)
But there’s no need for me to ramble on too long. I’ve already written a review of this game, and despite a rather rocky release for Switch players, I still think Into the Pit is one of the best games in the FNAF franchise, which, considering its popularity, is really saying something. So although this game isn’t exactly groundbreaking in the grand scheme of things, it was certainly a big deal in the FNAF community, mixing up the familiar gameplay in a far more successful fashion than, let’s say, the mess that was Security Breach. And that’s why Into the Pit deserves the honor of being my personal Game of the Year. And not just because I have no other options…
VIRTUAL BASTION 
I’m honestly just kind of surprised FNAF is still going at all at this point. Obviously the games are still good, as you’ve shown here, but I was under the impression that interest had decreased quite a bit compared with that of a few years ago. Do you think the series still has the legs to go much further beyond this one?
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To directly answer your question, no, I don’t really think FNAF should keep going. Nevertheless, I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.
I think Security Breach brought in a lot of new fans, and even though old fans are disappointed with the direction the series has taken, I think there’s still a lot of interest in the series continuing, even if the lore has become impossibly confusing (and outright broken). I’m honestly not sure where the story can even go at this point (we’ve covered the whole story with William Afton and the missing kids pretty thoroughly by now), but with the upcoming Secret of the Mimic taking place earlier in the timeline than any previous games and the potential for more games to be made based on the books, it seems FNAF won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
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Is it still Scott Cawthon making the games? I could have sworn he said that he was going to step away from the series a long time ago.
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Yeah, Scott isn’t making the games anymore, though I have no idea how much involvement he still has. I know part of the issue with Security Breach was the lack of communication between Steel Wool and Scott. He only gave them pieces of the story and, without sufficient supervision, they ended up putting it together wrong. (Hopefully Scott and Steel Wool are communicating better for Secret of the Mimic, which should be released later this year.) I think Steel Wool are the main people making the games now, though sometimes it’s other companies, too, like Mega Cat Studios, who made Into the Pit.
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