Five Nights at Freddy’s 5, also known as Sister Location, was the first time the series started to take more of a sci-fi direction, with sleek, shiny robots that could open their faceplates to reveal an endoskeleton made of noodly metal cables.  It was also the first game in the series to really veer away from traditional FNAF gameplay (disregarding FNAF World).  I’ve forgotten what is a spoiler and what would have been readily apparent upon the game’s release, so I might be needlessly cryptic at times to avoid spoiling the story.

So you’re a new employee at Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental, which rents out its animatronics to parties instead of hosting the parties themselves.  Guided simply by an AI voice called HandUnit, you’ll be moving between different rooms of the facility to perform different duties over the course of five nights, like restoring power in the breaker room or doing minor maintenance on an animatronic.

When I first experienced this game, it was through someone else’s Youtube playthrough rather than my own, and I found the story to be quite intriguing.  Starting on night 2, you start to hear a mysterious female voice (it’s likely obvious who it is, but I’ll keep it discreet anyway), and you have no idea if you can really trust her or not.  FNAF 5’s story is definitely more interesting on the surface than that of previous entries, which usually required some digging to uncover (otherwise, you usually just knew you were a night guard fending off deadly animatronics), though I must admit that the canon ending (there are two, actually) requires some rather hefty suspension of disbelief.

The gameplay of FNAF 5 is…fine.  It’s nice that it’s more varied than previous games, but I can’t say it’s always terribly interesting, either.  I guess the main draw is the story and the scares, which might be why I’ve heard many people say that this game isn’t very replayable.  And I agree, partly because I have no desire to ever do Night 4 again, which is an infamously difficult level.  I also do wish we got to see the Funtime animatronics more.  For example, the only time we ever see Funtime Freddy in action is in the breaker room on Night 2.  In general, all the animatronics are only seen for a short time and shrouded in shadow.  Okay, so seeing them in the dark is not really a bad thing, as it keeps them more mysterious and, as a result, more frightening.  You wonder what they’re capable of (aside from the obligatory jumpscare).  The problem is, they are grossly underutilized, and after a rather brief encounter, you’ll likely never really see them again.

One thing that I found really aggravating about this game was the fact that, whenever you die, you have to start the entire night over.  This was the case with previous entries, yes, but in those games, it made more sense, as each night featured the same gameplay, but with increasing levels of difficulty.  In FNAF 5, I find it really annoying when I fail one task, then have to redo several different tasks that I had already completed just to try again.  There can also be long periods of dialogue, which are often not skippable, that you must listen to over again if you fail.  Night 4 is especially bad if you quit the game and return later, as you’ll be forced to sit through several minutes of dialogue before you can try again.

One other issue is that the console version of the game is a bit wonky.  It is beatable, but not without some special instructions or messing with the settings.  On Night 5, you will need to enter a code into a keypad, so you’ll want to slow down the cursor speed (preferably the version that slows down when you hold a trigger button).  After that, you’ll need to follow totally different directions than what is presented.  Forward actually means northwest, and forward and left actually means to push the control stick forward, then immediately, but slowly, start rolling it along the edge until it reaches a northwest position again.  If you’re struggling with this, then you can always consult my guide video below.

In summary, FNAF 5 is certainly a…unique entry into the FNAF series.  The gameplay isn’t very exciting, but it was probably good to change things up a bit after four games in a row that played pretty similarly.  The story was interesting, though I agree that this alone is not really enough to make the game something you’ll want to return to after that first playthrough (though there is a secret ending that I’ve still yet to get).  One thing I particularly enjoyed, however, was the fact that Scott’s sense of humor starts to really shine in this game (this very same humor continues into FNAF 6), with the most notable example being HandUnit’s inaccurate auto-corrections of anything you try to type on the faulty keypad.  This is where the famous Exotic Butters comes from, after all.

I got FNAF 5 as part of the FNAF Core Collection for consoles (which includes FNAF 1-5), which is typically $40, but can go on sale for much less.  At full price, it’s about the same as getting all five games separately, but on sale, it’s a pretty good deal, as each game normally sells for $7.99.  If you’re not interested in the console version, there’s always the original PC version for the same price, while the mobile version (no idea how well that plays) sells for a measly $2.99.