Who loves orange soda? Oz loves orange soda!
Mega Cat Studios was kind enough to send us a code for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit. Lamentably, it took quite some time for me to get to a review (blame Murphy’s Law). So, all thanks and apologies to them for my lateness.
I also feel the need to preface this with the fact that FNaF is as a series not really my cup of tea. I certainly don’t hate it, it’s just never held much of a draw to me. And, what little I do know comes from an attractive clown girl I follow on social media. Watch her make garlic bread.
Anyway, I’m going to avoid going over the story. Mostly as the game is an adaptation of a book/graphic novel, specifically the first story in both. The story follows Oz, a kid who must not only survive the titular five nights, but also attmept to save his father, as well as other kids.
As far as gameplay is concerned, the immediate parallel I drew was to Clock Tower: The First Fear. There are, obviously, differences; Into the Pit isn’t a point and click style game for one. Also, Oz has considerably more hustle than Jennifer. Which is important, as Scissorman has noting on these animatronics. But they do share a core gameplay loop: gather items and solve puzzles while avoiding or hiding from a pursuer that you mostly can’t do anything else about.
And, at this point, I really need to emphasize this: the pixel art is fantastic. And the screenshots don’t do it justice. This game looks great, and a large part of that is down to how well animated all of the sprites are. I am genuinely at a loss to describe anything better animated short of Vanillaware games, and I mean that as praise. The game just looks spectacular. Even the menus look good.
The overall atmosphere is suitably creepy and offputting. While you’ll likely see most of your deaths coming, the jumpscares themselves all work well. In turn, the sound plays into this; of note the first jumpscare in the game, accompanies by a sting, was incredibly effective.
So is Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit something I’d recommend? Absolutely. If it seems up your alley, it’s likely worth the price of admission. Doubly so if you’re into the franchise.
Final Score:
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