Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit Review
Release Date: August 7, 2024
Developer: Mega Cat Studios
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
Price: $19.99
Five Nights At Freddy's initially released with the simple concept of being attentive towards a few cameras and ensuring that you would survive the night from possessed animatronics in a run down and clearly abandoned pizzeria that still feels the need to hire security. Since then, it's become a global sensation that has spawned multiple sequels, spinoffs, merchandise, films, and more. Now with Five Nights At Freddy's: Into The Pit, the series takes the animatronics for a new spin and puts them in the guise of a pixel-art driven horror narrative adventure where you play as a child who simply wants to get his father back after he'd been abducted.
FNAF Into the Pit does a wonderful job tackling the atmosphere this franchise has been known for, with a tone that's oddly inviting thanks to its animal-based animatronics that are far from cuddly. Into The Pit keeps the essence of FNAF alive throughout, while also giving creative flexibility and freedom to exploration outside of the usual environment we've come to know throughout the years. Playing in the shoes of a young boy named Oswald who's sick of pizza by this point, you'll be attending school, visiting an old mill, a library, going home to sleep (which is not as safe as one would expect), and, of course, visiting the restaurant. For the most part, you'll be able to go freely between these environments, though unfortunately a lot of these places besides the pizzeria itself don't really hold much value. Oswald's home you'll become familiar with, but frankly the other locations seem like an afterthought, especially the library which only really serves one purpose throughout the entire game. I kept visiting it thinking something would happen - maybe a hidden cutscene or trigger some sort of side event - but it was ultimately all for nothing as there was a small thirty-second segment during Night 4 (of 5 total Nights/Chapter in the game) throughout my 6-7-hour playthrough, and that was it.
Even though these various locations mostly felt like window dressing, however, they were all fairly well designed as the pixel art here is really exceptional, and the animations that coincide with it is truly satisfactory. Not just the characters themselves but everything surrounding them from the cloth of a table to the swaying of a balloon to the rolling of a ball and virtually every single detail that makes up the foundation of the art direction of Into The Pit is wonderfully constructed and animated, bringing a level of depth and polish that should be commended and looked at as setting a standard for something outside an HD-2D environment that Square Enix, for example, has come to wonderfully perfect. The time and effort here is all on display, and the game seamlessly weaves all of its love for FNAF, its lore, and tones into a package that I would argue makes it the best FNAF game of its entire property, spinoff or not. It's a great entry point for anyone looking to get into FNAF after they've heard about it for so long, and even just a great game in general for those that want a genuinely awesome horror experience for the weekend.
Not only do the animations keep you infatuated with everything happening on screen, but the sound design here is truly phenomenal for those that are wearing headphones. This is where the game truly shines and comes into a league of its own, with deep thuds of footsteps from these heavy machines being heard doors away as they travel from room to room scanning the areas to look for any children to torment. Its droning ambiance, squeaks of a floorboard, screams in the distance, and so much more completely embody your surroundings when the headphones are on, and these are all ineffably mixed in a way that keeps things focused and cohesive, keeping the heavy weight of its atmosphere on your shoulders without it becoming distracting.
Rarely does FNAF: Into the Pit feel like it's fighting against you. It's a well-designed game that is clearly proud of its accomplishments and puts it all on display as you're playing. It never feels like it's dragging out, and even when you're going from place to place back and forth in a metroidvania-esque fashion, it's all smooth as no locations and their respective rooms ever feel overly large or unnecessary. Every room in the pizzeria and the house was used intelligently, and despite a map, the player should be able to get acquainted with each area fairly quickly and be able to remember where everything is without much fault. Everything in Into the Pit simply made sense, and its floorplan is a big benefit to that. Though admittedly there was just a small few of tasks that may not have been immediately crystal clear as it may not be made apparent to some that it's okay to leave the pizzeria during some segments to gather things from other locations. Once you wrap your head around this, it becomes straightforward and understanding. There was only one time I accidentally got an alternate ending because I left the pizzeria a little too early, but that was only because I wanted to make sure what I needed wasn't elsewhere.
For those that love retro horror, Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit is a must-play. There's just something that marries beautifully about the genre and art direction of pixels that, when done as well as it is here, really gives off a special experience that remains memorable, all without sacrificing the actual horror itself. Don't let the pixels fool you -- Into the Pit is still every bit as terrifying as any other Five Nights at Freddy's before it and distributes its scares tastefully and cleverly throughout the game. The scare factor here rivals even the most prestigious of horror titles, and it's yet another thing I can't help but truly appreciate about Into the Pit as someone who loves the genre and art form deeply.
PROS:
A genuinely terrifying adventure that nails its retro pixel art aesthetic
The Five Nights at Freddy’s atmosphere is here and as strong as ever, but with a new coat of paint that wonderfully encapsulates what made FNAF so popular to begin with.
The sound design is top-notch, with every step from the animatronics and doors heard from a distance with accurate audio positioning and tonality.
CONS:
There are still a few bugs that could be potentially game-breaking, soft locking the game and limiting progression, though this is thankfully becoming alleviated through frequent patches.
A massive thank you to Madcat Studios for providing us a copy of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit for the purposes of this review!