Five Nights at Freddy's 3 - Haunted Houses and Jump Scares Everywhere!

A new location, some new attractions, and some tested mechanics keep this installment from feeling stale.

Welcome Back, Freddy

Five Nights at Freddy's is an internet phenomenon. A series with a host of games and spin-offs, it's also one of those games that's absolutely impenetrable to those outside of its intended audience. With that said, though, Five Nights 3 is perhaps the first game in the series to offer players something special.

Welcome Back, Old Friend

If you've never jumped into the Five Nights at Freddy's universe, you've missed out on a vast gaming phenomenon. The basic gist of the series is that you play as a night guard who has to deal with a host of malfunctioning (or maybe possessed) animatronics in a knock-off Chuck E. Cheese. This iteration of the game changes things up a little by putting you in a haunted house, but the basics remain the same.

Five Nights 3 does feel like it's pushing the series into something new.

Maybe it's the change of setting, but this game feels a lot fresher in concept than its previous iteration. As much as being in the new location helps. There is also a feeling that this is a love-letter to the last two games. This light sprinkling of metacommentary does help to bring the game to life.

Building on Old Remains

Five Nights games don't look good. They're mobile quality at best, and the third iteration isn't all that much better than the first two. At this juncture, though, that's part and parcel of dealing with this franchise. It's never going to look great, and that's okay - people are here for the scares, not to be blown away by the amazing visuals of the game.

The audio, though, is still good. Every element of the game has its unique sounds, and you'll grow to know and fear them by the time you are finished. Being able to rely on audio cues is part of the game, so it's nice to see that they're competently done. It doesn't take a lot to make the audio much better than the visuals. But the credit is due to the overall sound design of this game.

Don't Ever Blink

It's amazing what a few little changes can do the pacing of a game. The Five Nights games have always been about knowing how to respond - and not to respond - to certain threats. These games make you manage resources, keep your head on a swivel, and pay attention to everything that's going on. All this third iteration does is throw in enough changes to the pacing of the game to change things up.

Though at the end of the day, this pacing change radically alters how Five Nights works. Now every move feels like a part of a bigger system, one where a little mistake can have catastrophic consequences a few minutes later.

In a way, this is the first Five Nights game to really feel like it trusts players. There's enough going on here that the game has to let you learn from your mistakes, but it's also got to let the player see how those mistakes play out.

One More Look

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is an excellent evolution of the Five Nights formula. It's possibly the high point of the series, and it has a lot more to offer than just a few scary jumps. It's still not a very complicated game, and it still looks awful, but it's finally become a game that has something to offer its players.

TL/DR

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is a horror game that builds upon the previous iterations to make something special.