A new era for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

On Dec. 16, 2021, Scottgames released the newest addition to the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) franchise, Security Breach. The game has been trending all over social media, sparking conversation amongst long time fans and new followers. As players notice countless bugs and the immensely different style from the previous games, people wonder if this is what the future of FNAF looks like.

What is Five Nights at Freddy’s?

Creator of FNAF, Scott Cawthon, was inspired by the pizza restaurant chain, Chuck E. Cheese, when designing the setting. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is seemingly a friendly place to host children’s birthday parties. But when the doors close, the player takes on the roll of a nighttime security guard, while the animatronic antagonists are around every corner waiting to attack the guard. If the player gets caught, they are jump scared right before game over.

In Security Breach, a homeless child named Gregory fights for his life to survive a night inside the Pizza Plex. Animatronics such as Glamrock Chica, Roxanne Wolf, Montgomery Gator, and the most mysterious, Vanny, are roaming the restaurant looking to capture Gregory.

Public View

Controversies surrounding the newest game center around how dissimilar Security Breach is from the rest of the franchise. The game is now entirely three-dimensional. No longer are players playing as a security guard, but now being hunted by one. The graphics, characters, concepts and settings are nothing like fans have ever seen.

Since 2014 when the first game came out, fans have created countless theories about why the animatronics are evil, who the guard is and much more background information. Some theories were confirmed by Cawthon, and others are left unknown.

New fans, inspired to dive into the FNAF lore after Security Breach’s recent hype, have posted endless TikToks, Tweets, and YouTube videos on their thoughts. In addition, there are many longtime fans who buzzed about the new addition to their favorite childhood games.

New characters, Roxy and Monty, are replacements for fan-favorites, Foxy and Bonnie. Cawthon has not yet stated why these two animatronics are missing, but there are many rumors on where the infamous bunny has gone. Reddit user, Dylan Falls, theorizes that Bonnie was put out of commission, and Monty was created to temporarily take his place. However, Monty became popular amongst the children, and Bonnie was put out for good.

Thankfully, most fans simultaneously enjoy the new characters’ presence while also mourning the old. The same can be said about the new setting and visuals.

The game is set in sometime between 2024 and 2029, so while the hyper-futuristic graphics are understandable, fans feel it’s not scary anymore. The community misses the horror and eerie feelings the original FNAF games did so well.

Security Breach was announced Aug. 8, 2019, and fans could not contain their excitement, but due to the unexpected size of the game, it was delayed for nearly two years. As the community grew more and more annoyed, they began to spread hateful comments about the delay. So, Steel Wool Studios, the game developers, and Cawthon decided to release the game even though it was not entirely ready.

As a result, players have noticed countless bugs while playing, including teleporting enemies, phasing through walls, music playing in the wrong areas, characters getting stuck on objects they should be able to walk around and many more. Even more backlash came because of the bugs.

Longtime fan, Maya Hutchinson, writing for WePc, a gaming news outlet, posts her thoughts on FNAF’s newest game.

Despite the huge map and the detail of the Pizza Plex, there’s a very obvious lack of things to do. Considering the nature of the Pizza Plex, and the fact that we’re playing as a child, there’s not much that takes advantage of our location.

Even though fans expected a more polished game because of the constant delays, Security Breach is still enticing and enjoyable. It may not live up to the rest of the franchise, but with everyone talking about it on social media, more people are inspired to join the community and play the old games.