gaming Is Five Nights at Freddy's overrated?

[SUPERFOX5 387]

I really don't see the popularity with this game.

 

I have never played it, but have seen the Completionist video of it.

 

The only scare factor I see are jump scares. Do they really have to rely on that?

 

Games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill were scary for a reason.

Those games had spooky and mysterious environments, unique enemy designs, and the sounds that the enemies made.

 

Look at PT: Hideo Kojima made that, and he actually made me scared out of my mind from playing that.

 

Please don't flame me for this, I just think FNAF is maybe taking the horror genre and making it seem a little less like how it used to be.

 

What do you bro's think? I await my hate. (I did not mean to rhyme, but hey, it was cool)

[baba_booey 4,302]

All I have to say is.. yes.

 

Seriously, all it is to me is just a Sega CD FMV game trying to be put in a modern market.

[mars 4,862]

Absolutely! The game is very overrated. 

That being said, I absolutely love it and am one of those people that overhype it.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

If you watch any videos without commentary you can actually hear a lot of background noise in those games, there's quite a bit of atmosphere to them. Not to mention, unique enemies? Killer animatronic animals, I don't think I've seen another game doing that, or at least not basing a whole game around it. A creepy pizza place is also a new one. The jump-scares in the first two games only ever happen when you die, as a punishment.

 

 I've never played the series, and my interest in it is only passing in that I'll watch a video here and there, but from what I've seen, it does a decent job at doing what it wants to do. Is it overrated? Eh, maybe, maybe not.

[HaroldGenhi 82]

What FNAF did was make you vulnerable by forcing you to be stationary and practically blind with only the use of your cameras to keep track of the things that want to kill you. What this does is generate a tense atmosphere as you dread what is inevitably coming to get you. The game has atmosphere to it that builds tension that makes the jump scare that much more powerful. But the thing is, the game did what it set out to do effectively and simply. It is a cheap game with simple controls that can give you a few hours of scare and eventually just a game of you mastering the pattern and getting sweet victory.

 

Is it overrated? Quite a bit, but does that mean that it is bad? No. It has a pretty interesting story to it, which is what got me hooked and everything was just about trying to figure out all the game's subtle hints as to what is really going on. Stories told in the background that you aren't a part of is a refreshing angle for me so that is why I enjoyed the games.

[Kurai 304]

The scares in the game wear thin very quickly and aren't even that scary to begin with that is true but it isn't the horror for why the game is so popular.
Its the story, people absolutely love it. They love the mystery and the clues, piecing together what might have happened to the children and who the purple guy is.  

So for a horror game, yea its a bit overrated but as a story based game, not in the slightest.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Kurai

[Inax 92]

Good back story, yah, but seriously :\ just another game.

 

The scares dry up quickly, just like playing the Dead Space series, you know where their going to be and what the sounds and such when you play it and 2nd or more time..

[Overlord0909 479]

Maybe it's just me, but it wasn't all that scary at all... Though I am only afraid of falling, but still, I played the Demo, and beat it first try. I didn't find satisfaction in the product, and am glad I didn't buy it. Do I hate the game? Of course not, it was just meh personal opinion. Would I recommend it to others? Why not. It can be startling I guess, and some may fear animatronics for life after playing the game. But really, those things were creepy in the first place so...

 

I digress... Yes. The game is overrated to me. I've seen it's reference everywhere, and it starts to get a little annoying.

[Banul 3,831]

I'm not a big fan of the horror genre, but I do think that the FNAF series are generally well made games. I think people hate it because of how widespread it is now. 

[HailTrixie 239]

Yes.

It is totally overatted - FNAF 1 is the only decent game of the series, FNAF 2 being just below the bar. The only good thing about FNAF 2 was the fact that there were slightly more animations and also Balloon Boy. FNAF 1 is slideshow simulator however it did have a lot of spooky ambient noises that built up a bit of fear. Overall, after you have died like twice, no FNAF game is really scary anymore. It is a cheap game that relies on jumpscares to be scary. I wouldn't be suprised if it was revealed that the fact that you can't move wasn't implemented to be scary - the creator was just too damn lazy to implement movement and design a whole map, and it just turned out to be convenient (although imo movement would make the game way better). If FNAF 1 had been a standalone, I would have been okay with it. The next 2 were just unimaginative and pointless. The whole series wouldn't even be that popular if it hadn't have been for Markiplier pretending to be scared.

 

In my opinion, the whole thing is being created by a guy that is in over his head, has no idea what he is doing, and is just going on a luck streak and doesn't know when to stop. Please, Scott Cawthon. Stahp.

Edited April 28, 2015 by HailTrixie

[Brave Hooves 113]

Well, sort of. People mostly follow it for the lore and fan works. Other than that, the first game I did legitimately enjoy, the second game, I did not like very much at all, and I have not played the third game but it looks even more convoluted than the second and looks like it lacks the feel of the original although it does look a lot more scary. Overall, I'd say play the first game, then read up on the lore of it and the next games.

[Shadowking58 1,137]

Yes. Very. I will admit that the lore is pretty well thought out, though.

[ConcorDisparate 385]

Honestly, there are just too many games now. The first one was great, the second one was okay, but after that, meh..

I wish people would know more of the other horror games -_- .

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

Not so sure of the replay-ability, but it seemed pretty fun.

All you really need for a decent game is a good idea. Given its reception, I wouldn't really call it overrated. Same could be said for something such as MLP, really.

[Blaze Bronson 343]

FNAF's 1 was very creative, had a great atmosphere and a thrilling story waiting to be unveiled. Yeah the jump scares got dull after a while, but the game also only lasted a while, so it was great.

 

The rest of the games were more or less copies of the first, with slightly tweaked mechanics, so the originality argument vanishes more and more per title.

The atmosphere was still the same, good but expected. The jump scares is where these games mostly failed. You got tired of them in the first game, now they just get routine.

The last big reason people still played these games is to figure out the story, which was a good story hidden in an amazing way.

 

It actually seems to be both overrated and underrated at the same time. People who play through the later games overrate them based on the story, and those who don't like the concept seems to bash it into the ground, ignoring any good thing it has going.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Blaze Bronson

[InfectedPone 1,550]

The gameplay itself is definitely overrated in my opinion, but I am a sucker for deep and complicated lore so I have to applaud the game on that.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I say yes, mainly because the gameplay is a lot like any other horror game that's out with jump scares and horrifying images, but in terms of story and lore I say no. People love the lore and backstory in the games and thus play the series to learn more about the backstory of the location in the game. I myself love the lore surrounding the series, but personally wouldn't play the games mainly because I hate horror games. Regardless, yes Five Nights is overrated.

[TenorSounds 832]

Nope, not at all. It uses the potential jump scares as an effective vehicle for building tension, the simplicity of the mechanics means that you learn them and the characters/areas intimately and actually gain a mastery over them, and making it YouTuber friendly is a genius marketing move. The creator knows that there is a real market for games that appeal to a mystery and assuming a certain level of cleverness on the player, and he capitalizes on it to a masterful degree. He literally only had to remove a hat from a picture and because of the community interest he garnered that was enough to essentially send the internet a-buzz talking about his series again; that has to be admired.

Honestly, I think the issue is comparing it to things like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc. when it's not trying to be the type of experience those games provide. The community and mystery is just as big of a part of the series as the gameplay itself, and so I look at it as more of a media experience rather than just a singular game on its own.

Also, just to address some of the things I'm seeing in this thread already, the word "gimmick" is not a bad word. It literally just means an aspect of something that is there to bring interest and attention to it. Sometimes the "gimmick" is the most integral and interesting part of the experience. For all those that say it uses "gimmicky" jump scares, I ask, why do you count that as a negative? Now, I'm not talking about "cheap" jump scares, as those are bad for multiple reasons. But in FNaF the jump scares are the kill screen, they denote you failed at you task and you need to try again. Games that use cheap jump scares are games that throw them in willy-nilly, usually to hide the fact that the game is otherwise not very scary; I'd argue that since the jump scares are a fail-state they aren't cheap, and that the true dread and "scariness" of the games comes from the tension built as you try not to get a jump scare. It's not a haunted house, it's a...hunting house.

(that sounded cooler in my head)

 

Basically, it's fine to not like the series but frankly some reasons make more sense than others.

Edited April 29, 2015 by TenorSounds

[Omar 692]

Even though it is a good game, it is kind of overrated.

[Fender 1,283]

Yeah, basically. It's overrated in the sense people think it is the absolute perfect horror game because of its lore.

 

Just like MLP is overrated because people think it's the absolute perfect show for display of friendship.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,354]

Yes, I think they are incredibly overrated. I like the atmosphere that the first two could create, I like the theme, I like the setting, but nothing that these games do is anywhere near close to being worthy of nearly 4 games in one year.

 

The games, to me, are just Youtuber bait and it is because of the most massive of Youtuber's that these games are apparently worshipped by some people. I don't think the games deserve that.

[Nikki Flameheart 35]

In my opinion, the whole 'horror' genre has been way overdone these days, and not just with games, but with movies and tv series as well. For example, the zombie apocalypse survival subgenre is waaay over done. I honestly do not think we need another Walking Dead or Resident Evil... Back in time when the original Resident Evil games were made, and Night of the Living Dead movies were made, it was still pretty new and decent, but these days, it's just always out there, it's like, "yeah, this just doesn't frighten me anymore, can we please find something else to try?"

But as for FNAF, I watched one part of the Markiplier playthrough of the first game was like "yeah, what ever, bo-ri-ng"

Edited May 1, 2015 by Luka Silver

[Jammo 986]

It's Night Trap but with actual effort and creativity thrown in.  It's what Night Trap SHOULD have been.  I'm actually really supportive of taking old ideas from a forgotten time and revisiting them to do them right.  It's like fulfilling failed potential.  Love it.  FNAF was the game that would have legitimated the FMV CD games.  Instead we got Night Trap, Sewer Shark and that stupid game with Corey Haim (God rest his soul).

[Windseeker 546]

Maybe, maybe not. I never played it so I can't really say.

 

I have friends who are obsessed with it and will not hesitate to add any FNAF canon to any role plays I do, I generally don't mind though.

[Barbaloot 198]

Well as with all horror, living it is different to only watching it. One reason you didn't care for the Completionist's videos were that you weren't the one playing yourself. The Jumpscares are merely the puishment factor of the game, but the game is considered scary for many more reasons. Panic is a good one that shows up often.

 

That being said, yeah it's pretty overrated. I think they're very good games, but they're not exactly amazing. But, that being said, that's also WAY more than I ever expected for a $10 title from one person.