Five Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted

Five Nights At Freddy's has become an institution in the horror game genre now. The multitude of games that preceded Five Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted have become talking points in some fashion. They have been critically polarized from scathing hate to joyous content. The characters have ended up on internet memes - even the game's soundtrack is featured on the notorious TikTok platform.

This particular version had been released on VR consoles to enhance the horror experience. Much of the game's style remains the same as it's predecessors. It's a survival horror stretched over five nights where your sole objective is to simply get yourself through the onslaught of animatronic nuisances alive. This game introduces new mechanics through the VR medium, however. So how does it stand-up against its older brothers?

The Worst Chuck E. Cheese Ever

Those who have invested any time in the franchise will know that the setting is at Fazbear's Pizzeria, a children's entertainment location with a horrendous reputation. The environment is based on a haunted real-life entity Chuck E. Cheese, where the animatronic animals come to life and neutralize any threat to their establishment. As per usual - the player is the perceived antagonist amongst these horrifying creatures. Naturally, they chose to take any measures possible to remove you in the most fearsome of respects. This time around, you are facing Freddy and his gang of four as a night security guard with the mission to keep the wondering animals at bay. The game is delivered through a series of mini-games that will have you using VR (or console controls for later releases) to complete. Once each one is addressed, you move through the labyrinth to avoid what would seem like an inevitable fate. You'll have to use all your skills as a night watchman to repel the animatronic menace - pushing buttons, poking things, watching security cameras, and monitoring maps. The game levels really are mastering the jump scare, rendering assets, and limiting mechanics to protrude an eerie sense of fear. Darkness surrounds each area - with light only emerging through the luminous security cameras or torch that makes completing your tasks all the more urgent. The desperation throughout forces the game into a quicker pace. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Quick But Not Easy

Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted is a surprising refreshment from the other installments. Many of the previous editions often seemed a bit lackluster, and the scares were often anticipated. Steel Wood Studios has embraced the virtual reality rush and incorporated it stunningly into their franchise, however. Throughout the game, you will actually feel terrified. A haunted pizza parlor with animatronic characters looking to kill you is the stuff nightmares are made of. That notion is very much brought to life when facing it head-on. Some soundscapes tingle your ears, and there are worrying splashes of light. Both elements rush through the screen to persistently make for an immersive environment.

The mechanics remind much of the godfather of survival horror games in Slenderman, where less is more. You are given a basic set of tools to solve each puzzle set before you. The game is easily playable in small bursts, not requiring huge investments of time. That being said - the game can get frustrating occasionally without any interface assistance in helping you progress.

Pros

• Excellent addition to the Five Nights at Freddy's Franchise with the VR elements
• Highly immersive and fearful environment
• Sound and visuals are well rendered

Cons

• Controls can be a little stiff
• Some of the mini-games are very not intuitive
• The game gets frustrating with difficulty

Another new addition to the FNAF franchise, but this one was something different. Launched in 2019, Five Nights at Freddie’s: Help Wanted is a virtual reality game, to help bring horror to players in an even more terrifying manner. But fret not, in case you don’t have a VR headset, later on, there was a version released to be played without it, and you can play it on PC, IOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Android.

Survive the night

In FNAF: Help Wanted, the story is about Fazbear Entertainment, and to prove that all accidents that occurred in the previous games, they released a virtual reality game to make light of the events, and to show that none of them were true.

And in it, players can choose to play mini-games from different titles of the FNAF games, the first one taking inspiration from the first game, where you must survive a night shift while fending off the attacks from the animatronics that come to life. Five levels that can be chosen, which are a recreation of the five levels in the first game.

The other mini-games take inspiration from the four Five Nights at Freddie’s game, where players need to survive against the animatronics that try to invade your bedroom, by closing and opening doors. And lastly, there are nine mini-games that were inspired by Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, one in where players must inspect and repair the animatronics, other that takes place in a maintenance shaft, and your objective is to solve certain puzzles, while keeping the animatronics away.

But the fun does not end after completing all these mini-games. After completing each of them, you unlock the Blacklight mode, a mode that is harder, and adds visual and auditory elements to further distract the players. And when completing all of these mini-games in both difficulties, you unlock a new and final mini-game called Pizza Party. There are also collectibles like cassette tapes that contain audio logs, and coins that can be used to unlock virtual toys that can be played with at in-game Prize Counter.

Virtual Reality Horror

If you own a VR headset, you will have a unique experience with this game. You will revisit old cenarios of previous titles. For example, now the scenario of the first game is a complete 3D model that can be interacted with in a 3D environment. What is also fun, is that the VR headset is also something that the game protagonist uses to play all of these different mini-games. Later on, a DLC was released that gave the players even more mini-games and new animatronic characters too. Sadly this DLC was not released for mobile, the Switch and Xbox one.

Overall

Five Nights at Freddie’s: Help Wanted is a fun and entertaining addition to the games franchise, and for fans of the game, it will absolutely be a good time. The game was well received by players and critics, and bringing the virtual reality into play, did a great job of immersing the players more into the scary and horrifying atmosphere of the game, as you got face to face with the animatronics.

Pros:

• VR compatibility
• New animatronics
• Graphically enhanced old levels

Cons:

• Some ports are not well-done
• A few levels are frustrating
• More lore focused instead of gameplay