Freaking out in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza

Lauren

I don’t like horror movies or stupid scare trends. So when Arman Vaziri suggested playing the nightmarish computer game Five Nights at Freddy’s, I was completely against it. But I have a duty as a member of The Falcon to complete sometimes unfavorable tasks; in this case, I play a computer game that would most likely result in me crying.

OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the computer game really is scary. Arman and I played at fellow Falcon staff member Atirath Kosireddy’s house, where I had a hard time hiding from the screen considering his computer was hooked up to a TV monitor.  

Essentially, the goal is to survive the night at a haunted Pizzeria in which these demonic mobile animatronics mistake you for the naked electro skeleton of an animatronic, and in turn try to stuff your body into one of their own furry suits.

My character was an underpaid night security guard named Mike Schmidt. For nine minutes of real time, you just wait for the animatronics, adoringly named Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken and Foxy the Pirate Fox, to inevitably attack you in this godforsaken run down facility.

Throughout the game, you’re given very little to survive. All you have is a power source which has to last the entire midnight to 6 a.m. shift. So you have to balance your limited electricity with your gut instinct to shut off the large metal doors on either side of the screen, which block the animatronics from killing you. In addition to the doors, there are two lights and seven glitchy surveillance cameras that hardly do their job of monitoring the movements of Satan’s stuffed animals.

Keep in mind, closing the doors heavily drains your battery. It’s hard to explain the immaculate sense of “I’m dead” when the power goes out and the doors go up, and all you can do is wait while Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy play a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors to choose who pops out first.

As the animatronics make their way toward your room, making screeching noises, the merry-go-round-like music gets louder and louder, until they’re right outside. Their mechanical jaws unhinge and out comes this wail that sounds like a possessed Mariah Carey. You can’t brace yourself for that.

The game got less scary as we continued playing, and we became more focused on the challenge than the scare factor. Not that we got very far. We only got to Night Two.

Arman and I ran back to his car because daylight was fading and Atirath lives in the woods. We didn’t want Freddy to be lurking around behind some tree as we took our time to say bye.

If you want to try to game, go ahead. But know that it doesn’t end after one game. I’m surprised I didn’t cry and even more surprised that I can sleep at night. But there is a sequel set to come out in 2015 and I want no part in it.

Arman

Like Lauren, I am not a big fan of the horror genre. I don’t really understand the love for spine-chilling adrenaline rushes and sleepless nights. However, out of pure boredom and to further procrastinate college applications, I recently started playing terrifying games like Slender and when the opportunity came to play horror games for the Falcon, I knew which game I wanted to play.

Five Nights at Freddy’s has been dubbed one of the best horror games of all time and popular YouTubers like Pewdiepie and Markiplier, who both have millions of subscribers and create gameplay videos, have filmed their gameplay and reactions to the game to display the game’s wicked nature.

Since Lauren was too scared to take control of the game, I wound up controlling the cameras, lights and doors. The pressure of having to keep an eye out for the four demonic animatronic creatures got to me during the second night when I ended up just closing the doors, waiting for the power to run out, and having one of the characters jump scaring Lauren and me.

At first glance, the game is not really scary. All that happens is that some robo-animals wander around a dark restaurant and jump at you if you happen to enter the room. It sounds pretty repetitive.

But it’s not.

There is so much happening in the game at once and so many characters to monitor that it is hard to convince yourself that it won’t be too scary when the antagonists inevitably arrive. You end up focusing so hard on the dark screen in order to make out the blurry shapes of the animatronics that when something pops up on the screen and makes a loud noise, you’re abruptly removed from your state of focus.

Despite avoiding being in dark areas alone for one night, I ended up downloading the game on my iPad the next day. So far, I am on night four and update Lauren on my progress daily.

Before, I didn’t understand the purpose of horror, but now I see how intoxicating the fear can be. I hope when the sequel is released in 2015, it is available for Mac.