Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is the fourth installment of the Freddy’s series created by Scott Cawthon. The game takes place after the events of a tragic incident as a hospitalized child fending off horrific depictions of animatronic mascots, known as the Nightmare animatronics, from the bed that he resides in. No area is safe as the layout of the bedroom has doors to the left and the right of the room, a closet in the middle, and behind you, the bedroom. You have to survive from 12AM to 6AM, but this can be altered depending if you do certain tasks after the nights to come. The characters you fend against are the nightmare depctions of Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox.
The first night gives you instructions on what to do, telling you what areas to go to and where to be cautious and weary. If you move to the doors you’ll open them and stare into the darkness; this is where you’re supposed to shine your flashlight to fend away animatronics from the very end of the hall, but if they advance too close towards the door, they’ll jumpscare you, giving you a “game over” and ending the night. You’re supposed to be cautious and listen in front of the door for any breathing; if you don’t hear anything, you flash down the corridor to check if there’s anything at all. If you do hear any breathing, you shut the door and hold it until you don’t hear anymore breathing or your screen flashes black briefly.
Bonnie and Chica roam the hallways trying to enter your bedroom from the left and right, Foxy also tries to get into your room specifically, inside the closet. You go to the closet and flash your light at him while shutting the closet doors for a bit and checking every now and then until he reverts into a small little plush. Freddy resides underneath the bed, and sends smaller versions of himself known as the “Freddles” up one by one. The moment that all three are on the bed and enough time has passed, he’ll appear on the bed and jumpscare you. In order to deter the Freddles away, you turn around and flash your light at the bed.
Winning the nights will bring you to minigames stating how many days are left until a birthday party for our protagonist. He’s unnamed but due to visual characteristics, we’ll name him the Crying Child. He owns a plush based on Fredbear, an animatronic mascot that talks to him. Through the minigames he progressively makes his way to the Diner.
You also can play a deadly game with a plushie comparable to the size of the player, named Plushtrap. The game plays out as you enter a corridor with 4 holes, diverging into areas unseen by the player. Plushtrap does not move when light is shone on him, and the only way to win the game is getting him right on the X before the timer goes out. Beating the game will reward you by skipping a couple hours into the next night. If you die however in the skipped night or die during the game, you get sent to the next night only at 12AM.
During the fifth night, you fend against Fredbear once more but only from 12AM (depending if you completed fun with Plushtrap) to 6 AM. After beating the night, you’ll be able to see the last minigame cutscene where the Crying Child is carried over to the stage by a group of bullies who want to scare him. They decide to put his head into the bear’s mouth as he chomps down, crushing his skull. It is revealed through subtle hints and from the minigames that this is most likely what’s going on in his head after the events, as hints from IV fluid, pills, and flowers that he may or may not be in a hospital bed or in a coma.
You can take on an extra sixth night where everything’s just cranked on hard, difficulty playing as normal until 4 AM, in which Fredbear goes out of his way to hunt you down for the remaining two hours. Once completed, you get a cutscene of the same yellow bear from the other minigames, talking to you directly, apologizing and promising that he’ll put you back together.
There’s more options afterwards in the extra menu where you can take on extra challenges and look at secret media, one of the challenges being a version of Nightmare Fredbear with yellow attire and a black and gray color palette. Beating nightmare mode will allow you to find a box with two locks preventing it from opening, with the text “Perhaps some things are just best left forgotten, for now”.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is an extremely horrifying installment of the Five Nights at Freddy’s Trilogy with new game mechanics having the player use their ears to assist in beating the game or get punished with a loud jumpscare. The story of a child who got his head crushed on his birthday is also tragic and sad since we’re given clues that he’s most likely in a coma state. The models of the nightmare animatronics look horrific and amazing, perfectly deserving their titles as said nightmares.
