Five Nights at Freddy’s is now a multimedia juggernaut. Its humble beginnings as a hobbyist-developed product from Scott Cawthon’s struggles to make something cute resulted in a novel concept revolving around homicidal themed restaurant animatronics. The gameplay was spartan and leaned on Scott’s limitations to make for a very atmospheric, yet lore-rich experience that resonated with many young gamers watching YouTube Let’s Plays. After many sequels, spin-offs, endless merchandise, and a big budget film adaptation, there is no end to the FNAF phenomenon. What if the premise of a murderous animatronic was applied to a traditional horror game experience, though? Would it still capture people’s imagination?
Anyone with cursory knowledge of Five Nights at Freddy’s will be able to enjoy Into the Pit. All there is to know is there was a pizza chain in the ’80s that specialised in children’s entertainment that relied on surprisingly sophisticated animatronic mascots that caused a few deaths. The souls of the children still haunt the establishment, which got renovated, and is under new management as “Jeff’s Pizza”.
The story begins with Oswald and his dad visiting Jeff’s Pizza, a rundown restaurant with barely a star on Google, but cheap enough for a broke family to afford. Oswald has it rough. His father is out of a job off the heels of the pandemic lockdowns, and the economy of the town is in shambles. His mother is an overworked nurse who gets no time off, while her husband job hunts all day, leaving Oswald hopelessly alone at Jeff’s after school. The atmosphere feels bleak and very real. The situation is not uncommon for many American families during the 2020s where the aftermath of the lockdowns choked businesses to the brink of doom. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit expertly crafts a palpable sense of dread for Oswald. It feels like he has no future as he’s regularly abandoned every day while his parents struggle to secure a future for him.
Jeff’s Pizza sucks and the place has a stack of violations that would get confused for a phonebook, but it has secrets that make it a compelling place for bored, inquisitive kids. Some of the effects and remnants from the Fazbear days can still be found at Jeff’s. Among some of the relics is a ball pit tucked away in a storage room that transports Oswald to the early days of the Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline. In the chaos, Oswald’s father gets possessed by one of the monstrous animatronics. It’s motivations are unclear, but it behaves like a body-snatched imitation, following old routines and appearing normal…to everyone except Oswald.
This is where the first hole in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit appears. The possessed father becomes a creepy mute and nobody suspects anything is wrong with him, not even his wife who still appears in scenes with him and speaks to him. It’s implied that there were conversations between the possessed dad and other characters, but it’s never shown. This lapse of logic feels like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too, but failed to realise how much creepier the story would be if the animatronic could speak through the dad. The idea is that the writers know that the animatronic can’t speak, but they wrote themselves into a corner by implying that he possibly spoke in scenes one never sees.
Since Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit is a story that revolves around time travel, it was inevitable that the rules of causation would become inconsistent. By being able to go to the past, it would imply fate is immutable and the events in the present would be changed to the final outcome. Oswald still has to go through the motions of hopping between the 2020s and 1980s multiple times before the story can conclude.
Despite the time travel rule woes, this still manages to be a thrilling horror adventure game. The scenario is set over the course of several nights and gamers can freely control Oswald and explore his surroundings, collecting key items and inspecting areas for amusing flavour text. The meat of Into the Pit is the stealth sequences where the hero has to avoid the murderous animatronic rabbit. Oswald can hide, make distractions to divert the killer’s patrol, and run for his life. Sometimes there will be quick-time events or micro-games to avoid detection.
A clever touch is how every night Oswald will need to find a new way to escape his house due to the killer closing the option out. The pursuer is a very effective and unsettling creature that feels genuinely menacing. The sinking feeling and utter terror felt as this thing chases Oswald makes it clear why the franchise has become so popular.
The settings across the week vary from places in Oswald’s neighbourhood. Each location has an alternate version between both eras, and players are free to explore at their own pace…as long as they aren’t being actively pursued. Exploring and rummaging around is worthwhile since it is the only way to acquire the parts necessary to repair the old arcade machines at Jeff’s. Impressively, every arcade cabinet that Oswald fixes can be played. They aren’t deep, but they are amusing distractions that homage the Atari-like mini-games from the core franchise. Some have hidden surprises within, and repairing all of the machines is the only way to get the best ending.
By far the most notable feature is the graphics. The pixel art and animation is exceptional. Everything moves fluidly and with character. The quality is on par with what the Metal Slug franchise was doing, but within the framework of a stealthy, horror adventure game. Some close-ups of the animatronic have an impressive amount of frames of animation. It feels otherworldly and its animalistic gait has weight. The rundown present day is fittingly depressing, and the 1980s are colourful with a false sense of optimism hiding behind a facade of denial.
