The latest game in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, FNAF: Security Breach, might not be a fan-favorite, but it has a few things that it does better than the original classic games. Although a buggy launch with framerate and performance issues hurt Security Breach and left a bad first impression, it still has its merits. An upcoming DLC expansion, titled Ruin, has been announced, and while the exact release date is unknown, it’s expected sometime in 2023.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for FNAF: Security Breach.]
Most FNAF games have been simple point-and-click games with little opportunity to explore the establishments that they’ve been set in. FNAF 4 was the first title to allow players to get up and move around, and even then it was only one room with four pre-set spots to stand in. Whether they’ve been able to move or not, every FNAF game has had the classic jumpscares that helped make the series famous. FNAF: Security Breach is no different, but it did change many things about the series. Instead of sitting in one place or switching between a few different areas, players could now explore every nook and cranny of the Mega Pizzaplex in its entirety, all while avoiding the animatronics that FNAF is known for. It was the first AAA title in the series, and its new gameplay aspects have exciting implications for future games.
Just like every other video game, Security Breach has its strengths and weaknesses. The transition from point-and-click to an open-world game might have been a rough one, but it’s still a good game with a lot to offer. The series’ complicated lore has spawned fan theories ever since its inception, and the newest game has its fair share of them – like whether Monty killed Bonny in FNAF: Security Breach. Hopefully, answers will come in the Ruins DLC, and many more theories will spring up in future entries. Until then, however, players can still enjoy Security Breach and other classic games in the FNAF series.
Security Breach’s Storytelling Is Better Than The Original FNAF Games’
FNAF is a series that keeps its lore close to its chest. The games reveal precious little over the course of their stories, leaving players to pick through and decode hints to find out exactly what happened that made the animatronics so hostile. Though things like the FNAF books and wikis can help make things more clear, the series as a whole is highly secretive and many things may not be obvious at first glance, which makes for somewhat confusing storytelling. Security Breach is somewhat more forthcoming with its lore, as details like FNAF: Security Breach‘s Vanessa being Vanny all along are revealed in the end in a nice change of pace from the rest of the games being shrouded in mystery.
However, FNAF: Security Breach also has its own secrets. There are quite a few things that are still unknown by the end of the game, making its storytelling clear enough to be exciting but mysterious enough to be intriguing. How Burntrap survived his second fire at the end of FNAF: Pizzeria Simulator is kept a secret, as is his final fate after the Blob snatches him away during Security Breach‘s canon ending. It’s possible that these will be explored in the upcoming Ruin DLC, but if not, they could be the main focus of future games. The True Ending of FNAF: Security Breach leaves many possibilities for DLC and entirely new entries in the series, while still giving plenty of details to serve as fuel for fan theories and speculation.
FNAF: Security Breach’s Gameplay Is Better Than Classic Games’
Despite their massive success, the FNAF games never had the most compelling gameplay. Doing nothing but pointing and clicking different buttons hardly makes for an exciting game, and although it made up for it in other ways such as building large amounts of suspense, it’s definitely one area where the FNAF series has been lacking. Security Breach fixes that with its new open-world game mode that forces players to interact with things in ways that were inconceivable in the first few FNAF games. It feels more engaging and immersive, especially since there’s now a voiced character with a name and a face that players can put to their character – unlike past games, which didn’t reveal the identities of the humans facing FNAF‘s scariest nightmarish characters. It may not be perfect, and it arguably takes away some of what made classic FNAF such a hit, but it’s still a definite improvement that showcased exactly what a FNAF game can be when it’s not limiting the main character to one spot.
The new open-world format also meant that Security Breach wasn’t as reliant on jumpscares as other FNAF games. Though they’re the most memorable – and arguably best – part of the series, they’ve been the only thing that many of them have had to offer in terms of gameplay. It’s possible to actually play through the entirety of Security Breach without being jumpscared if players are careful, and it doesn’t suffer for it. The lack of reliance on jumpscares allows other gameplay aspects to shine through, such as sneaking mechanics and finding some of the missable upgrades scattered throughout FNAF: Security Breach. Thankfully, players can also get jumpscared on purpose fairly easily if they still want to experience them, and the progressive degradation of the various animatronics makes them even more horrifying than the scares past games have offered.
FNAF: Security Breach’s Animatronics Are Better Than Other Games’
Another thing that FNAF: Security Breach does better than past games is its animatronics’ designs. Each generation of FNAF games has its own version of the classic Fazbear cast, and Security Breach is no different. Its iterations of Freddy and Chica along with newcomers Roxy and Monty are known as the Glamrock animatronics, and they certainly live up to their name. Their bright neon colors and costumes that harken back to classic real-life glamrock bands are a unique take on Freddy and Chica, and from the looks of the trailer for the Ruin DLC, Bonnie will soon get the same treatment. Even the non-Glamrock animatronics like Sundrop in FNAF: Security Breach or the S.T.A.F.F. robots have good designs, and serve to round out the cast as a whole to prevent the gimmick from going too far.
In addition to their aesthetic design, the animatronics of Security Breach also have more dimension to them than those of past FNAF games. Having voice lines and fleshed-out personalities make them feel more like real three-dimensional characters instead of just villainous props. Seeing Monty’s rage, Roxy’s insecurity, Chica’s gluttony, and Freddy’s caring demeanor is a refreshing change of pace from having them be portrayed as a simple copy and paste of its monsters. Each one feels like an individual, which can’t be said of the animatronics of some of the earlier games in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. Although some similar newcomer indie games like Poppy Playtime have better monster designs than FNAF, Security Breach still does a better job of bringing Freddy and his friends to life than most Five Nights at Freddy’s games.
