Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
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Developer(s)	Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)	Scott Cawthon
Composer(s)	Leon Riskin
Series	Five Nights at Freddy's
Engine	Clickteam Fusion 2.5
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS
Release	Microsoft Windows WW: 7 October 2016 Android WW: 22 December 2016 iOS WW: 3 January 2017
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location (often abbreviated to Sister Location) is a point-and-click survival horror video game created by Scott Cawthon. It is the fifth & final game in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. The game was released on 7 October 2016. A mobile port for Android devices was released on 22 December 2016, and an iOS port was released on 3 January 2017.

Sister Location distances itself from several key gameplay and storytelling mechanics used in previous games, instead featuring walking access to any area in the game, each with its own differing objective the player must carry out. Throughout the game, the player interacts with a new cast of animatronic characters, central to which is a seemingly benevolent animatronic named Circus Baby.

Additionally, Sister Location is the first core game in the series to feature professional voice acting and an original soundtrack.

The game received mixed to positive reviews from critics, praising the voice acting, soundtrack, and humor, while criticizing its story and departure from the previous titles' gameplay.

Gameplay

The bulk of the gameplay in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location does away with the survival aspect of previous games. Instead of remaining in one place and preventing the animatronic antagonists from attacking, the player must move from room to room in order to fulfill a series of objectives that change during each of the five nights. For example, Night 2 requires the player to sneak across Ballora Gallery and reset a group of circuit breakers, while for Night 4, the player is placed inside a springlock suit and must keep its spring locks wound up while shaking off the animatronic dolls (Minireenas) that climb onto it.

As in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, when a game ends, the player may be given a chance to play an 8-bit minigame, in which Circus Baby must give cupcakes to children and then bring an ice cream cone to a little girl. Completing this minigame grants access to a secret level during Night 5, a near-recreation of the gameplay in the original Five Nights at Freddy's. Here, the player remains in a security office and must prevent a hybrid animatronic called "Ennard" from entering it by watching surveillance cameras and closing electric doors, all of which consume a limited power supply.

Clearing all five nights unlocks a gallery of extra features: pictures and blueprints of the game's animatronics, their making-of, a map of the facility and automatic access to Circus Baby's cupcake minigame. As of the 1 December 2016 update, clearing all nights also unlocks the non-canon Custom Night mode, which is set in a modified version of the Night 5 secret room. The player can choose from several modes and difficulty settings, facing new animatronics, and must conserve both power and oxygen supplies in order to survive. Completing these modes allows the player to view a series of cutscenes that have been declared as part of the series canon; all except the last scene are in 8-bit resolution.

An achievement system exists in the form of four stars, obtained by unlocking both of the game's endings, completing the Circus Baby minigame, and completing the hardest difficulty on each custom night preset.

Like in all Five Nights at Freddy's games, failure to defend oneself from the hostile animatronic characters will result in a jumpscare, ending the game.

Plot

Before the core gameplay begins, a prologue cutscene is presented to the player, where an interviewer is questioning "Mr. Afton", supposedly the creator of the game's animatronic characters, on certain design choices he has made when building the animatronics. Afton lists several features of Circus Baby, such as her ability to make ice cream and inflate balloons at her fingertips. The interviewer is unsatisfied with this answer, as the features Afton mentioned were not what he was referring to. ^[1]

The player character, seemingly named Mike, mistakenly referred to as "Eggs Benedict" (due to a malfunction in the keypad where he types his name),^[2] is a new employee of the underground Circus Baby's Rentals and Entertainment, a sister company of Fazbear Entertainment featuring animatronics that are rented out to children's birthday parties; they were originally intended for use in a pizzeria called Circus Baby's Pizza World, but the pizzeria had been shut down shortly before it was supposed to open due to "gas leaks".^[3] Both locations are owned by a certain British-accented individual called Mr. Afton. It is also implied in the source code of teasers for the game that both locations are part of a robotics company going by the name of "Afton Robotics".

Mike is instructed by HandUnit (an AI that helps the player throughout the game) to watch and 'motivate' the animatronics by electrocuting them so they may be used during the day. Mike is also guided by the voice of Circus Baby, a female, clown-like, animatronic and the star of Circus Baby's Pizza World, who gives instructions sometimes contradictory to those of HandUnit. Baby's instructions help Mike survive the nights from the hostile animatronics: the ballerina Ballora and smaller ballerinas known as Minireenas; miniature animatronics known as Bidybabs; and 'Funtime' versions of Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny and Foxy the Pirate Fox, with a Bonnie being a hand puppet. It is implied via monologues throughout the game, as well as the ending of the 8-bit-style minigame, that Circus Baby houses the remains of Mr. Afton's daughter, who was previously killed by her in a freak accident.^[4]

In between nights, the voice of a young British girl, who is presumably Mr. Afton's daughter, is overheard, asking her father if she can go and play with Circus Baby. This is further elaborated on during Baby's third night speech and the mini game, both of which imply the girl went against her father's wishes and was then killed by Baby.

As the week passes, the animatronics are taken to the Parts and Service room one by one due to apparent malfunction, later to be taken to the "scooping room". On the first night, Mike is instructed to see if Ballora, Foxy, and Circus Baby are working properly by shocking them, in which Foxy and Circus Baby require two shocks to get them to work (although Circus Baby never reveals herself despite being shocked twice). On the second night, Mike is tasked to move a panel under a desk to feud off the Bidybabs, travel to the breaker room while avoiding Ballora, and repairing the machinery while avoiding Freddy. On the third night, Handunit sends Mike to the Parts and Services Room (avoiding Foxy along the way) and is ordered to perform maintenance on Freddy while avoiding Bonnie. At the end of the third night, Foxy ambushes Mike and Circus Baby reveals that she kidnapped him and the fourth night, hides him in a spring lock suit just outside the "scooping room", where the animatronics' endoskeletons are forcibly removed by a machine that Circus Baby refers to as "The Scooper" (designed in a way similar to an excavator), and has Mike watch as the machine tears Ballora's endoskeleton out. She opens the suit's topside and leaves Mike to deal with the Minireenas while preventing the spring locks from coming loose. On the final night, two agents sent to fix the animatronics are found hanged in the Ballora and Funtime auditoriums, respectively. After reaching the Parts and Service room, Mike is told by Circus Baby to take her to the scooping room. From there, the player can heed Circus Baby's instruction and obtain the normal ending, or sidetrack to the hidden "private room" and get into the alternate ending after completing Circus Baby's minigame, where the player needs to clear a survival mission modeled after the first game for the alternate ending.

In the normal ending, after entering the scooping room, Circus Baby, who is now the consciousness of Ennard (an animatronic formed out of the other animatronics), reveals that she and the other animatronics have been attempting to escape the complex, but without a human guise, they were unable to. However, now that they have gained Mike's trust via Circus Baby, they lured him by mimicking her voice, after they merged into a single animatronic called Ennard to take his body. Ennard then locks Mike inside the scooping room and uses the machine to disembowel him and take his body. The final scene of the game's canon area shows Ennard inspecting itself in the mirror while inhabiting Mike's body.

In the alternate ending, Mike ignores Baby's instructions and is able to access the facility's security office, where he survives the night while warding off attacks by Ennard. The following day, Mike escapes to his home and watches the season finale of the animated series The Immortal and the Restless (whose previous episodes are shown in-between the nights and whose plot lampoons the series). After the show ends, however, Ennard appears in the room and slowly advances towards Mike. This ending is apparently non-canon, since it has been labelled the "fake ending" of the game. The veracity of this title has not been confirmed, however.

Completing the various Custom Night modes on the hardest difficulty setting unlocks a set of 8-bit cutscenes that have been confirmed as being canonical. These scenes show Ennard walking down the block disguised in Mike's skin - appearing normal at first, but gradually decaying and deteriorating from one scene to the next, eventually becoming the character known as The purple man, implying that Mike (Michael Afton) is the true Purple Guy. Neighbors initially wave to him, but later become concerned and hide as his outward appearance worsens. In the last of these scenes, Mike vomits Ennard into the sewer and collapses, presumably due to the lack of innards. However, he rises to his feet again as Ennard repeatedly says, "You won't die." ^[5]

The cutscene that follows the most difficult mode ("Golden Freddy") is rendered in the same resolution as the game itself. This scene depicts the burnt wreckage of the Fazbear's Fright attraction from Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and is accompanied by a voice-over narration by "Michael", addressed to his father. He states that he has found "her" and put "her" back together, adding that he should be dead and that he will seek out his father. Just before the scene ends, Springtrap steps into view, implying Michael was the character crushed to death inside the Spring Bonnie suit at the end of the third game, who then becomes Springtrap. It also implies that Michael was assumed to be his father (William Afton) by the Funtime Animatronics.^[6]

Development

In April 2016, Cawthon released a teaser image of the game on his website, entitled Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, featuring a clown-like animatronic, revealed to be named "Circus Baby".^[7] Several teaser images followed, revealing different characters and hints at their origins.^[8]

The trailer for the game^[9] was released on Cawthon's official YouTube page featuring new animatronics and a new location. The release date was later confirmed to be 7 October 2016.^[8][10]

In August, a teaser image was posted on Cawthon's website with the words "Cancelled. Due to Leaks." This was initially taken to indicate that the game itself had been cancelled, due to one of the game's animatronics' voices being leaked, namely Ballora's. However, it was quickly revealed to be a part of the story line, as a fictional news article was found when the image was brightened, discussing how the in-game location had been closed due to "gas" leaks.^[11]

On 4 October 2016, Cawthon posted on the Steam Community forums, stating that the game has a very dark story line, and that it might not be kid-friendly. For this, he said that he might work on the game for several more months, to make the game and its story more suitable for younger players,^[12] which, however, turned out to be a hoax.^[13] The game was released on 7 October 2016.

On 17 October 2016, Cawthon announced on his website and the game's Steam page that a non-canon Custom Night will be added to the game in December, and that an update for it will be released prior to its original version.^[14][15] It was released on 1 December 2016.

On 22 December 2016, a mobile port for Android devices was released on the Google Play Store.

On 3 January 2017, a mobile port for iOS devices was released on the App Store.

Reception

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location received mixed to positive reviews from critics. GameRankings aggregated a score of 67.50% for the game.^[16] Destructoid rated the game 6/10,^[17] while GameCrate rated it 7.50/10.^[18] Shelby Watson of The All State gave the game a positive review, citing it to be comparable to the first game's quality, but unlike the first game, never allowing the player to operate the mechanics on muscle memory alone. She writes, "...[E]ach night is so different, it is impossible to get comfortable with the mechanics enough that it feels like second nature. The game changes so much, you are forced to adapt and are always on the edge of your seat, waiting for what is to come."^[19]

References