That's it for our look at the seven scariest Five Nights At Freddy's characters!

Hopefully we re-ignited your love for this offbeat series and got you to re-install one of the entries or hit up your favorite Let's Play clips to relieve the best jump scare.

Which FNAF animatronics do you find the most terrifying, and who are you hoping to see more of in the next game release or the eventual movie launch? Sound off in the comments below and let your fandom fly!

Plushtrap

On his own, this little cuddly rabbit thing isn't all that scary, even in his infrequent jump scare segments. Where Plushtrap really gets to shine is in the Dark Rooms level of FNAF VR: Help Wanted. 

Seeing any of the Five Nights at Freddy characters all up close and personal in VR adds another layer of fear to the game no matter where they are seen. While the stationary maintenance sections are nerve wracking exercises, its the Dark Room level that pushes your paranoia to the max.

Not knowing where Plushtrap is coming from and having to rely on sound to stay alive before he jumps out of the darkness makes this one of the most frightening animatronic sequences in FNAF history.

Nightmare Bonnie

I'll be honest here -- I never found the original Bonnie to be all that scary in any of the games, but the altered Nightmare version in FNAF 4 gets the job done.

Upgraded Bonnie is the perfect accompaniment to the change in location with the fourth main entry in the series, looking very much like some kind of nightmare creature that would scare children wandering around in the dark.

Row after row of teeth give off the impression of some kind of mechanical killer shark, and Nightmare Bonnie is scarier than normal because it get you in the middle of the room rather than just leaping out from the side doors.

Ennard

Most of the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics are scary in their implications or in the fact that they move when they absolutely shouldn't. Ennard is just flat out scary on his own, totally independent of any story points.

This hybrid monstrosity hits all the terror beats -- clown motif (already terrifying), tentacled things with no set form, and animatronic robots that want to tear you apart.

If that movie ever does get made, I look forward to seeing this awful thing undulating down a hallway towards a poor, doomed protagonist at some point.

Springtrap

While the rest of the animatronics clearly look like metal versions of adorable and cuddly animals, Springtrap goes a whole different direction. That direction is purely into nightmare fuel territory.

Springtrap looks more like a rotting corpse than a bear or chicken, and according to the lore, may actually house the decomposing remains of child killer William Afton. 

More than just looking like something only a madman could come up with, Springtrap is more menacing because he can enter any room as well as travel through the vents in FNAF 3. Coupled with the fact that he actively tries to hide from you, Springtrap is a devious and frightening villain when he appears in the series.

Bidybab

The horror of this baby robot is less in the actual animatronic design itself -- although it is disturbing to see that very human looking doll tear its own face apart - and more about the voice.

Kicking off Sister Location, the two Bidybab whispering to each other while you hide under a desk is easily one of the creepiest moments in the whole series. That scene is made all the more effective since you have to actually grab and fight to hold the door closed while they try to get inside. 

That's a change to the gameplay that hadn't happened in the series up until that point, and it really drove the dread home to see their eyes poking through the holes in the desk.

Freddy

So here's the thing -- the titular Freddy Fazbear himself isn't actually all that scary on his own. It's when you cycle away from his position for a minute and then check back that he brings the fright.

Freddy's tendency to suddenly be staring directly into the camera when you check backstage can be bloody terrifying if you don't realize its coming. In the first game, I found that sudden change to the otherwise static camera images more frightening than many of the actual jump scare deaths. 

The Nightmare version of Freddy is even more scary when he shows up despite remaining motionless in his jump scare, as all those extra sharp teeth certainly make an impression!

Foxy / Funtime Foxy

Seriously, is there a better FNAF animatronic monster than Foxy? No, no there is not.

He was always the one to look out for due to his super fast rush out of Pirate's Cove. Foxy would actually go faster through the hallways if you checked his usual areas more often.

That diabolical gameplay twist separated the wheat from the chaff in nights two and three of the original Five Nights At Freddy's, revealing who had the fortitude to make it to the end and who would end up watching Let's Plays.

The Funtime Foxy redesign in Sister Location got some good scares in as well.

Having to deal with that old timey camera flash sound effect when traveling through the pitch black Funtime Auditorium was such a classic horror movie trope that I'm not sure why it took so long to appear in the series. Funtime Foxy's face also comes apart in five different segments in a most unsettling way, upping the scare factor even further.

Chuck E. Cheese may have figured out scary robotic monsters aren't the best idea for kids, but will Five Nights At Freddy's mania ever actually die down? We had a VR entry and an AR mobile title recently, and rumblings have been heard of a bigger budget AAA title in the works

After taking my three year old to a Chuck E. Cheese a few months back, I can see why that company recently made the decision to ditch the animatronics, and how they became the inspiration for a whole horror genre.

Those things are way too creepy up close in the dim lighting of a kid's arcade. It's not hard to understand why FNAF's animatronics have made kids see the ones at their local kids pizza joint a little differently.

Freddy's marches on. Of course there was also supposed to be a movie, but franchises like this go on long, meandering paths from being optioned to actually getting filmed and released. The last word was that a script was thrown out in 2018 and there simply hasn't been much news since.

In other words, if you don't have a VR headset and don't care for mobile games, you probably can't expect a ton of new FNAF content at the moment.

That's alright though, because there are still plenty of scary animatronic creatures in the existing franchise who would like to stuff you inside a metal suit if they can get their cold claws on you. Let's take a look at the seven absolute scariest!

Looking back at the last 11 months, it's apparent that 2016 wasn't nearly as much of a banner year for horror gaming as 2014 or 2015. There was no major survival horror reboot like The Evil Within, no genre breaking and awarding winning Alien: Isolation, no (new) Resident Evil.

Although many notable games did launch in the past few months, what was probably the most high-profile release of the year wasn't even technically a horror game, but rather an FPS.

Biggest Horror Releases Of 2016

Of course, I'm talking about the long-awaited Doom reboot, which was gory as all hell and featured truly demonic enemies. But the game perhaps doesn't entirely belong in the “horror” category, since it was more of an action shooter.

     It certainly had the gore aspect in spades -- with dozens of executions!

In terms of big name games with AAA developer backing, there were only a handful other than Doom, and not all of those were even new games, like the Resident Evil 0 remaster landing on consoles and PCs back in January.

The other major release was the truncated three episode season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, which focused solely on Michonne and featured even less consequence than usual for Telltale Games.

The storytelling developer will have a chance to rectify that misstep with the impending third full season, which returns with series-staple Clementine, in December.

Whether unexpected 2D hits, asymmetrical titles letting you play the slasher or losing your sanity in a dungeon filled with tentacled horrors, smaller games hit the horror spot in 2016. Many of the highlights from horror gaming went under the radar, as indie games reigned supreme this year. 

Before we get into those worth-playing titles, though, there are a handful of overhyped and underdelivered games worth mentioning that marred 2016's release calendar.

Biggest Horror Disappointments of 2016

Thankfully, we didn't have the gut-blow of Silent Hills being canceled this year, but there were some flops to remind us of the existential pointlessness of existence.

Echoing that major catastrophe from 2015, the P.T. inspired Allison Road was canceled this past summer without explanation. The game's Facebook page has since been updated, indicating development has resumed, although it appears the game is going a different direction now, with more questions than answers as to what exactly happened.

Development hell and canceled games are just a fact of life, which is why some game companies have turned to early access to keep funding going while work progresses. Sadly, not all of these games deserve to hit feature-complete status.

Development hell and canceled games are just a fact of life, which is why some game companies have turned to early access to keep funding going while work progresses. Sadly, not all of these games deserve to hit feature-complete status.

While I'm personally a big proponent of crowd funding and early access, they don't always yield satisfying results, which is currently the case with Team Clockworks' At The Mountains Of Madness. 

This clunky mess taken from the famous Lovecraft story of the same name is garnering entirely negative reviews in its current state and is need of a major overhaul.

For me, it's just another painful reminder that we'll never get that canceled Guillermo Del Toro / Tom Cruise movie adaptation that was promised...

Run - killer penguins!

Of those games that made it through development to release, not all of them were worth the wait. The biggest flop this year had to be NightCry, which was crowd-funded under the title Project Scissors and is a spiritual successor to the woefully underappreciated Clock Tower series.

NightCry definitely evoked the feel of clunky PS1 / PS2 era survival horror games, but not particularly in a good way. It had all the frustration of those games with very little of the payoff.

However, my fingers are crossed that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (a similar crowdfunded venture from the forces behind Castlevania) manages to work out a bit better when it lands in 2018.

Who thought running from monsters in high heels was a good call?

Wrapping up our look at the flops for the year, we'll end on the decidedly mediocre Phantaruk. While this indie first person horror game tried valiantly to evoke the feeling of the Frictional titles like SOMA or Amnesia, it just didn't manage to quite stack up with the atmosphere, story or scares. There was promise there though, so I'm hoping Polyslash goes on to refine the formula with a better game in the near future

The Indie Horror Triumphs of 2016

Now that we've covered what wasn't worth playing, it's time to dive into what knocked our socks off, and there were a ton of them from lesser known developers. Too many to even list them all here, in fact! 

There's a ton of fun to be had either playing the unkillable slasher hunting down his victims or as the terrified co-eds trying desperately to survive and escape unscathed.

Dead By Daylight came to the asymmetrical slasher party early, pre-empting the dueling Friday the 13^th and Last Year, both of which have failed to materialize so far and cover the same ground gameplay-wise.

They may be facing serious uphill battles against their predecessor, which has already landed on a winning formula.

There's a ton of fun to be had either playing the unkillable slasher hunting down his victims or as the terrified co-eds trying desperately to survive and escape unscathed.

Kill your friends one by one!

Available in early access last year, both Layers Of Fear and Darkest Dungeon finally arrived in their feature-complete forms in 2016, offering two very different but equally compelling descents into madness. 

Fan feedback and sales have gone well enough that Layers Of Fear already saw the release of an expansion, putting you in the role of a family member returning to the painter's nightmare mansion, while Darkest Dungeon is betting on a vampiric DLC upgrade early next year.

For those who prefer something more fast paced and adrenaline-pumping, the early access Unloved was released in September, offering a modern re-imagining of the Doom 2 mod of the same name.  A bloody good time that's somehow even darker and more shrouded in shadow than Doom 3 was, Unloved is a game you want to pick up if you like the idea of fast paced shooters but prefer something with more horror oomph.

A few other indie titles are worth mentioning that horror fans should make a point of checking out that provide very different takes on the genre than you'd typically expect. 

Although not without a few rough edges, Iron Fish ditches the typical gore and demons to offer a deep sea psychological thriller experience, while the mind bending Asemblance will utterly break you as you chase the truth down a rabbit hole of jumbled memories.

If you prefer an atmospheric experience along the lines of genre highlights like Amnesia, Layers Of Fear, and so on, then Lethe Episode 1 should be on your shortlist, showcasing that developers other than Frictional can handle that style with aplomb.

On the stylistic front, Camp Sunshine deserves to be tried by just about everyone for its absolute love of all things pixelated and slashery, transforming the typical summer camp machete-fest into a 16 bit world of horror.

 Something tells me the camp's name is inaccurate... 

VR Horror Gaming

The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have come, and in their wake will be left a slew of first person horror games. VR is still just emerging though, with games of a very hit or miss variety. 

Here They Lie is an early Playstation VR experience that's worth trying out, while Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood took the name and not much else from last year's much-hyped slasher game, throwing you into an on-rails VR arcade experience with a clown fetish.

Virtual reality is guaranteed to get much, much bigger in the next year or two across console, PC and mobile platforms, especially with games like The Walking Dead and Paranormal Activity getting big VR launches.

For now though, most will just have to watch Markiplier and PewDiePie pretend to be scared while testing out equipment that's too spendy for the adverage gamer. For those who do manage to shell out for a new computer and an Oculus Rift, please don't get eye herpes – because that's the real horror potential of VR.

I can't help but notice this is nothing like Until Dawn...

Unexpected 2016 Horror Developments

• You might recall that last year the Five Nights At Freddy's series made our “most overyhyped” list, but this year's entry FNAF: Sister Location was an unexpected gem. It wasn't without some big flaws for sure – night 4 still has people in screaming rage fits – but its easily the best one to arrive so far and the most worth actually playing and not just watching playthroughs.
  
  
• Causing a major kink in this year's horror gaming schedule, Outlast 2 getting pushed back from a Halloween release to Q1 2017 was among the biggest disappointments, but developer Red Barrels thankfully didn't leave us hanging.
  
  
• Quitely releasing demo showing off the main direction of the story and allowing fans to play through an extremely tense corn field chase, Outlast 2 simultaneously was and wasn't the best thing to arrive on the horror landscape this year.

Calling it now - this will be the best found footage horror flick of 2017

Forecast For Horror In 2017

Next year is slated to be filled to the brim with top-tier releases both AAA and indie, assuming nothing get cancels or pushed back last minute as has been known to occur.

Giger is clearly a massive influence on many of the impending releases like Scorn and Inner Chains, and more than a few also delve into the depths of hell where horror belongs. Cosmic horror isn't getting left in the lurch either, as a proper Call Of Cthulhu follow-up is on the horizon.

A more complete look ahead and what's coming next year can be found right here.  

So while 2016 was a "weird" year in the horror gaming landscape, with much-anticipated games getting shuffled around and new-comers blowing are socks right off, let us know what your favorite horror game of 2016 was, and what you are most looking forward to arriving soon!

Five Nights a Freddy’s as series that has become quite polarizing, since the creator, Scott Cawthon doesn’t seem to know how to take a break. Since the initial release date of August 8 2014, dear old Scott has released six games under the Five Nights a Freddy's umbrella, including a spin-off RPG in a very short span of time.  

This has undoubtedly caused some backlash against it, and understandably so; he flooded the market too quickly with the merchandise, the games, the book, and now the movie. The games are nearly inescapable; they’re like My Little Pony or Undertale, no matter where you go, it’ll be there in some capacity.

What if I were to tell you that the malignant force of Five Nights a Freddy's was necessary for this new renaissance of indie horror games we are getting? A necessary evil, if you will. 

Allow me to explain: when you think of runaway indie games successes, Five Nights a Freddy's isn’t the only game that comes to mind. Amnesia the Dark Descent and Outlast are also waiting in the wings. The difference being that they haven’t had a multitude of sequels. Amnesia had Machine of Pigs, and Outlast just released the demo for its sequel after being in development for a while.

Which is a double edged sword for the genre since there wasn’t as many recognizable and notable titles for the mainstream audience to immediately identify as horror they’d play.

Not that there weren’t any good releases in the interim, there were, but not enough to gain the much needed attention to the smaller game scene.  See, horror as a genre of media is already very niche, a lot of people don’t like horror because they’re under the misconception of what horror can be rather than what it is. Horror is one of the few genres that named after an emotion and that emotion is what horror is.

Horror is a feeling, unlike any other. Silent Hill was considered a masterwork of horror, and Silent Hill 2 even more so, because it embraced that feeling and ran with it. If there’s one thing I can say about Five Nights a Freddy's, the atmosphere is oozing and dripping with that feeling.

It’s the exact reason why horror is so niche, because not everyone wants to feel the feelings that horror brings with them. Existential dread and high anxiety aren’t exactly great selling points of the general populace. We deal with enough strife in our own lives, and revisiting some possibly unwanted emotions isn’t something people like to do freely.

It’s why you’ll only see good mainstream horror games once in a blue moon in recent years. Because games make you experience these emotions much more viscerally since you’re the one playing as the character going through these things. Even with the fantastic RPG maker horror games or other indie horror games out there, there’s a strong chance you haven’t heard of them unless you’re made aware of them by a youtuber or you deliberately look for games like that.

Well, Five Night's at Freddy's has transitioned horror games back into the mainstream, because it just keeps releasing games over a short period of time. Just like those horror films that are released every year that has a bunch of idiots get murdered. It’s the slasher genre just without the late 1970’s/early 1980s backlash against sex and marijuana usage. Let’s all be thankful that Five Nights at Freddy's only message is to stay aware of your surroundings and don’t murder children, because if it wasn’t this would be a whole different kind of article

With the backlash against Five Nights at Freddy's, it’s started an almost hilarious trend in that some journalists will write about how this game they’re covering “puts other jumpscare-fests to shame”, or some people will bemoan the Repetitive jump scares on steam forums and how some journalists will tell you how horror games are “Dead” because of the FNaF games and only Outlast 2 will save us.

Wait, didn’t Outlast have a jumpscares?

There it is.

What’s funny is that games like Layers of Fear, Never Mind, Soma and even my number 3 on my best games of 2015 you've never heard of list, Stasis, owe a lot to Five Nights at Freddy's. Why? Because they market themselves as not being Five Nights at Freddy's.

With horror still being in the public consciousness, people are actively looking for alternatives to Five Nights at Freddy's which means indie horror titles are getting more of a chance to shine now than they ever have, for the sheer reason that they aren’t Five Nights at Freddy's.

Think of how you talk to your friends about horror games. Do you talk about jumpscares now a lot more than you used to? Well there’s a reason for that, it’s because of Five Nights at Freddy's. It has invaded the popular consciousnesses and now has created this stigma against itself that benefits every game in the genre. Since it’s not Five Nights at Freddy's then that means it’s probably good, so I’ll give it a try. It’s also helped pave the way for newer concepts that you wouldn’t have normally seen outside of an RPG maker horror games, like the game Spooky’s House of Jumpscares.

Somehow, Five Nights at Freddy's managed to become gaming’s equivalent of Friday the 13^th, a horror game with a million sequels and yet no real end in sight. We think there will be an ending and then surprise, there’s another game lurking on the horizon.

Even if you’re sick to death of Five Nights at Freddy's, allow me to give you a thought. Five Nights at Freddy's is like McDonalds; there are a whole lot of them, they’re cheap and easy to make and they may not always be the best, but there’s always something you’ll probably like about it, even if it’s just one single thing. Do you want to know what the best thing about that is? You start to appreciate other restaurants a lot more after eating there, and decide to diversify your meals a little with different indie horror games.

Besides, everyone knows that eating nothing but fast food isn’t healthy and isn’t the pinnacle of cuisine, just like Five Nights at Freddy's isn’t the pinnacle of indie horror. It’s just a necessary evil for us consumers to appreciate something else for once.

Circus Baby by zkimdrowned

Circus Baby is a new character in the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. As the title character for Sister Location, Circus Baby is modeled after a clown. Cute by day, horrendous by night, she follows the toy vs nightmare versions of the other FNAF games. Kim Drowned has done an amazing job capturing the cute, yet still creepy feel, of toy Circus Baby.

Which FNAF cosplay did you enjoy the most? I personally love all of them, even if they do give me the creeps. What other FNAF costumes have you seen that are more terrifying than these? Let me know in the comments!

Toy Bonnie by datlara

All the toys and animatronics in FNAF started out cute and cuddly, attracting children from all over to eat at the restaurant. Datlara has done a superb job capturing the cute look while still looking like a toy. Blue hair, cleanly applied makeup, and sparkly ears just bring this cosplay to the next level.

Purple Guy & Puppet

Photographer OMarcel Photography
Purple Guy by Shiki-ty Cosplay
Puppet by Jun-Lilith-Cosplay

This photo is so cute it almost outweighs the creep factor it gives off. Purple Guy, the assumed killer, snuggles up with Puppet while holding a very busted up Springtrap head. The head is amazing in its detail. The two cosplays are spot on, with Puppet holding a present. Such a wonderful duo. 

Nightmare Foxy by Hazy Cosplayer

Foxy started off as a cute pirate-themed fox attraction. What he ends up as is Nightmare Foxy -- a decaying, creepy animatronic ready to eat his next meal. Hazy Cosplayer has crafted many FNAF cosplays, but her Nightmare Foxy will truly give you night terrors.

FNAF Crew

Photography by The Will Box
Balloon Boy by Cannibalxxashi
Springtrap by Inuki Cosplay
Freddy Fazbear by Bibimbap Cosplay
Security Officer Cosplayer Unknown
Puppet by After Market Cosplay

Why not start things off this this amazing group photo taken by The Will Box? Featuring some of the main characters of the FNAF series, such as Freddy and Springtrap, this group nails all the looks. From the security officer wearing purple, to Cannibalxxashi using makeup to make herself appear wooden, the time and effort put in here is plain to see. This is a group I would not want to run into in any alley -- nevermind a dark one.

Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) is a popular indie series revolving around jump scares. Various characters at a restaurant featuring animatronics come alive at night. It is speculated that a serial killer has stuffed children's bodies into them -- and it's the angry souls that come for the players. 

As terrifying as the games are, the cosplay they've spawned is pretty awesome. The following cosplayers not only nail the scare factor for their costumes, but also the cute and creepy that comes with it. Scroll through to see some of the best FNAF cosplayers have to offer.

A new Five Nights At Freddy's means more jump scares and rare death scenes to explore! Sister Location isn't lacking, with all the dolls now having tear-open faces that reveal some very unpleasant things beneath.

This entry is more creepy from beginning to end, but it doesn't skimp on the sudden jump scare death screens either. Below, we've round up all the best Sister Location screens. It goes without saying that this list contains massive spoilers, so if you don't want some story elements ruined, stop reading here.

Bidybab

The creepy factor is ratcheted up as you meet Bidybab's probing eye while he tries to get into your makeshift hiding spot under the desk. Bidybab is actually the least scary doll with a fairly normal skeleton, but his unexpected appearance will have you jumping out of your seat the first time anyway.

 Bidybab

Ballora

A killer ballerina who isn't a fan of friendly electric shocks, Ballora makes you crawl at slow motion speed to avoid her. One question, though: why does she have razor sharp teeth?

 Ballora

Funtime Freddy

Appearing in a very tense scene where you have to restart the building's power, Freddy constantly shifts positions across a dark room, sometimes looming close and sometimes hanging back. His shifting positions are honestly more scary than when he jumps out and kills you.

Funtime Freddy

Funtime Foxy

Good old fast-moving Foxy is always there to provide a quick leaping FNAF death!

     Fun Time Foxy

Bonnie

Catching Bonnie out of the corner of your eye while exploring a room with your flashlight is one of the game's outright scariest moments.

 Bonnie

Minireena

Oh man, the frustration of this night 4 spring lock puzzle is insane! Don't forget that if you get stuck and can't stand seeing this screen yet again, there is an easy cheat to skip the level.

    Minireena

Ennard Death Sequence

A new doll, Ennard, is all of the pupets mashed together into a clown-like form that's eager to escape the building with the help of an unsuspecting employee.

   Ennard

Ennard... Friendship?

If you get the secret ending, Ennard sits down to watch a vampire soap opera with you, indicating you've worked out some kind of deal to help all the animatronics escape into the world. That's pretty unsettling, even if it isn't a jump scare.

 Making A New Friend

What did you think of our list, and what was your favorite Sister Location scare?

With the recent release of Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location on October 7th, the internet has been abuzz with the latest of Scott Cawthon's animatronic masterpieces. However, a lot of people seem to be upset that the game is too short.

Granted, the game does not take long to beat, however there exists a specific reason for the structure of FNAF:SL. The radical change of pace and the way the player interacts with the animatronic animals has been carefully and skillfully crafted. Why? Because it isn't actually a game.

Sister Location isn't just a game, it's a playable trailer. 

Now, hear me out. I know this sounds absolutely nuts, but Sister Location is more than a point-and-click horror game: it is a trailer for the Five Nights At Freddy's upcoming movie in 2018. This can be seen on the first night; it starts out exactly like its predecessors: the player starts off in some location while a disembodied voice shakily explains the details of the night-shift to some unsuspecting schmuck. 

However, that is where Sister Location diverges from the rest of the FNAF family. Unlike the titles that came before, Sister Location centers itself on a plot driven story rather than bombarding the player with jumpscares, draining batteries, and clogged vents. In this iteration, your hand is held through almost every part of the game: from starting your first night to tiptoeing past a motion triggered animatronic fox, you are instructed step-by-step how to overcome each night's challenges.

Of course, that doesn't make playing it any easier, but what this storytelling does is ground the player in a narrative they have otherwise been missing out on with the previous four games.

The True Nature of Sister Location

Sister Location is too short to be a FNAF game, almost too short. With games 1-4, players were forced sit through six (in-game) hours until their shift was over. They kept people on their toes, forcing them to think on the fly in order to avoid being crammed into an animatronic bear suit by the homicidal children's robots running towards the office from halfway across the building. 

Nevertheless, Sister Location was played per audio instruction from either the resident AI or Circus Baby; there was never a moment when anyone playing could not figure out how to progress to the next shift , as someone would always come in say what exactly what needed to be said. The plot followed a new night watchman's five day work week at yet another animatronic establishment. However, it was this characters job to manage them and ensure they were in their proper places with 'encouraging' electrical shocks. Being an unspoken third party we could tell that what the player was doing could be cruel, albeit we were also willing participants in the torturing of androids. 

Without spoiling the story too much, you (as the 'janitor') have to take care of the animatronics every night after their big shows, parties, and celebrations. This is a far cry from being hunted down every night, but it doesn't mean that the threat of death isn't looming around the corner. 

Unlike the game that started this genre, P.T., Sister Location is not just a playable trailer, its trailer for the upcoming Five Nights At Freddy's movie, which is slated for sometime in June 2018. The elements that make it feel less like a game and more like an advertisement are the mechanics that govern every single one of the player's choices. Simply put, the game is plot driven. From the beginning we are given a story, a reason for why things might be the way they are, the player is given a purpose to stay put and see it out until the end. 

But, it isn't until the end of the game until the player realizes that Sister Location is incredibly short, much more so than any other game in the series. It's almost like the content is a Disneyland ride, and we more or less were a part of an attraction than an actual game.

I could be wrong, Scott Cawthon could release 10 more Five Nights At Freddy's games in the next two years. But it would make more sense to release something more theatrical before putting your work aside to aid a movie studio in the production of a movie inspired by your video game. 

We know what Scott is capable of, and by judging Sister Location's content and length of gameplay, it make sense that he is holding something back. There is such a vast difference between the point-and-click survival horror that the series began as and what Sister Location has brought to the table.

Something else is at play, and while its soon to tell whether or not a new game is in the works, everything that Sister Location is points to something a lot bigger brewing behind the scenes. 

Conclusion

The release of Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location a few days ago has blown up YouTube, and its short pace and plot driven story has players scratching their heads. With people complaining that the game might be too short, a closer look has to be taken in terms of how Sister Location is structured and what sort of story it tells. In reality, it is most likely a playable trailer for the upcoming movie in June 2018.

That's the list! I hope it was just as fun and full of sunshine and joy for you as it was for me! If you feel that there was a game that should have been on this list but wasn't, or you'd like to commend us on a particular game we DID pick, feel free to comment below and let us know! If you end up playing any of these games and enjoying them, feel free to let us know about that too! It's always fun getting creeped out together.

Stay safe out there this Halloween!

Killer7

(Gamecube, PS2)

Picking just one screenshot to properly describe Killer7 is absolutely impossible. Even using just words to describe how abnormal this game is really isn't enough to do it justice -- but I'm sure as hell gonna try.

Killer7 is a game that seeks to break convention in nearly every manner possible. It changes up controls, camera perspective, and GUI standards to the fullest extent that it can without becoming incomprehensible. It is a truly unique video game, but what's more unique than its gameplay, is its serious and disturbing plot/subject matter. 

Killer7 is a game that truly earns the M Rating on the cover of its box. It is loaded with themes of murder, sexual assault, rape, religious cults, the killing of children, organ harvesting, and terrorism...among many others. All of these themes are used with purpose in the story, rather than just for shock value, and they help to string together a plot revolving around international political intrigue and supernatural terrorism.

With all of the disturbing things present in this game, you might be surprised to learn that Killer7 is not a horror game. It's just a game that seeks to tell a serious and gripping story -- while also being very weird, as it is a game that also has anime parodies and lucha libre wrestlers as serious plot points.

It compounds its disturbing subject matter and the bizarre world in which takes place with a bright color palette, ludicrous enemy designs, and sometimes comedic dialogue -- creating a game that lives to intrigue as well as confuse. Despite all of these seemingly random elements mixed together, Killer7 comes out as a truly trippy and disturbing experience that's perfect for horror enthusiasts and story buffs alike, and it must be seen to be believed.     

If you honestly want ANY sort of idea what kind of game Killer7 really is, then you NEED to watch the trailer down below. Maybe it will help. Maybe...

Undertale (Genocide Run)

(PC, Mac)

You're gonna have a bad time.

Undertale is one of the most fascinating examples of video game narrative released in years. Because depending on which of two ways you play it, Undertale can either be one of the funniest, most good-natured, and kindest games about humanity and sympathy ever crafted -- or it can be a paralyzingly grim tale of mistrust, hatred, and the relentless slaughtering of innocent people.

If you've played Undertale before, you more likely than not played the Pacifist Route first, which is the way that the game was intended to be played. If this is the case, and by some additional miracle you've managed to avoid the game's overexposure on the internet, and then went to play the Genocide Run without knowing anything about it -- you are in for the shock of your life.

It takes the typical gaming standard of mindlessly ending the lives of enemy monsters and makes you feel like you really are the bad guy after all. All of the people who could have just easily been your friends, become obstacles in your path that you must crush to dust.

(Also, a brief but very important DISCLAIMER: DO NOT PLAY THE GENOCIDE ROUTE FIRST IF YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYED THE GAME BEFORE. Just trust me. The game will be ruined for you after this. Because the game will remember what you've done -- and it will not forgive you.) 

Considering that pretty much everything about Undertale is best experienced without spoilers, and I'm already kind of doing that by talking about it at all, I'll just show you the game's trailer. That way you can decide for yourself whether or not this game looks like it has some of the most disturbing murder scenes ever put in a game hiding inside it.

Sonic Dreams Collection

(PC) 

The Sonic the Hedgehog series is famous these days, in part, for the bizarrely wide reach of its fanbase, and what some of these fans have created. Sonic Dreams Collection is a fan-made effort from the same creators as Bubsy 3D 2 . It plays like an interactive art-film that analogizes what both the Sonic fanbase and the Sonic series itself have become. 

The game masquerades itself as a collection of incomplete Sonic game projects that were meant to be released on the Sega Dreamcast back in the 90's. And from a somewhat exaggerated, but still silly and colorful start, Sonic Dreams Collection quickly becomes a living hell fresh out of the dark side of Deviantart.  

All horror is subjective of course, but let it be made clear that if you find overt sexual themes uncomfortable, or don't like to talk about any sort of sexual fetish to any degree, then stay far away from this game. Sonic Dreams Collection is more disturbing and creepy than it is outright scary, but if you find existentialism and overt sexuality scary, then click to the next slide right now. 

Regardless of whether or not you end up finding this game funny rather than disturbing, Sonic Dreams Collection is a wildly bizarre game regardless. Enter at your own risk.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

(DS, iOS)

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a visual novel mystery/puzzle adventure game, and the first entry in the Zero Escape series.

In the game you play as Junpei, one of nine random people who are mostly complete strangers to one another. You and the others wake up to find themselves trapped on an abandoned cruise ship, only to then be informed by a mysterious figure that they have 9 hours to escape the boat together before they are all killed. You travel through the ship and its wide assortment of bleak, lonely, and sometimes unnerving locations in a first-person perspective, while talking to 2D characters with excellent sprite work, solving puzzles, and exploring 3D-rendered environments in a style somewhat similar to Myst. 

The strongest points of 999 are its excellent atmosphere and writing. Every empty room that resembles a normal room, yet stripped of functionality or any view of the outside world, cements the feeling that you are trapped in hostile location against your will. This is all backed up by the excellent soundtrack and sound design, as the often-eerie and droning music is accompanied by the heavy creaking of the ship to create an oppressive tension in the air, making you feel as though you are trapped in the belly of a massive, unfeeling beast.

The writing, again, is phenomenal. Every character is distinct and memorable, and each of them carries various different motivations for their actions -- both obvious and hidden. As you make your way towards the unknown and unseen exit, you must work together with the other people in order to succeed. Yet at the same time, you have no reason to trust them, and some of them give you perfectly legitimate reasons to distrust them entirely. Death and plot twists are around every corner, and events take an unexpected turn early on, which ramps the tension up high right off the bat.

It must be clarified that despite all of the game's positive qualities, 999 is designed in a way that expects the player to play through the game several times in different ways in order to eventually discover the true ending. There are multiple bad endings, and dying about halfway through and starting all the way over is a very real possibility. Combine that with the large amounts of text you are expected to read, seeing as this is a visual novel, and you can see that this game isn't for everyone.  

But if it looks interesting to you at all, and you're looking for well-written, dark, and truly gripping story, I'd highly recommend you look further into 999.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

(PC, Mac, Linux)

Let's start this list off really heavy, why don't we? Based on the novel of the same name by Ellison Harlan, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a game where you cannot win. You can only lose heroically, or in a manner that doesn't involve eternal torment, because this game is horrifically, gut-wrenchingly depressing.  

It's a 2D point-and-click adventure game revolving around five different people, all of whom are the last surviving humans on Earth. They are being tormented by a colossal supercomputer called AM, who creates a different world for each to explore that best torments them and exploits their greatest character flaws. As these worlds are slowly exposed to you, along with the flaws of the characters, you are forced to come to grips with the fact that you are trapped in an illusion while being forced to relieve the most traumatic experiences of these peoples lives -- and escape is nearly impossible 

It's a story-driven experience with an extremely dark and twisted plot, loaded with very serious and disturbing subject matter that runs the gamut from rape to the Holocaust. And it is not a game where the "happy" ending is easy to find. Even in the best case scenario where you can escape from AM, what you're escaping to is the ruins of civilization -- and while that's much less horrible than the torture you endured, it's still a miserable existence devoid of purpose. Fun!

If you want to feel terrible this Halloween, while also feeling grateful that you aren't being tortured for all eternity, then give I Have No Mouth, and I must Scream a look.

DISCLAIMER: This article is NSFW!

Horror games have seen a resurgence in popularity in the last few years. Both indie and AAA developers alike (although mostly indies) have begun to realize that there is a large and continuously growing audience for horror media. And as such, many developers have taken to making more and more games that cater to their demand to be scared out of their wits.

But today, we aren't going to be talking about the typical horror games you always hear about. Today we're going to give honorable mention to horror games that break the mold formed by most other popular horror experiences, such as Five Nights at Freddy's and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Instead, we're going to focus on the games that gave us horror in a new or unconventional way. 

So for those of you who are tired of the tried-and-tested formula of darkened corridors, jump-scares, and decrepit abandoned buildings, these are a few games that can spook you a different way -- and perhaps even disturb or disgust you. It should be said that not all of these games are actually horror games by design, but that doesn't mean they can't be made for Halloween, and that they can't still be scary.

Alright...let's get spooky in here.

Sister Location is finally here, and it offers up some much more varied gameplay than in previous iterations of the FNAF series (read our full review here). There are still some incredibly difficult puzzles though, with a few that seem to be based more on dumb luck than actual skill. If you can't beat a particular segment, there is a Sister Location cheat available to help you complete the game.

For those stuck on that nearly impossible Night 4 puzzle who haven't gotten lucky enough to beat it yet, you'll probably want to employ this cheat before sinking another couple of fruitless and frustrating hours into that one single segment.

Basically what you are going to do is create your own custom “mod” by slightly tweaking some info in one of the game files. To get the right file in Windows 10, type the phrase %appdata% into your Cortana search menu on the Start bar and then scroll down and open the folder labeled MMF Applications.

For older operating systems, you can find the folder by navigating to this path:

C:\Users\(Your Profile Name)\AppData\Roaming\MMF Applications.

 The MMF Applications Folder

What you are looking in this folder is a file with no extension simply name sl. Open it in Notepad so you can modify its contents (if you don't already have your settings changed to open these sorts of files with Notepad, you'll need to right-click it and select “Open With” first).

Now just set the “current” tag to whatever night you want to start with, such as current=5 if you are trying to skip night 4 and get straight to night 5. Save the file before loading up Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location and you'll start at whatever night you specified when choosing the Continue option.

 Modifying the sl contents in Notepad

Alternatively, you can add in a different line of code if you want see the Extras in the main menu without having to actually complete the game.

Go back to the sl file and add in the phrase beat1=1 right underneath the “current” line. This finishes everything and gives you the extra content to view without the frustration of actually completing each puzzle.

Can't beat night 4? Why not start right off at night 5?

After the ill-fated Five Nights At Freddy's World was yanked off Steam and became a free download through the developer's website, it was unclear what exactly the future would hold for this series people love to hate. 

The only real certainty was that - despite whatever any given statement from developer Scott Cawthon might say - another entry would arrive at some point, it just wasn't clear what it would look like.

Well, Sister Location is now here, and it arrived with all the typical FNAF release shenanigans in full swing as Cawthon worked the game journalism industry. From the cancelled hoax to a delayed-but-not-delayed release, its clear he knows how to keep everyone on their toes and rile folks up online.

 He's watching... and laughing

Fear And Trepidation

You will note that Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location most assuredly did NOT make our list of most-anticipated horror games of the year. Although it's amusing to watch those reaction videos, the fun of the game series itself really burns out very quickly when directly playing.

FNAF is a series with potential that unfortunately isn't just a one-hit wonder: it's really a one-note wonder. There's only one thing at all that matters here, and that's the sudden jump scare. But after you've experienced it seven or eight dozen times and the boredom sets in, the series very quickly loses its appeal.

Whether you breeze through all the nights or get stuck repeatedly dying just before a night ends and give up due to frustration, there's a very limited timetable on how much fun you're going to have with any of these games.

Or at least, that's how it was, until now.

Some much-needed changes have occurred here that were long, long overdue. Even just a few minutes into Sister Location, its clear there was significantly more effort and care put it into this entry than the gimmicky previous games.

Also, there's a vampire soap opera

Changing The FNAF Formula

There's some hilarious comedy right off the bat with a keypad that won't let you properly type and some fabulous lines involving changing voices and personalities.

While the bulk of any given night has that tense sensation of, "Oh god, when am I going to get suddenly killed by an animatronic bear?", each level is continuously peppered with dark humor.

In a suprisingly self-aware move, there's even commentary on the franchise itself and people's reaction to it, when the mysterious female narrator muses:

“I wonder what would make a person willingly come here to spend night after night in a place like this? Is it... curiosity... or just ignorance?”

Never thought I'd buy a FNAF game for the humor or voice acting

Most importantly, the actual gameplay has been tweaked so its not the exact same experience constantly. While there are elements you will find familiar, the bulk of this game is not spent sitting in a control room checking monitors and closing doors.

Crawling through vents, hiding under a desk, tightening screws to hold back enemies trying to get at you: there's a much bigger variety of gameplay elements on display, even if it is all still very simplistic. But don't worry, there's still terrible dolls who will leap out of the darkness to tear you to pieces when you mess up.

There's more to the horror aspect than just the jump scares as well, with the female narrator in particular offering some very chilling and unsettling revelations over the course of each night.

Sigh... I messed up again, didn't I? Time to restart the night.

Ups And Downs

While there have been commendable changes, there are also some returning frustrations that need to be addressed. First up, this game massively needs a save system of SOME kind beyond just starting a specific night.

There were several segments I didn't want to have to replay, and I also don't want to start the entire day over every time I exit the game. The breaker room and ballerina death crawl specifically come to mind, as I don't enjoy having to repeatedly go through a frustrating slow motion segment just to get back to the next puzzle.

There's also some very unbalanced difficulty. You will play that utterly evil night 4 marionette sequence probably several dozen times – even if you know ahead of time what you are supposed to be doing. I haven't been this frustrated with a single game sequence since the hotel flight section from Call Of Cthuhlu: Dark Corners Of The Earth.

10 minutes from now we'll reach that door. Hope I don't die inside.

The Bottom Line

In terms of actual gameplay and polish, this is easily the best FNAF game, and if you rolled your eyes at the repetitive nature of the previous entries, then this one may actually be worth trying out.

Honestly I'm hoping this signals a shift in the development cycle of the series so Five Nights At Freddy's can become more legitimate and less of an amusing gimmick.

If you're reading this Scott: thanks for the best FNAF so far, but now take some time off, spend a year or even two developing a whole new concept based around this mythology with some more advanced gameplay. Maybe spend some of that fat dough on a small team of programmers to help out? Then come back in 2018 or so and really wow us with the next one.

     Who am I kidding? We'll be at FNAF 12 or 13 by next year.

Easily the most difficult section to be found in Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location, the spring lock section of Night 4 filled with tiny dolls is the sort of puzzle that may have you throwing things and uninstalling the game.

After being stuffed inside one of the animatronic characters, you'll hear loud clanging and the female voice ranting about “something being wrong on the inside" before she removes the face plate.

This is where it gets tough: you need to keep the marionettes and minireenas from killing you by tightening the spring lock bolts on the right and left sides. When they go red, the locks are about to break and you need to tighten them immediately.

 You will lose track of the number of times this happens

Ideally you don't want any of them red, but if five or more are red at the same time you get the death screen. The locks are fully tightened when the white dot is all the way at the top-center point.

While tightening the locks, tap “A” and “D” to wiggle back and forth, which knocks the marionettes off you, but also loosens the locks more. This makes for a tense back and forth where you have to decide when to wiggle and when to tighten based on how far an enemy has gotten up the sides.

 You have to work very fast to tighten the locks

In the best case scenario, you should wait until they are all tightened before shaking, but be sure to keep looking on the left and the right repeatedly while you work – if you aren't paying attention, one of the crawling enemies will get to the top while you are tightening on the other side.

The game doesn't make this clear at all, but you can actually ignore the enemies coming up the center. You just have to shake loose the ones crawling up on the left and right sides.

 Ignore the middle one and shake off the "X" marionette on the left

The side marionettes crawl at a slow pace, so make sure all your spring locks are tightened before you start shaking. It will take a few tries, but when you get down the groove of tightening on one side, shifting to the other, and shaking just before the kill screen, you will eventually pass this insanely hard FNAF Sister Location night 4 puzzle!

Still can't beat it even if you know the mechanics? You aren't alone - there seems to be an element of luck here. If you want, you can always just cheat and skip the level.

Congratulations, you survived under the Circus Baby Auditorium desk and made it across the Ballora Gallery death crawl, now its time to get the power back on to end the second night's shift in Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location.

The breaker room puzzle finally takes us back into regular FNAF territory, tasking you with turning on electricity and gauging when its time to quickly exit before getting attacked by killer puppets.

To get started, just move the mouse down to the bottom of the screen to enter the actual breaker segment. Click and hold any of the room's “Restart” buttons and watch the number rapidly rise towards 100% to restore power, but keep a careful eye on the “Danger LV” chart.

If it starts to go towards three bars and you hear a voice, immediately let go and exit the screen, then tap Space to have the mascot give a soothing response to Freddy.

 Restarting the breakers 

Before starting the next restart sequence, make sure Freddy is far away from you in the flickering lights and not up close.

It's hard to see at first, but just wait for the flickers to illuminate the background to tell if he's sitting down in the background or standing up and taking up most of the screen.

Be sure to check both the left and right side of the screen, as Freddy moves around the room. 

See the outline in the background? That means he's far away.

Although you can technically do the rooms in any order, I've had way more luck surviving to the end by restarting them all in sequential order from top to bottom. Keep up the same pattern of holding a button until it hits 100%, then quickly exit and tap Space to scare off Freddy with the recording.

It will take some time as you wait for the danger level to drop in between each breaker, but eventually you'll get them all. Now just walk back across the Ballora Gallery death crawl (fun, right?) and you've finished Sister Location's Night 2!

 But don't forget to come back to work tomorrow morning!

After a very brief delay in its release, the latest installment in the Five Night at Freddy's series, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location was finally released for PC on Steam today.  

Sister Location is the fifth installment in the Five Night at Freddy's series of stress-management horror games; a series whose prolific nature and seemingly endless popularity have kept it going strong for over two years since its debut in 2014. Sister Location appears to be an installment focusing on the original restaurant that would become Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, as fans have speculated for some time, but as is the case with the in-depth and mysterious lore of the previous games in the series, only time will tell.  

Based on what little gameplay footage of the game has been released so far, Sister Location appears familiar, while also being a slight departure from the formulaic design of the past games in the series, which some fans believed had long since gotten stale. If you were once interested in Five Nights at Freddy's, but grew tired of the formula, Sister Location might just be a good place to jump back in.

You can buy the game now on Steam, and if you'd like to know a bit more about it beforehand, you can watch the game's trailer below:

As usual, the latest Five Nights At Freddy's dropped without warning on a day no one expected, so let's dive right into how to survive these diabolical new scenarios.

This time around you'll actually be moving around different areas instead of staying in one room. Following the Circus Baby Auditorium desk survival scenario, your next task to is to reset the power in the breaker room, which means a slow motion death crawl through Ballora Gallery.

It turns out the animatronic inhabitant isn't a very friendly ballerina... but I guess constant electric shocks to make her dance on command will do that to a girl.

I'm not going to sugar coat it: this scene is an exercise in player patience-testing, complete with no mid-area saves so you get to start all over again when you mess up. Hooray!

Good lord that door is so far away...

First up, don't use the run command here, it will draw attention and end up with a jump scare death scene much quicker. The idea is to move forward slowly until you hear the ballerina's music and then stop.

The problem is that the music is INCREDIBLY soft, and you'll have to turn the sound all the way to maximum, which is probably on purpose so you jump through the roof when getting attacked (hope you aren't wearing headphones if you want to keep your sense of hearing). With any luck, there's a volume patch coming soon.

If you move slow enough and stop when the music is at its height, you'll actually see the ballerina dance across the screen from right to left. Wait until she's gone and the music dies down to resume your slow motion crawl.

Sweet Jesus we're almost there...

As soon as you even get a hint of sound, stop immediately and keep crawling forward as slowly as you can. If you move when the sound occurs, then you'll be met with this fun death screen:

 Exposed Face Animatronic Death Scene #2

Keep at it slow and steady and you'll finally reach the breaker room. Don't feel like you can let down your guard there. Unfortunately, the next segment with the electricity rebooting screen doesn't have an autosave point – so if you screw up there, you have to go back and do this slow motion segment AGAIN. Prepare for some majorly repetitive frustration, FNAF fans.

After all the silly fun (OK, it's actually pretty hilarious – you win this time Mr. Cawthon) of FNAF: Sister Location's opening segment, the real gameplay begins as you hide from a killer animatronic doll underneath a desk.

The problem is there's no clear way to survive, as there's essentially nothing to interact with in your makeshift crawl space. Unlike the previous games, there's no buttons to press in this starting segment and no cameras to watch.

Changing up the formula a bit (which, frankly, was very much needed in the series at this point), the under desk segment showcases some new mechanics in the rapidly expanding FNAF series. The first thing you need to do is click and drag the protective metal sheet cover all the way to the right.

 Dragging the sheet cover

Notice how there's a bunch of holes all across the sheet? That's your cue for finding the killer doll hellbent on doing terrible things to you! Basically what you are doing here is playing whack-a-mole.

Rather than checking different security feeds, you need to constantly move your flashlight across all the holes to catch the eyeball as it appears randomly.

 Zap 'em in the eye with your light!

Keep your flashlight trained on his eye to make the killer doll move away from your hiding spot. Keep doing this as quickly as you can, until eventually you hear a sawing sound - that means he's dismantling your cover and about to pull the sheet back to the left.

Quickly swing your vision to the right, and as soon as the cursor turns to a hand, click and hold to fight the bear. Keep the hand held down to slow down the sheet moving and eventually he'll give up, letting you drag it to the right again.

Now play eyeball whack-a-mole until he decides to pull open the metal covering again. It's much harder this time though, as the bear gets more insistent. With the hand clicked down, slowly move to the left to keep hold of the covering. If you try to drag to the right, the hand will slip off and you'll get...

 Welcome to jump scare death #1

That's it - you've now survived the first segment and not had to repeat it a dozen times while trying to figure out just what the heck the game wants from you. Stay tuned for more coverage on all the game's puzzles!

Scott Cawthon is having a good time rusing the Five Nights at Freddy's fanbase yet again, and some younger fans who aren't on the up and up on older teasers and leaks for previous games may take the joke at face value. 

The ruse in question lies in yet another change to the official Scott Cawthon website, which has changed yet again to confuse and entice followers of the Freddy's series. This time around a large image on the site says:

CANCELLED
Due to leaks.

There have been a few leaks, sure. But surely not any that would lead to the demise of what looks like the most promising game in the series.. right?

Right you are! As usual Scott is having some fun. If you copy and paste the image into a semi-competent image editor you can adjust the brightness to see a hidden message among the black background.

[I used open source software Paint.NET to adjust the image below. For future reference (if you want to do this yourself with one click using the program), you can click on Auto-Level in the Adjustments menu of Paint.NET to instantly see what's hidden.]

Even when brightened like this it's hard to read, especially behind the big visible words. Here's a transcription of the hidden text:

"In other news: The grand opening of Circus Baby's Pizza World has apparently been cancelled due to reported gas leaks in the building. Sources close to the establishment question the report, saying that the strange activity around the area at night suggest something else is to blame.

One local is quoted as saying, "Everything just stopped. There was so much excitement built around this place opening and then they just stopped talking about it. There was only a handful of people that ever got a look at the inside, kids from here and there, making sure everything worked right, you know. I guess they weren't quite as ready and they thought they were!"

A tenant from across the street claims to have witnessed a large group of cars surrounding the building during the night, and large pieces of equipment being taken out of the building under tarps. A few weeks later the building was for sale.

There is no comment yet from the local entrepreneur who financed the venture."

This may seem like the end of the teaser, but looking at the website's source code, you can check out a meta data tag that reads:

"If anything, it was just too soon for such an ambitious venture. There is still a bright future for Circus Baby, so be watching for her to appear at a neighborhood party near you!"

Once again Scott Cawthon is going out of his way to both panic and excite the fans of his flagship horror series, and he's doing a great job. 

The hidden text seems to indicate the restaurant the animatronics featured in the upcoming game were meant to be entertainment for Circus Baby's Pizza World, which will not be opening due to "gas leaks" (which are likely something else entirely).

The hidden meta data text seems to be the words of the entrepreneur rather than the journalist writing about the restaurant's closing, and the hint that Circus Baby could be in your neighborhood is a little unsettling to say the least.

As usual there are a number of ways to interpret this teaser and it's possible it may be a lead to a dead end, as a few Freddy's teasers, hints, and even some lore pieces have been along the way. Nonetheless it's a fun adventure as we edge ever-closer to the October release of Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location.

WELCOME TO THE PARTY | Those Nights at Rachel's - Markiplier 

(Starts at 13:00)

What better way to send off this list than one of YouTube's most recognized gaming channel's wetting themselves over a video game? Markiplier is certainly no stranger when it comes to scary video games, but his hilariously pure terror would indicate he'll never get used to them. Thanks to his confusion in trying to understand how to play the game, it only makes his reaction all the more unexpected and satisfying. 

Do you think you'll begin playing this fan made favorite? Do you have a favorite YouTube gamer that's been playing this title? Be sure to let us know what other great "Five Nights at Freddy's" clones are out there worth exploring! 

Those Nights At Rachel's - WTF MARIONETTE! (Demo) - EntoanThePack

(Starts at 13:30)

 Sure, it may almost be 6 AM in the game, but that just increases the likelihood you're about to die. All it takes is that little glimmer of hope to let the player's guard down, and surely lead to their doom. 

Those Nights At Rachels | SCARY AS HELL!! (fnaf spinoff) - Raedwulfgamer

(Starts at 7:00)

Don't let his majestic "Magnum" look fool you, Raedwulfgamer is just as prone to frights as the rest of us. And the best part is you get to see his reaction in slow mo. What more could you possibly want?

Those Nights at Rachel's ( DEMO ) | Oculus Rift DK2 REACTION - POiiSED

(Starts at 6:30)

You know what's creepy? Horror games designed to give us heart attacks. You know what's even more terrifying than that? Experiencing that sheer terror in a first person perspective. 

TERRIFYING!!! | Those Nights at Rachel's #2 - Dawko

(Starts at 0:45)

Hide under that blanket all you want Mr. Dawko, but it won't serve much protection from all that goes bump in the night! You probably shouldn't have been so focused on the narration either, because the story won't mean much if you're eaten within the first minute of playing!

THIS IS WHAT HELL LOOKS LIKE || Those Nights At Rachel's (HARD Mode Night 5) - 8 Bit Ryan

(Starts at 8:31)

For someone that keeps saying "I know somewhere's there" a lot, 8 Bit Ryan sure wasn't prepared for the game's jump scares. I guess Ash Ketchum's "turned back hat" bravery doesn't translate well when playing horror games. 

Foxy & The Puppet VICIOUS JUMPSCARE | Those Nights at Rachel's ( DEMO ) - POiiSED

(Starts at 12:05)

You know a game is good when it leaves you at the edge of your seat...and then you promptly fall of out said seat from being absolutely terrified. YouTube channel POiiSED probably got more than he bargained for with Those Nights at Rachel's, but his pain means more fun for you as the viewer! 

Those Nights At Rachel's - Yamamish

(Starts at 12:10)

Note to self: whenever you think you're okay in a horror game, you're almost always NOT okay. No matter how many times Yamimash may keep repeating that line to himself, he still couldn't prepare himself for the jump scare that lay ahead. And if you think you're different with your "nerves of steel," just trying playing the game yourself with the lights turned off. 

OK: THIS IS THE BEST FNAF FAN-GAME | Those Nights At Rachel's - Coryxkenshin

(Starts at 9:05)

Thanks to plenty of build up and a tense atmosphere, most gamers probably aren't going to see Those Nights at Rachel's frights coming. Even experienced Five Nights at Freddy's gamer Coryxkenshin got scared to the point of rage quitting. So really, nobody is safe from the terror that is this latest survival horror game. 

It looks as though the massive fandom surrounding the style of Five Nights at Freddy's games won't be vanishing anytime soon. And why should they? For such a simple idea that came out of nowhere, taking Chuck E Cheese-eqsue characters and making them the stuff of your nightmares, it's had quite an impact on the gaming community. Four horror titles and an open world RPG later, it looks like fans have decided to make some unofficial games of their own following suit, which is the case with Those Nights at Rachel's. 

Created as a fan tribute to the popular Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, Those Nights at Rachel's has been receiving a bit of its own following thanks to its high quality and genuine frights. So what better way to showcase what this game has to offer than by listing some of the best frights this little gem should send down your spine?

The announcement of the next Five Nights at Freddy's game brought an equal amount of exasperated groans and elated squealing from the community since we really thought it would be over. Developer Scott Cawthon said Freddy's 4 would be the last, World was a nice spin-off, and all that was really left was the upcoming movie.

Cawthon's plan for the series has obviously changed, for better or for worse. But if the first trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's Sister Location is anything to go by, it looks like it will be for the better. The bot designs are more intricate than ever and their animations as seen in the trailer are smooth as butter--and let's not even get into the dread the trailer's audio does such a great job of instilling.

The first 28 seconds of the trailer shows some footage from the previous games but at 29 seconds in it gets real: we're given a view of Funtime Foxy's face, but it's.. different. Instead of the simple, single faceplate we've seen in World it's face is segmented. And those segments move.

This is just the first slice of the trailer's terror pie and it does a good job of showing us this upcoming Sister Location game is going to go the distance to scare us to death.

So what else is to be noted in the trailer? Surely you've seen it considering the Freddy's community's current freak out status over the trailer release, but have you thought about how everything ties together?

The community is abuzz with speculations over what's teased in the trailer. There isn't a ton to go off of just yet based off the small amount of footage shown in the trailer, but there is enough to get theorycrafting!

The elevator

This time around, it looks like we'll be stuck in some sort of cylindrical elevator or container. This is shown in the trailer (complete with the ever-present fan overhead) and backed up by the text bit "deep below ground" shown at 33 seconds.

In addition, if you pay close attention to the clips that slow the elevator you can see lights outside of it that don't appear to move while the container itself is shaking, perhaps due to the massive overhead fan.

This shows the room you're in is not connected with its surroundings, and is most likely an elevator. It's also very likely the red button on the right side of the door will be a gameplay component (opening and closing the door?).

The other footage seen in the trailer slows a control console and colored, flashing lights. There are a couple things to note here:

• Based on the spherical shape being the exact same as the shot showing the rest of the elevator, we can probably safely assume both footage segments are of the same room.
• There is a Balloon Boy-esque figure hanging inside to the left and an unknown toy figure sitting on the right side of the console.
• Lighting is probably going to be a very real problem.

The big question is where this is located. It's hard to imagine something like this being in the basement of a Fazbear restaurant location, but at the same time it would fit with the title and as mentioned the animatronics do look futuristic.

The above said, it's likely the elevator itself is used to transport the animatronics from their underground storage to the ground floor because they're so heavy.

Movement?

Sister Location will probably have some sort of player movement, based on the footage of moving through a vent at 24 seconds. Some fans are hopefully for free movement, but based on the view of the elevator thing the game is being developed in Macromedia Fusion as with the other games, making free movement not very likely.

Movement will probably be limited but similar to the way it worked in Freddy's 4. In any case it's hard to imagine movement to be a bad thing.

The animatronics are more futuristic

The animatronics in previous Freddy's games were certainly more high tech than the timeframes they were speculated to be set during, but Sister Location looks to be taking that even further.

If you check out the segment at 1 minute showing Funtime Freddy, Foxy, Baby, and Ballora (scroll below for name info) you can get a good idea of what I'm talking about. Let's look at Funtime Foxy for example.

Not only do their faces now split into multiple segments (for reasons unknown) but they now have speakers on their chests to presumably "talk" to guests at that location as well as more stylized post-modern designs that are far removed from the designs seen in previous Freddy's games.

That said, it's hard to imagine a practical use for their faces coming apart in multiple segments considering they seem to be so loose.

If the above wasn't proof enough, we're not in 2016 anymore with Sister Location, a quick look inside Baby's head should do it for you.

Her internal components are far more complex than animatronics' internals in previous games. It's likely the others are similarly so, and with the speakers on their chests you can bet your spooked butt the animatronics are going to have a thing or two to say. And let's not even get into the fact they seem to be able to move their facial components individually.

Animatronic names not mentioned in the trailer

How is the community figuring out their names so quickly, you ask? Scott Cawthon recently grabbed copyrights for a handful of names, presumably for characters in Five Nights at Freddy's Sister Location. These names were:

• Baby
• Ballora
• Bidybab
• Ennard
• Foxy the Pirate (Funtime Version)
• Freddy Fazbear (Funtime Version)
• Minireena

It's easy to draw connections on Baby, Ballora, and the obvious Foxy and Freddy. But what's up with Bidybab, Ennard, and Minireena? It's possible two of those names have to do with the two toys near your console in the trailer footage.

As for Minireena, we can take a guess that she is a smaller ballerina toy we've yet to see. It would make sense considering the tiny bit we've seen of Ballora so far is unsettling as it is.

Children's voices

The full details surrounding the missing children incident are still partially unknown but it's likely Sister Location will wrap up that final piece of the Freddy's mystery pie just as 4 did for the bite of '87. Why else would there be children's voices in the trailer?

"Don't hold it against us, you don't know what we've been through," has obvious lore implications considering the missing children incident and the continued bot rampages (I mean, it is another game). It's going to be interesting to see whether these new bots talk and what they say--there's no way they will stay silent with those speakers on their chests.

The community is going crazy trying to piece bits of the trailer together and I am too. With any luck Sister Location will finally tie up the loose ends to the missing children incident, but one thing is for certain: this is going to be the highest quality Five Nights at Freddy's game yet. The animations are more detailed and smooth than ever, and with voice acting and music the series is sure to be taken to a new level of quality!