Scott Cawthon

“You’ve officially become part of the attraction. You’ll be starring as… a security guard!” The mysterious guy on the phone says cheerily.

Great, I can’t help but think. Not only is this a dumb business idea, my character was stupid enough to want to be hired there.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 is the third installment of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, developed by Scott Cawthon. The game is set in the future, where a budding entrepreneur thought it’d be a great idea to open up a theme park based off of the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza murders.

While you’re once again the security guard who has to survive five days, the series does have new game mechanics. Unlike previous games where there are multiple animatronics out for your blood, the FN@F3 focuses on only one animatronic, Springtrap.

You can lure Springtrap away by simulating a creepy child’s voice, as well as being able to close vents off so that he can’t get into the room you’re hiding out in.

However, this brings up the most intriguing new game mechanic – hallucinations. You are prone to hallucinate if the vents are closed (you lose oxygen fast somehow) which can give you auditory and visual hallucinations.

This is the real meat of the scares from the game: you can see phantom animatronics in various places, terrible screeching sounds, faces popping up, and things walking by behind your camera screen.

I think the worst for me was when I caught sight of something staring from the corner of the great bay window that you’re forced to face. When I looked at it a horrible sound like nails in a grinder pierced through my speakers, loud enough I just about shut my laptop off in fright.

You are at a constant risk for hallucinations, as the vents are tied to an ancient computer with a slow OS. The computer is tied to the camera feed and the audio feed (the one that you can use to sound like a kid to lure the animatronic away).

Unfortunately, the feeds go down and you have to do a system reboot, often forcing you to choose which of the three is the most important when you’re in a pinch. You can reboot all three at once, but you’re often too pressed for time to do so.

This keeps the game incredibly fast-paced, putting you on your toes and often making split-decisions. The game is not nearly as difficult as the second game due to the cut down of animatronics, allowing you the same pulse-racing gameplay as the first without the painful micromanaging of the second.

The story also delves deeper into what happened to the children who were murdered by the mysterious purple guy through unique Atari-style gameplay between each night. It manages to keep you questioning what’s really happened all those years ago, without becoming boring or frustrating.

The dialogue of the phone guy is also pretty fun, adding to the dark atmosphere of the game. My favorite line was, “please try to maneuver away from populated areas before bleeding out, so as to not ruin the customer experience.”

While I do not recommend this game to anyone with severe anxiety or afraid of jump scares, this was the most enjoyable FN@F game for me. If you liked the first (or somehow the second) I would definitely give it a try and not worry about the fact the game was pumped out in a matter of months.

It’s available on steam and android mobile with steam reviews giving it a “mostly positive” review score.