I think the major reason the series got as popular as it did was the cost of the game, the fact that everyone else was, and the way the story gave you just enough to keep you guessing but never enough to fully figure it out. Each new iteration basically sold itself on the idea that if you buy this game you'll get another piece of the puzzle and the game will make sense.
As for the horror, the only real scare of the game is the jump scare, and seeing as how you know the jump scare is coming it fails as a jump scare. I mean I'm glad he managed to make something out of the series but I'll just wait another 2 weeks to play SOMA, a real horror game.
I think FNAF 3 was where it really jumped the shark in terms of story, about how you had to enter a combination on this patch of wall set up to get a certain ending that unlocked more of the canon. I mean it's one thing to leave you game open to interpretation, and I don't mind alternative endings, I mean hell, Silent Hill 2 has one where a fucking dog orchestrated the entire thing, but I don't think the FNAF games are really psychological. They have a set series of events and it's just a matter of piecing them into the correct order, yet Scott Cawthron has recently stated that nobody has figured out the story yet entirely.
|