[h2]Unnecessarily Complicated Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location Review[/h2]
[b]TL;DR:[/b] This one is quite different from the first 4. It is fun to play for the first time because each night has a unique gameplay. However, replaying the game is not fun at all because it is all scripted, there is no variation whatsoever. Paradoxically, the most fun mode is the custom night. Overall Score: 78/100 - Comfortably Recommend.
[h3]Unnecessarily Long Version with 5 Categories.[/h3]
[b]Cost per Hour:[/b] $8 for ~13 hours of gameplay ($0.62/h). This playtime includes completing the main 5 nights twice, completing all custom night challenges and [spoiler]Golden Freddy[/spoiler] mode twice. That is more than all other games (primarily because of the custom night challenges). Category Score: 9/10
[b]Gameplay:[/b] This game doesn’t have a “standard” gameplay loop like the previous ones but there are some things that will repeat every night. Checking the lights and climbing the vents. Since this game is narrative-focused, it is interesting to hear the dialogues during the first playthrough but, with no option to skip it, you’ll have to listen to it every single time, if you ever want to replay this game. Night 1 is a tutorial and night 2 involves probably my second favorite section in the game ([spoiler]Ballora + Freddy. Both are predictable but fun to play[/spoiler]). Night 3 has an interesting repair concept that will be better executed in Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted. Night 4 is a nightmare. I had to script it out on my phone by seconds to beat it. Night 5 is simultaneously the worst and the best. [spoiler]Ennard section is one of the best executions of a classical FNaF experience in the series. You HAVE to use the cameras but sound is as important[/spoiler]. While the main game is not [i]that[/i] great, the custom night is the best in the series. Very well balanced, basically no RNG involved, pure skill. Category Score: 7/10
[b]Visuals:[/b] While quality wise there are no issues, if you didn’t notice the fish-eye effect in the previous games, you [i]will[/i] notice it here, especially during the night 5 repair. It doesn’t ruin the game by any means but this was the first game where I realized that this was how this game works. A lot of different locations, a lot of moving parts, and jumpscare animations are great. Category Score: 8/10
[b]Sound design:[/b] The sound design is more about terror than horror, if that makes sense. Can’t say that it is bad, I think that it builds up the horror during the game. Music, though, is very fitting and tense. Category Score: 7/10
[b]Technical performance / Compatibility:[/b] It’s bad… Someone decided that a custom cursor is an amazing idea that absolutely won’t break quite literally everything. Capturing this game can also be a challenge but you should have no problems if you are using OBS. Linux performance differs from person to person. I used Proton-GE 10-28 and found zero issues. Some players, though, report sound issues, fps issues, input lag issues, etc. Once again, as usual, ProtonDB is your best friend for Linux gaming. Category Score: 8/10
This gives a total of 39/50 (78%). This game is a miss for me, honestly. While I like the novelty of gameplay and the old format was getting stale 4 games in, the execution is just not great. BUT, it is not absolutely horrible either.
