Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach
is the long awaited, first free-roam entry in the popular Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise,
or FNaF for short. Fans eagerly waited for its release ever since
its announcement in 2019 and teaser trailer in 2020, and rightfully so. Each and every game in the point-and-click
survival horror FNaF series experiments on what the fans love about the franchise in
brand new ways. They’re more than just scary, atmospheric
games. They’re well-designed and fascinating power
management puzzles across typically 5-7 nights. The more you play the immersive FNaF games,
the less scary they become because the later challenging nights expect repeated plays and
dedication to complete, but in return you learn and master the game’s systems that
ultimately culminate in a final test of skill. Even then, FNaF games present extra nights
past the fifth as optional challenges, so players know to expect a diluted horror experience
in the extra nights in exchange for skill and mastery. In addition, FNaF games typically introduce
new twists and elements in later nights to keep them fresh and to partly renew the horror
aspects. In contrast to previous entries in the series,
Security Breach offers a less immersive and less challenging experience, abandoning key
gameplay elements that made the past entries tense and atmospheric horror games. Security Breach never demands mastery or skill,
instead requiring only patience. From the overabundant, constant patrolling
threats to the frustrating player deaths due to the poorly designed save system and AI,
the player is repeatedly forced to endure an exercise in frustration. The AI is underdeveloped and an insubstantial
threat in the brightly lit open areas. The game relies on other gameplay systems
to bandage the animatronics’ lack of relevance and competence in the game. The bandages only amount to additional broken
and mismanaged systems, primarily the patrolling security bots and the teleporting animatronics. The broken and cheating AI, coupled with areas
stuffed full of threats that are a chore to surpass, diminish whatever horror value the
game might have had, and the whole experience devolves into a glorified running simulator
and a tedious hide-and-wait gameplay loop. The most prominent fear in the game is the
fear of losing progress. Security Breach holds an antagonistic expectation
for the player to repeat completed content as much as possible because of the poorly
designed save system. Players experience frustration and diminished
horror and immersion from repeatedly playing through the now predictable gameplay and already
shallow narrative moments. Security Breach desensitizes the player to
threats and horror — between the extremely shallow story and character development, the
animatronics teleporting next to you, and the decline of player vulnerability. Halfway through the game, Security Breach
introduces the Fazer Blaster and Faz Camera. They negate threats as another bandage to
compensate for the teleporting animatronics and the number of threats overpacked into
the game. In the process, the blaster and camera trivialize
the game, promote complacency toward the threats, and eliminate player vulnerability. This is detrimental for Security Breach because
player vulnerability is an essential factor in horror games and Security Breach mostly
neglects it. Overall, Security Breach is filled with fundamental
design flaws and mismanaged systems that culminate in a frustrating experience and a desentization
bombardment. Security Breach not only fails as a Five Nights
at Freddy’s game, but fails as a horror game. Hi, this is Shawn Kays with Design Frame,
a channel dedicated to video game case studies. And today, we’re dissecting Security Breach’s
design. Security Breach was developed not by FNaF
original creator Scott Cawthon but instead by Steel Wool Studios. Steel Wool is the studio behind the love letter
FNaF: Help Wanted — a compilation of every FNaF game redesigned and developed for Virtual
Reality. The studio’s love for the franchise carried
over to Security Breach, shown through an impressive attention to detail. Unfortunately, the clear love the studio holds
for FNaF served them better as curators instead of creators. Whether they invested too much time in creating
assets and detailed environments or if it was due to a lack of experience, Steel Wool
was unable to uphold FNAF's legacy. Everything from gameplay systems to atmospheric
immersion suffered due to flawed design, cut content, and bugs. Most of Security Breach’s problems stem
from design flaws, but I can’t ignore the game’s bugs and glitches. It’s one of the most buggy and broken games
I’ve ever seen. The game contains so many bugs that you can
find compilations and self-help lists of them online, all containing mostly different bugs
from one another, such as, “sometimes missions do not complete properly.” This and many of the game’s other bugs require
reloading saves or restarting the game from the beginning. The overwhelming number of bugs and the unfinished
state of the game is really quite an impressive feat. To help demonstrate the state of the game,
I’ll briefly summarize a portion of one of the compilations. In the beginning of the game, for your first
mission, you’re supposed to unlock Freddy’s door for him. For some reason it’s entirely possible for
him to not spawn at all, forcing the player to restart the game. The animatronics frequently break, and they will clip through doors. It’s possible to reinitiate certain already
completed segments, and the game doesn’t compensate so it soft locks. The game’s central open HUB area lends itself
to several game breaking bugs and soft-locks like this that can ruin a playthrough. This security bot either spawned in out of
nowhere or spotted Gregory outside of its range. [Ryan] Okay. Get that. That’s two out of three. Now we just got— whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa Why’d he spawn in like that? You see the way he popped in? [Shawn] They’ll cause the animatronics to
teleport right next to you to compensate for the basic AI. Speaking of elevators, it’s possible to
die to an invisible threat within them. The AI completely loses track of you when
you stand on any elevation, but can somehow do this. Or Roxy will clip through the wall entirely. [Jack] She’s barely even moving. Did she go through the wall? She went through the wall. [Shawn] And finally…. Not all of these bugs are game breaking, but
way too many are. The rest severely break the game’s immersion. And this is only scratching the surface. Now to mention a couple more bugs that I guarantee
will blow your mind. When you slide the Voice Volume down to 0,
cutscenes and events that involve dialogue completely break or are skipped over. [AstralSpiff] Freddy no longer chats with
himself in the mirror at the start, no longer tells you his plan to escape, explains what
the security console does, or anything, with the exception of movie-type cutscenes, which
are kinda just awkward stare-downs. But that’s not all. Any sequence that involves chat prior to an
event happening breaks. For example, after the Medbay, you’d normally
get upstairs and Freddy’s battery would die so he’d eject you. But with voice volume muted, the game jumps
ahead and his battery dies almost immediately after you get inside of him. So for the whole walk you just have “low
battery” flashing on your screen with no effect. [Shawn] I’m honestly just impressed that
Security Breach even managed to tie the Voice Volume to anything except the volume of voices. If you ever jump then enter Freddy, which
is incredibly easy to accidentally do, the entire game unloads. No walls, no enemies, nothing. You can walk to pretty much any part of the
game from this state. Security Breach is so broken that there exists
a speedrun on the Backseat Streams channel where he beats the game backwards, completing
each boss-like encounter in reverse order. As shocking and horrible as some of the bugs
and glitches are, Security Breach isn’t only unfinished. Most of the game’s problems stem from fundamental
design flaws that can’t be fixed by simple bug patches. Regardless, it’s important to understand
the state of the game on release to keep them accountable because the damage has already
been done for thousands of players who’ve suffered through common immersion and game
-breaking bugs. [Jack] Umm… excuse me…? [Shawn] Steel Wool Studios attempted but failed
to reimagine the three key gameplay systems of FNaF’s legacy or utilize them to their
fullest potential: the time limit, power management, and camera surveillance. In past FNaF games, you survive from midnight
to 6 A.M. for five nights. Each night, your chance of survival depends
on the current time relative to the remaining power level. Every action requires power, including closing
doors to keep yourself safe from threats and surveying cameras through your Camera Monitor. You must constantly gather as much information
as possible from your surroundings and the cameras to minimize both risk and power usage. While gathering information, you have to constantly
keep an eye on the clock to balance power usage around time remaining. This creates suspense because you don't know
precisely how much time you have left. Since the clock rounds down and doesn't show
minutes, there’s motivation in knowing vaguely when you’ll complete the challenge but tension
in not knowing when you'll reach the end. The time and power management combined work
in tandem: they promote mechanical and skill mastery through power efficiency and a tightly
designed challenge; they create suspenseful moments, especially during close calls when
it's almost 6 but you run out of power and are left to wait for the end in darkness;
and they generally indicate how well you’re surviving at any given point so you can infer
in what areas you could be more efficient in. Security Breach maintains the same midnight
to 6 A.M. goal, but contrary to the franchise’s name,
only for a single night. The clock still serves as general motivation
to reach the end but only insofar as a simple progress bar showing how far you are in the
game as a whole. At best, the clock occasionally pops up in
the corner as window dressing for what amounts to a percent completion statistic often found
on save files. It’s inoffensive but could amount to so
much more. Security Breach adapts to the new open-world
approach by restructuring FNaF’s key time limit system from a per-night basis to a per-hour
one. After specific story events, the clock closes
in on the next hour, during which the Pizzaplex briefly falls to darkness, requiring you to
climb into Freddy and find a recharge station to stay safe from Moondrop. The new hourly transitions are scripted sequences
that strive to recreate the 6 A.M. time tension from the previous games. Both the moments of darkness and Moondrop
are fantastic ideas to create suspense. Moondrop is a lurking threat in the hourly
suspenseful darkness that breaks the safety net of Freddy and preys on our vulnerability. We can’t ignore him by hopping in Freddy
like we can with every other threat in the game. However, the hourly darkness and Moondrop
implementations leave much to be desired. Two main factors produce horror: the unknown
and the inevitable. The hourly sequences rely too much on the
inevitable, so the player starts to expect them over time and the horror of the unknown
and unpredictable begins to wane. The open world allows a more unpredictable,
irregular, engaging approach that’s completely absent from the game. The darkness should come about sporadically
so it’s an infrequent and unpredictable yet looming threat that players would be hard-pressed
to always be prepared for. It would encourage players to always know
where they are and learn and mentally map areas and where recharge stations are. Moondrop’s implementation breaks immersion
by constantly spawning right next to you. He stands still for a moment, then crawls
at you for a couple seconds before POOF. In a surprisingly common theme throughout
the game, he despawns outright. [Jack] I’m pressing E. *Muffled, annoyed laughter* [Shawn] If he crawls into you however, game
over. Deaths caused by Moondrop feel silly and contrived
because realistically Freddy could easily crush Moondrop’s shrimpy little body in. [Mark] *Startled* Oo! Whoa! What? Uhh… Do I… Wha.. What do… WHOA WHOA! Wha.. what… what… But no but I… *Annoyed and frustrated* This was even before
the ocular upgrade! Why would you do that to me?! I have to put the eyes back in again! [Shawn] Security Breach’s biggest source
of power management comes from Freddy. As long as he has power, you can climb in
him to avoid all threats in the game (except Moondrop). Freddy’s power lasts long enough and recharge
stations are frequent enough for him to be both dull and abusable when threats are a
concern. He’s a free ticket to escape whenever a
threat spots you and otherwise a convenient ride across a section densely populated with
obnoxious security bots. And even if you don’t use Freddy, and because
the clock doesn’t apply pressure, you can hide from animatronics for an indefinite amount
of time until they walk away and are no longer a threat. Camera surveillance returns in Security Breach
with cameras in each area that you can access at any time. Despite the cameras being a crucial gameplay
element in previous entries, players almost never use them in Security Breach except in
very specific instances. There are two primary reasons for this. Firstly, accessing the cameras takes the player
out of the game. Every time you access the cameras, your positioning
in the open 3D environment has drastically changed; therefore each time you pull the
cameras up you must reorient yourself as to which cameras are both available and relevant
and where you are in the environment. Reorienting yourself never becomes easier
because you’re always moving into new areas and sets of cameras. The constant player reorientation results
in a camera system that drags out gameplay and doesn’t encourage pursuing the already
low-ceiling mastery in camera usage. Secondly, the information the cameras provide
mostly pales in comparison to directly perceiving your surroundings as Gregory. There are very few instances where you can
gain exclusive information through a camera that you couldn’t gain in-person and then
act on that information. There are generally two exceptions. [AstralSpiff] If you ever get sick of hearing
Chica’s same five voice lines over and over and decide to lower your Voice Volume all
the way down. [Shawn] The first is for a specific security
office designed around mandatory camera use. Although, of course, it’s not only possible
for the cameras to bug out and not be available but you can run out of power and still succeed
when you shouldn’t… or crouch in a corner and disconnect your
controller for the entire duration and still succeed. [Backseat Streams] Let’s just try to stay
out of eyeline. He can’t see me. My controller has literally just disconnected
and I’m still beating this section. [Shawn] The second exception is when you view
your surroundings with a camera while an animatronic is nearby and you’re hiding in a photo booth
that blocks your vision. However, even if you’re careful, hiding
can be all for naught once you hop out because animatronics can spot you in the open from
what appears to be an infinite distance if they’re facing you, and even if you’re hiding, sometimes they
just don’t leave you alone. [Jack] Come on! I’m in there!!! Are you just stuck? *Sigh*
If I exit, am I dead? That’s so stupid. [Shawn] Despite the studio’s failure to
reimagine FNaF’s core features for Security Breach, they still opened new storytelling
opportunities by condensing the events into a single night instead of five. Unfortunately it misses this opportunity. Security Breach doesn’t develop its story,
characters, or mysteries, and, even worse, abused Scott Cawthon’s careful consideration
for the franchise’s story in favor of a shallow mind control plot and degraded fan
service for a dead and buried villain. Security Breach begins with the security guard
Vanessa scouring the Pizzaplex for you, a child named Gregory. The main threats of the game — the animatronics
Chica, Monty, and Roxy — are all acting strangely and helping Vanessa catch Gregory. Gregory’s only ticket out of here is Freddy
who’s conveniently unaffected by whatever mind control took over the others. The game very deliberately establishes mysteries:
why is Gregory here, how did he get here, why is Vanessa looking for him, and what's
causing the other animatronics to not act normally? Security Breach not only never follows up
on these questions until the very end of the game in one of the endings, but it hardly
develops any of the characters at all. [Roxy] Why are you hiding from me? [Mark] Honestly I have no idea. [Shawn] Perhaps the biggest offender is Vanessa/Vanny. Security Breach tells a simple story of a
lost child that the security guard Vanessa is trying to return to his parents. From the start, Gregory is suspicious of Vanessa,
and as a story element, this should be engaging to the player. However, the mystery is artificial; it has
no foundation. The player isn't given any information on
why Gregory distrusts Vanessa. There's no logical reason for it, and later
on, we even learn that Vanessa's concern for Gregory was genuine at the time because her
future antagonism was caused by mind control. So why should I care that Gregory is hiding
from her? Why should I not think Gregory just holds
some childish and misplaced fear? Because Vanessa is actually Vanny — a silly
villain in a skin-tight bunny costume. Not only does the introduction of Vanny come
much too late in the game, but we as the player are given no reason why Gregory is in danger
around Vanessa. Until the game finally revealed why or how
Gregory was potentially in danger in the first place, we had no reason to feel empathy toward
Gregory or motivation to escape Vanessa or to engage in an artificial mystery. By the time we can justify why we’re in
danger, much of the game’s immersion has already been compromised. Even a simple comment from Gregory to Freddy
like, “Don’t listen to her, she's not trying to take me to my parents because they're
dead” or “she literally kidnapped me” would’ve established some amount of credibility
for Gregory and an engaging new mystery and motivation. We then fear what Vanessa’s motives truly
are and feel more immersed in the story and mystery. If Gregory provided justification or motivation
that wasn’t “trust me, I’m a little child,” it wouldn’t feel so weird that
Freddy goes along with Gregory’s outlandish claim. Freddy determines Gregory wasn’t a guest
at the facility, which is certainly strange and a cause for concern, but he then forsakes
obvious programming logic for child safety by bypassing the security staff. Freddy then pursues other means of escorting
the child to an exit, which certainly conveys a means to an end, but establishes Freddy
as strangely sentient and influenceable by a child’s alleged claim. Overall from the beginning, Gregory’s interaction
with Vanessa and Freddy fails to immerse us in the engaging mystery and characters it’s
trying to establish. Unfortunately, Vanessa doesn’t ever get
the chance to redeem herself because she rarely appears in the game. Even once her Vanny persona comes out as what
I’m guessing is supposed to be but didn’t come across as the main villain until the
end of the game, Vanny is almost entirely absent. By the end we realize she’s just a puppet
and red herring for the secret villain reveal. Because of Vanny’s lack of character presence
for most of the game, her entire identity unironically and shallowly exemplifies a red
herring solely by her appearance as a red-eyed hare. Security Breach fails to cultivate a satisfying
character mystery for Vanny and her true identity. Much of the mystery dissolves due to Vanny’s
extensive absence from the game. What’s left of the mystery is underwhelming. When Vanessa locks Gregory in Lost and Found,
the TV monitors change from Vanessa to a newly introduced bunny called Vanny, during which
Vanessa doesn’t react, nor does she try to help us. While Vanessa’s sudden absence could have
contributed to the mystery in a better story and leave the player pondering Vanny’s potential
connection to Vanessa, the mystery of who Vanny is soon becomes too obvious. We notice that the new bunny’s name is Vanny
— a blatantly shortened version of Vanessa that sounds like a nickname. Freddy then slaps us by saying explicitly
that Vanny’s name is a combination of Vanessa and bunny. The blatant lack of subtlety is outright comical. Even for how little the mystery of Vanny’s
identity actually contributes to the game, Security Breach distrusts the player’s intelligence
and motivation to solve it. The lack of subtlety also results in the absence
of Fear of the Unknown as to who or what Vanny is, and consequently reduces the horror factor
drastically. Vanny is Vanessa in a silly, skin-tight bunny
costume with red glowing eyes. It’s not even the uncanny and creepy that
we’ve come to expect from the franchise and the reason Scott Cawthon developed FNaF
1 in the first place. Wearable animatronic suits exist in the FNaF
universe so I’m unsure why Steel Wool didn’t try experimenting with that instead. Because Vanessa/Vanny are inconsequential,
all that remains of the plot is the mystery of the animatronics suddenly becoming hostile. Unfortunately the mystery falls back on ol’
reliable William Afton — the resurrected main antagonist of the franchise who has so
defiantly resisted certain death. He’s back from the grave with newfound remote
hacking abilities and took control of all of the animatronics, security robots, and
Vanessa/Vanny, except Freddy who conveniently malfunctioned. First of all, the game never actually explains
why Freddy wasn’t affected by the mind control. I presume it’s because he was put in Safe
Mode after his malfunction, but this falls flat. Once he comes out of Safe Mode, why is he
not then affected by the mind control? It feels like another contrivance. Afton can take control of Freddy in the final
boss sequence, so what prevented him from controlling Freddy before now? And why didn’t Security Breach use William’s
mind control as an opportunity to turn Freddy against us mid- or late-game after we install
a bunch of deadly upgrades in him? It's never explained. Secondly, mind control in media more often
than not falls into a cheap, lazy gimmick or an excuse to not develop characters. Mind control removes all agency, motive, and
usually personality from characters, personality that’s surprisingly present in Security
Breach’s Chica, Roxy, and Monty but is quickly swept under the rug by their lack of agency,
motives, and character development from the mind control. Mind control in Security Breach isn’t nearly
as interesting as what the previous games established. Throughout the series, children’s souls
inhabited the animatronics. They embodied an animalistic nature and had
varying levels of awareness or consciousness. In some cases, their agency was limited, yet
they still had motives for their actions which were driven by their past events. These motives kept their souls bound to their
animatronic bodies. While for the most part the animatronics’
motives weren’t deep or complex, it worked because the FNaF games were simple and streamlined. The simplicity of it allowed FNaF creator
Scott to play with and explore those motives. For example, in the very first FNaF game,
another security guard calls your office phone every night to provide context and a legitimate
reason to be scared if the animatronics see you. Every night Phone Guy throws out theories,
assures you that everything is okay, and even tries to interpret the animatronics' motives. While often helpful, his information can also
serve as red herrings for the gameplay. These details are enough to drive FNaF 1’s
mysterious and strange circumstances, and they serve as somewhat of a tutorial, explaining
gameplay mechanics through clever writing and a witty personality. For as simple as FNaF 1 is, it still gave
reasons behind the animatronics roaming and killing you and the rest was competently left
as part of the Fear of the Unknown. It never felt underdeveloped or arbitrary
and it served multiple purposes. FNaF 5: Sister Location took a different approach
to motivation. Instead of remaining simple and relying on
the Fear of the Unknown for most of the heavy lifting, it developed an actual fleshed-out
story with characters and personality whilst remaining faithful to the series but in a
brand new and unique way. Both were effective approaches. Security Breach took on a bigger scope and
starts with a very story-focused beginning, similar to the approach FNaF: Sister Location took. Yet, Vanessa’s motives fluctuate. Her actions don't always align with her motives
nor with the framework set up by the plot. This is a huge problem because if motives
and actions aren't congruent, the narrative seems random. If the narrative seems random, one, I'm pulled
out of immersion, and two, consequences and danger seem up to the contrary whim of the
writer, something you don't want in a horror game where fear is the result of consequences. Take for example, Vanessa's attempt to apprehend
Gregory. If Vanessa caught me, her character motivations
from the beginning suggest she would take me to security and keep me safe there. She tries to do just that when she captures
Gregory and locks him in Lost and Found under the pretense that she's keeping him there
until his parents or the police show up. She comes across as genuine because of what
she says and how she talks, and she maintains this narrative even after she captures him
when she had no reason to keep up appearances. Additionally, why wouldn’t she kill him
instead of capture him if she had malicious intent? However, the game desperately wants you to
believe that she has ill intent from the very beginning. The plot revolves around Gregory’s oddly
correct but baseless assumption that Vanessa is “out to get” him. She alerts the hostile animatronics to search
for Gregory, insinuating that they're working together. The game also tries to frame Vanessa as hostile
when she triggers fail states because the plot insinuates, no matter how poorly, that
she’s searching for you out of hostility. Except despite these hostile actions, she
exhibits good intentions the one time she arbitrarily captures you in a scripted fail
state. This sort of duplicity in intentions might
be interesting if it wasn't blatant and confusing because, despite Vanessa’s good intentions
as the Head Security Guard, she’s spontaneously hostile or conveyed as hostile throughout
the game as if she can’t decide whether or not to do her job. Her motives contradict her actions: if she
wants to help me, then why try to kill me? If she wants to kill me, then why try to help? Her contradictory motives are ultimately a
consequence of poor storytelling and character development, and, when all else fails, it
falls back on the William Afton mind-control plot. The game employs mind control when it suits
it, and ignores it when it doesn’t. Vanessa is sometimes hostile and sometimes
not. She’s sometimes Vanny but other times Vanessa. Chica, Roxy, and Monty are all susceptible
to mind control but Freddy is impervious to it, except at the very end when he isn’t. The story and characters almost never develop
and they lack sufficient motivation but what development is there is contrived and convenient. Which begs the question, what else is there? Whatever mysteries exist for the animatronics
devolves into “something weird is going on with them” then those mysteries are forgotten
about entirely until the end of the game. There’s no legitimately interesting or engaging
mystery or circumstances that contribute to the desperately needed atmosphere Security
Breach lacks and which the other FNaF games generally offer. The animatronics become mindless husks not
because of any eerie or frightening lore or character implications but because they needed
a reason to become threats in the game. What we discover for both the story and animatronics
in the end all point to one antagonist (William Afton) and an underdeveloped, shallow mind
control plot that pops out of left field — and despite him being the only antagonist in the
game with relatively free will and motives, we only learn his motives through one of the
game's endings and through previous entries in the series. He’s a surprise guest that shows up out
of nowhere and is an excuse for the game to never develop any other antagonist. He exists as a fan service callback and nothing
more because, true to original creator Scott Cawthon’s intentions, Afton should be dead. You can only say an antagonist “died but
actually survived” so many times before it becomes silly. In FNaF 3’s mini-game sequences, we discover
William Afton died in the Spring Bonnie animatronic suit from spring lock failures sometime between
the events of FNaF 1 and 3, but his soul remained and his name became Springtrap. Then at the end of FNaF 3, we burn down the
building where he resides, yet he ends up surviving. At the end of FNaF 6: Pizzeria Simulator,
he burns alive again along with every still living plot-relevant human and animatronic
character, with no way out. In Security Breach, almost like a parody,
underneath the Pizzaplex lies the old remains of Pizzeria Simulator where Springtrap emerges
as… Burntrap. (Laughs) Burntrap… Additionally, everything else that burned
in Pizzeria Simulator resides there as a reanimated molten amalgamation. Some genius built the Pizzaplex on top of
the torched Pizzeria Simulator location that’s still somehow intact. Honestly I’d justify it as part of a Big
Bad’s goofy plan if Security Breach offered anything but reused story beats and characters
half-hazardly tossed in. FNaF 6: Pizzeria Simulator very explicitly
concluded the main FNaF storyline. [Henry] I am remaining as well. I am nearby. This place will not be remembered. And the memory of everything that started
this can finally begin to fade away, as the agony of every tragedy should. And to you monsters trapped in the corridors:
be still, and give up your spirits. They don’t belong to you. [Shawn] The game’s entire goal was to tie
loose ends and gather every single plot-relevant character together entrapped in an enclosed
space so we could burn it all to the ground and finally release their souls. No matter how I look at it, nothing justifies
Security Breach resurrecting William Afton (and strangely enough the reanimated molten
pile of everything else that burned in that fire). [GTLive] ... can like branch away from the story
that kinda felt like it closed at FNaF 6 to me, I thought that was a good closing point for that story. Yeah, I'm 100% on board with that. I don't know if people picked up on this in our theories,
but Tom and I made sure that we ended each of them with, "And that's the end of Cassidy's story, so that spirit is off the table!" And "oh, well isn't this a nice ending for the three Afton children. Whelp, that's probably the end we'll hear of them!" *Wink wink, nudge nudge*
Hope you're paying attention, Steel Wool. I think that is what we've been trying to convey to everyone
who touches this game series at this point. I don't think I'm alone in saying that a lot
of the fanbase is like, "Cool, we know these guys, we're familiar with
all these personalities... "We want more in this franchise." [MatPat] Remember what we told Steel Wool
when Security Breach released, “Hey! Why is Burntrap here? … Why…? Please get rid of him.” Basically everyone was like “Not him again!” Why? Please get rid of him. Security Breach had the chance to start a
fresh new plotline for the FNaF series, but instead chose not to respect the source material. Security Breach contradicts Scott Cawthon’s
clear intention for Pizzeria Simulator as a finale for its respective storyline and
characters. Even if the now retired FNaF creator Scott
Cawthon was involved in the story himself, it’s a very uninspired continuation of the
FNaF legacy. However, I doubt Scott Cawthon was much involved,
because he cared for and worked extremely hard to uphold FNaF’s legacy throughout
his years of game development. [Scott] Even though I may have in
some alternate life may have left the series alone at 3. People were not happy with the jumpscare. And it's kind
of as simple as that. People weren't happy with the jumpscare of Springtrap and that really bothered me. And so then, that... in my mind I wouldn't
let the series rest in a way because I wanted to make another entry that was really really
scary again, you know? And I think I accomplished that
with Five Nights at Freddy's 4. I really enjoyed making that game. I have nothing
but good memories about that. I really enjoyed making that, and I really enjoyed working on the trailer.
I think that, I think that's my favorite trailer of the ones that I made and I love seeing the reactions.
Everybody just seemed to- and honestly I think that's what creates the memories for me, is just seeing how things
are received, and you know obviously if something is received really well then I know I did my job right, you know?
I know that, you know, I know that I did something right. So I think my favorite moment
was getting to release that trailer and just seeing all the excitement from it and I knew that I was
on the right track. That was not a very fun, not a fun year. I mean
that was a game that was born out of necessity, because I needed to bring a conclusion to several
events from the series. For some reason at that time I just knew that if I went through another year
of just releasing teasers that would give everybody a lot of fatigue. Like that would fatigue people. That would wear
people out and it was gonna rub people the wrong way. You know I can't explain why I felt that way, but
I just really felt that way. But at the same time I needed to resolve a lot of issues with the story.
And so those two factors combined... that's the way that I handled it the way that I did. I worked on a whole-
I worked on that game for a year in secret, all the while the fanbase was, you know, getting pretty agitated,
that, you know, I wasn't talking to them and I wasn't working on anything, but I knew that was the way that it just
had to be. It had to be this way. This game could not have a lot of hype behind it, 'cause that wasn't the purpose.
The purpose of it was not to make a lot of money. The purpose of it was not to build a lot of hype.
It was just to resolve some plot points that people wanted to see, and so the result of that was me going into
the dark for a year and then... and then just dropping a game. And there you have it. And, you know, even on the Steam store,
it's not there to draw a bunch of attention to itself. It's using all the really simple screenshots. That
is truly there for the people who wanted to have kind of a resolution to some of the story [Dawko] Are you satisfied with this possibly being the last
game that you might create? The last FNaF game? [Scott] Yeah, I am. I really am. Starting with FNaF 3 there
was always something that I wasn't completely happy with and that would become a core principle of the next game.
With 3 I wasn't completely happy with the jumpscares, so I worked on 4, but on 4 I wasn't completely happy with the storyline,
so I made Sister Location. With SL I felt like it leaned a little too sci fi and left a few plot points that were bothering
people, so then I made Pizzeria Simulator. But then even with PS, even though I was really happy with the game... Um... I dunno, I just felt
that it needed a capstone, it needed some other bookend, some experience. And Ultimate Custom Night brought in all of the
characters, you know, and umm... and I think so far it's been the best reviewed of the games which, you know,
thrills me of course. I'm really happy to see that. Everybody just seemed to really enjoy it. Security Breach also contains hidden lore
and theorycrafting potential that the FNaF series is known for, but that’s a deeper
can of worms than Security Breach’s story warrants. [MatPat] Well let’s talk about the game
we did get, right? And I think one of the things that everyone
has reiterated, even in our most recent theory, is the frustration around putting together
the lore— What is this game about? You know… and figuring out what is actually
the plot of the game, what is the meaning of all these lore hints and clues? There are so many pieces that kind of work
but no one explanation really brings things together into a cohesive whole that you’re
like “okay I understand what this game was trying to say.” What is this game about? What is this game about? What is this game about? Frustration. [Shawn] Horror is extremely volatile. Even one fault in any number of different
factors can break the immersion and tension of the experience — lack of atmosphere and
sound design, frustrating and tedious gameplay elements, and predictability, to name a few. All of these problems can be found in Security
Breach’s animatronics. While our main goal in Security Breach is
to escape the Pizzaplex, most of the main missions lead us to destroy Chica, Roxy, and
Monty and repurpose their parts to upgrade Freddy. To my surprise and delight, destroying them
changes both their appearance and function later in the game as a new “Shattered”
variant. However, Security Breach hardly leverages
the potential new threats and mechanics, if at all. For example, Shattered Roxy, now without her
eyes, relies on hearing rather than sight to locate you. She’s also now unaffected by the Fazer Blaster
and Faz Camera items that stun animatronics and robots who have eyes. Blind Roxy could offer brand new suspenseful
and engaging situations where you can’t disable her and have to be quiet. Unfortunately these moments are virtually
absent. When we break Monty to steal his claws, he
loses the bottom half of his body in the process. As much as a crawling threat would feel different,
difficult to notice, and terrifying to avoid in a different game, we never see Shattered
Monty again. There’s one strange exception however: we
can discover him completely immobile and passive in Fazcade. He comes across as an Easter Egg rather than
a threat, so he’s an absent mechanic for all intents and purposes. The Shattered animatronics also disappoint
in how the game introduces them. Once you destroy an animatronic and walk away,
you feel relieved, but in the back of your mind you wonder whether they’re down for
good or if they’ll come back to life. Unfortunately, the game never lets this relief
and dread linger to then develop into a false sense of security. Instead, the destroyed animatronics almost
immediately come back to life. For example, when you crush and destroy Chica
to steal her voice box, you leave her behind and begin to navigate the dark underbelly
of the facility. During this time, the game should root the
player in uncertainty by refraining from immediate threats. Instead, after less than two minutes, Shattered
Chica nonchalantly walks in to chase you with her goofy run with the same unfair and dishonest
AI as ever. [Mark] Oh! Hey! Where’d you come from? That doesn’t make any sense! [Shawn] The game’s pacing and flow to cultivate
a suspenseful Fear of the Unknown is all but absent. Shattered Chica’s new voice could’ve been
the perfect audio element to spearhead Chica’s reintroduction into the game. Before Chica’s reintroduction, there’s
no association between the new audio and Shattered Chica, so the combined effect of an unpredictable,
unknown sound and the shock of the revived, broken Chica would create a perfect recipe
for horror. The longer the game can keep you guessing
on what the sound is without desensitizing you to it, the more effective at building
a horror atmosphere it’d be. Horror demands at least some amount of imagination
from its players to be effective, and Security Breach fails to deliver. Shattered Roxy has a similar problem, but
her reintroduction in particular is just laughable. She instantly stands back up 20 seconds later
with goofy animations, incorrect subtitles, teleporting to doors, and the ability to see
us despite being blind, because certainly she can’t hear us when we’re not running
but walking inside a blazing inferno, right? After we destroy and steal parts from all
three animatronics, they make their final appearance in the Burntrap boss sequence. Unfortunately, throughout the sequence, Burntrap,
Chica, Monty, and Roxy are simple, mindless, and tensionless threats to overcome. Whenever Burntrap attempts to mind control
Freddy, we glance at the monitors to see where Burntrap is, then press the corresponding
button to shock him. In between shocks, Freddy periodically warns
us about one of three animatronics: Chica, Monty, and Roxy. Freddy tells us to close the door on Chica
who’s walking down one of two hallways and to close the vent on Monty so he can’t crawl
in. Instead of Freddy’s verbal checklist, the
game missed an opportunity to rely on sound cues to indicate threats and sound design
to emphasize positional awareness and atmospheric tension. Even then, Chica isn’t a threat because
if she somehow waltzes in, and she should never waltz in, you can bait her back into
the hallway then stun her in place and run away. Overall, Burntrap, Chica, and Monty are great
examples of unengaging threats. You sit around staring at an idle Burntrap
wondering if the game is broken or not, then you play a quick game of “Freddy says”
and return to doing nothing. [Ryan] If I push that button… Oh we set him on fire! We torched him up to stop him. We stopped him. We have to watch. I think that’s what’s happening here. Freddy’s there. He’s got control for a second then, so…
what do we wanna do with Freddy? I don’t get it. He’s just standing there. He wants us to stop him. How? Torch him again? He’s like right there! He’s just chilling. He’s not even doing anything. I have no idea what’s going on guys. I don’t know. I really don’t know what’s happening right
now. [Shawn] Freddy also warns us about Roxy when
she approaches. Roxy is an absolute design blunder who ruins
the entire sequence by herself. Freddy tells us to specifically hide from
Roxy because the doors won’t stop her. Roxy is blind and relies entirely on hearing,
so naturally the player tucks themselves in a corner nice and quiet. Normally Roxy doesn’t see you if you remain
still, but for this boss she can sometimes see you if you’re close enough, and despite
you remaining quiet thinking she’ll eventually leave as Freddy suggested, she never actually
leaves. That’s incredibly inconsistent, confusing,
and frustrating. [Mark] Hey hey hey, easy now. Listen, you lost, you lost. That’s just the way it is. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what’s going on. I legitimately have no idea. Why is Freddy stuck in that tube? Why is this not doing nothing? Why is Roxy being this way? Roxy literally will not let go no matter what. [Shawn] Naturally, the next idea the player
tries is to hide in Freddy. However, Freddy kicks you out whenever Burntrap
attempts to mind control him and also kicks you out randomly because the game is incredibly
broken, [Mark] I don’t know. Something seems off. Still doesn’t seem quite right. Oh, well see that’s the issue there. Right there that’s the issue. Can I get in there with you? Can I hop in? Please? [Shawn] and Roxy is always still in the room
when that happens so game over. You can also try to hide by messing with Freddy
and his charger in the room but really all that does is lead to more bugs. [Mark] Suddenly he’s low power… why? I don’t know. And now this opens for him. What? Well now I’m stuck in here. What? What? Oh… oh… okay… what? I… I don’t know. Oh wow. Freddy you alright there pal? So I made it in. Oh no… oh no… he got too much juice. [Shawn] So if you can’t hide from Roxy in
the room or in Freddy, then how do you hide from her? Simple… You don’t. You’re supposed to climb into Freddy while
Roxy awkwardly stands there then activate Chica’s voice box in Freddy to send Roxy
away. The game’s expectation to utilize the voice
box is entirely unjustified for three reasons. 1) Chica’s voice box normally stuns animatronics,
not sends them away, so why would we ever think to use it on Roxy? 2) Up until this point, we’ve only ever
used Chica’s voice box a couple times for opening doors, so it’s mostly an unused
mechanic and this is the first time we’ve had to use it against an animatronic. And 3) We’ve never had a reason to use the
voice box against animatronics because they ignore us while we’re in Freddy. Even if I was a moron and hopped out of Freddy
in front of animatronics, I could just blast them with the Fazer Blaster or Faz Camera
anyway. So even in the worst case scenario, Freddy’s
voice box ability is redundant at best and useless otherwise, and yet it’s the only
way to progress against Roxy specifically and only in the Burntrap boss sequence. Overall, Roxy’s inconsistent, frustrating
design is a surprisingly layered mess. You’ve already learned that Roxy is blind
so you should hide from her by not making sound. Freddy tells you to hide from her so naturally
just don’t make sound and she’ll leave. But actually she can see you and she won’t
leave. And actually you’re not supposed to hide
from her at all, but rather use Freddy’s ability that’s been virtually useless the
entire game, if Freddy doesn’t kick you out before you can use it. And if you do use it, it doesn’t stun Roxy
like it’s supposed to but rather sends her away. Obviously. However, if you thought that was a doozy…
if you manage to press the Burntrap buttons enough times, you’ll beat the boss even
if Roxy never left the room, skipping roughly half of the boss sequence. [Mark] I don’t know why I’m even bothering
with this, but whatever. Oh low power. Well if only there was a way to fix that huh? If only there was a way to fix that. And I’m… where am I going? I don’t know what… he’s now just moving… and he’s stuck. I don’t know. Well, this is unfortunate for me. And now I’m out. Okay, where am I? Uhh… Oh! [Shawn] Not that it matters, since most of
the boss fight is you sitting around doing absolutely nothing until you get to listen
to the game bug out when it spams thumping noises. Don’t celebrate too soon however, you’re
still capable of dying in the final cutscene and credits. [Backseat Streams] Oh no I got inside. Oh no… okay we’re on a timer now. Honestly I don’t know how I managed to break
the end credits. [NilaGaming] Yeeeesss. Oh no! *Laughs* I died! Alright here we go. Come on. Yeeeesss. Noooooo! Oh *laughs* I just d- no way! [Dawko] Did we get out? Did we escape? Oh my gosh guys we did it! My voice is gone. My voice is gone. *Death noise* [Shawn] Rather than the Burntrap confrontation,
we strangely enough never confront Freddy. Throughout the game we gather parts from other
animatronics to upgrade Freddy with. By the end, we upgrade him with Monty’s
sharp claws, Chica’s voice box that makes him sound creepier, and Roxy’s eyes that
allow him to see people through walls and you to see collectables through walls. Although somewhat predictable, by the end
I expected Freddy to use the upgrades against us in a final boss type of moment. Instead, his upgrades basically amount to
a glorified security pass into the end-game with negligible gameplay implications. In fact, Chica’s voice box upgrade only
briefly changes his voice before reverting back in both the in-person and Fazwatch conversations,
which is a bummer because it’s a creepy effect. While Freddy would argue to Vanessa that the
Fazwatch uses text-to-speech, it’s obviously a walkie-talkie with recorded message functionality
because the voice has too much contextual emotion to be anything but. It’s like Steel Wool forgot about Freddy’s
new voice box or it was added late in development, just like how the player forgets about the
voice box’s useless stun mechanic, and how Steel Wool also forgot to make Freddy functional. [Mark] Freddy where are you? Freddy? Freddy… Freddy. HURRY UP FREDDYYYY. NO, HEEERE. WHERE ARE YOU GOING? FREDDY ARE YOU SERIOUS? FREDDY NOT THERE. Oh my gosh. Oh, oh my gosh. Are you kidding me? [Backseat Streams] Where’s Freddy? He’s trying to get to me still. I can hear his feet. I can still hear him running. *Bunch of buggy Freddy teleporting*
[Freddy] Shame on you Gregory! [Backseat Streams] *Laughter* (Freddy’s footsteps and voice teleports
to the other side of the elevator and is stuck there during the elevator ride until the end
when he teleports back) [Mark] Freddy Freddy please Freddy Freddy
now now Freddy now now Freddy. Freddy… Freddy! FREDDYYYYY. Freddy please OH NO! NOT LIKE THIS. Not like this, please. Get me in get me in
FREDDY, FREDDY YOU B***H FREEEEDDDDYYYYYYYYYY [Backseat Streams] Freddy come here. Where you… where you going? Freddy? Freddy where are you? This is like a horror movie. Freddy? Oh, you’re up there! Oh, there he goes. [Shawn] To install Freddy’s upgrades in
the first place, we slowly skip a series of unhelpful on-screen instruction prompts that
shouldn’t be in the game. These prompts stop the game dead in its tracks
to repeat what the narrator already told you. Even more, examples of tutorial prompts repeating
information can be found throughout the game. They break immersion in an obsessive display
of handholding and an abuse of tutorial design. Each upgrade scene already contains immersive
voice acting, so the additional instruction prompts are jarring and unnecessary. Additionally, if you follow the narrator’s
instructions before the instruction prompt pops up, then you die and lose a potentially
significant amount of progress. If you wait until after the prompt, then you
can play the game without it killing you for no reason. [Ryan] Okay. Oh! Why is he saying good job now remove the chest
plate? Why am I dead? Let’s try this again. Oh wow, I was about .1 ms away from the instructions. Click on the bowtie to take it off? But that’s what I did… [Shawn] Not to mention pretty much every instruction
prompt that exists in the game reappears a multitude of times. It’s one of the worst tutorial features
I’ve ever seen, and it exists in the end-game as well. These Parts and Service gameplay sequences
shouldn’t exist anyway. It doesn’t make sense for safe and friendly
animatronics like Freddy to switch to a different mode for Parts and Service maintenance that
brutally murders any technician who works on them. I’m guessing Steel Wool Studios tried to
emulate the maintenance tasks in FNaF: Sister Location but in Sister Location the animatronics
were possessed and hostile with their own motivations. In Security Breach, the friendly, unpossessed
animatronics literally switch to a separate maintenance mode in their programming that
kills people. Security Breach’s Parts and Service sequences
failed to capture the same sense of tension, justification, and overall presentation as
Sister Location. In the beginning of the game, there’s a
particular tutorial sequence that’s very strange — the introduction of Chica. Firstly, we’re introduced to Noise Makers,
and I don’t know why. This is the only moment in the game where
knocking objects over to distract animatronics is useful. The only exception is the Daycare: you must
run around to turn on generators whilst keeping Moondrop distracted by knocking over objects. However, the Daycare is a completely enclosed
and isolated area with its own tutorial on knocking over objects to distract him, and
it’s well-made enough to not need an instruction prompt. Chica’s Noise Maker tutorial is extremely
bizarre and extraneous, and even in the unlikely case that you come across a Noise Maker in
the game, you can never use it for its intended purpose because the animatronics have to be
close enough to be distracted by them, and by that point they’ve already spotted you. The Noise Makers do nothing once you’re
being chased. Since the Noise Makers don’t complement
the stealth system very well, I wonder if it’s a remnant from a proof of concept. Within the same room, another tutorial pops
up with information on the stealth detection system. A blue outline means “you are not visible.” Not being visible means you’re not capable
of being seen. A yellow outline means something saw you and
is looking for you. The blue and yellow outline descriptions are
conflicting — if a bot is currently looking for me, why am I not afforded the information
of whether or not I’m in a spot where I’m safe and not visible. If the game intended for the blue outline
to instead say that a bot hasn’t seen you yet, then this Stealth tutorial contains false
information. Regardless, I never referenced my colored
outline during the game, so I wonder if Steel Wool had a bigger plan for stealth in their
game that didn’t come to fruition. Threats in games should find themselves in
the right place at the right time through fair and justifiable actions. The player should never feel like the AI cheats
or reappears in weird places without a sensible means of and reason for doing so. Security Breach fails on both accounts because
the animatronics constantly teleport right next to you, and it’s not shy about it. [Ryan] Where did he come from?! Are you serious man… We just did all that for nothing. That’s 20 minutes gone, just like that guys… [Shawn] The animatronics unfairly teleport
next to you whenever you trigger one of the thousand security bots in the game, then they’ll
try to run after you. There’s nothing more to the AI and the game
wears those predictable AI rules on its sleeve. The mechanics and rules behind the AI should
be fair and unpredictable. Once we witness how the simple AI operates
and how unfair and jarring the teleporting is: the immersion immediately breaks, and
as it keeps occurring, the suspense shifts to frustration. When you start to see the threats as nothing
more than predictable rules that govern its AI, the horror has been exhausted, the player’s
motivation to continue playing decreases, and the small amount of atmosphere Security
Breach manages in the first place all but vanishes. In previous FNaF games, Scott Cawthon designed
the camera system and AI in a way that avoids the appearance of the animatronics teleporting. Steel Wool Studios did not carry over this
series’ philosophy into Security Breach. Instead of avoiding the appearance of teleporting,
Security Breach embraces it. The animatronics’ teleporting is a feature
to compensate for their simple AI that would otherwise become lost in the open areas. Funnily enough, most bug compilations wrongly
include moments of teleporting animatronics. It’s not a bug, but actually a feature — which
is worse because a feature means it was intentional and is a consistent presence in the game. Instead of teleporting, the animatronics would
ideally convey tense, atmospheric moments from dark environments, competent AI, and
sound design like footsteps, machine sounds, and breathing. Sound can make or break a horror experience;
and unfortunately, the sound design in Security Breach mostly devolves into repetitious voice
lines and reading subtitles that indicate whether an animatronic is in the area or not. [Mark] Oh Monty, you’re here. I didn’t know that. [Shawn] Security Breach not only makes it
obvious if an animatronic is in the vicinity but often where they’re located in that
vicinity because of the open areas and repetitious voice lines. But if the animatronics just teleport next
to you anyway, triggered from one of the thousand roaming security bots, knowing where they
are matters very little because regardless they’ll pop up out of nowhere in the most
unfair situations. [Mark] I’m trying to skip, it’s not letting
me skip. I… can’t… I can’t… oh my gosh I want to skip, you
gave me the option and it’s not here, you said skip and it’s not skipping… I guess just another thing that doesn’t
quite work the way it’s supposed to. I’m trying to be so careful, and Chica spawns
on top of me and that kills me? That’s what does it? Like… that’s so unfair! I’m fine if my skill is bad and I intentionally
do something that’s wrong and it messes up— AND I STILL CAN’T SKIP THIS. WHY— I’m fine… Why… would you have a situation where you
could have something like that happen?! Like, I was right there… I wasn’t careless. That’s the other thing, I wasn’t careless. I was looking around like “oh, where is
Chica? I know that Chica’s there.” And just GOOOOOOOOOD D**********IT!!!!!!!!! [Shawn] Unfair player deaths as a result of
bugs or teleporting animatronics exacerbates another problem: a poorly designed save system. Far too often, lost progress in Security Breach
becomes a tedious climb back to where the player was at, past the already completed
content to finally have the opportunity to continue playing the game. The game’s save system, especially in the
second half of the game, results in extended stretches of lost progress, ultimately rooting
the game’s horror in the frustrating and stressful fear of losing progress above all
else. Horror games in particular lose all sense
of immersion, atmosphere, and overall horror effectiveness from poorly managed lost progress. Security Breach’s save system is lackluster
for four reasons. For one, it’s possible for the current autosave
system and even manual saves to softlock the player, where as soon as they load in, the
game becomes unplayable, most likely from dying. Secondly, the save stations’ UI doesn’t
encourage multiple save slots, and saving to a new slot doesn’t provide proper player
feedback: there’s no UI indicating how many save slots you have or are using. There’s also no indication of when the last
autosave was or even if autosaves exist. Thirdly, what makes dealing with lost progress
that much more frustrating is when a Save Station exists in the room you’re in but
then you do something that causes the game to disable all save functionality. [Mark] *Startled* Oo! Whoa! What? Uhh… Do I… Wha.. What do… WHOA WHOA! Wha.. what… what… But no but I… *Annoyed and frustrated* This was even before
the ocular upgrade! Why would you do that to me?! I have to put the eyes back in again! What?! AAAAAAHHHHH. Okay I’ll be back… Okay actually NOW I’m going to save before
I finish. That’s a good idea. Then I don’t have to do THAT again. *Sigh* oh my gosh… Can I save now? No… okay… [Shawn] For example, you can save behind the
desk in the Daycare, but if you grab the Security Pass first, which is likely, then you can
no longer save and you lose a lot of progress if you die in the Daycare, which is also likely. That’s equivalent to a game’s checkpoints
not registering that you reached them until you die, spawn at the very beginning of the
level, and then reach the checkpoint for a second time. Finally, Security Breach’s save system is
lackluster because it lacks a reliable autosave system. While autosaves exist in some capacity, it
far too often doesn’t. Security Breach desperately needs a reliable
autosave or checkpoint system because the idea of save stations has restrictions that
the game didn’t compensate for. The first restriction is the game leaves the
save management in the player’s hands, which is volatile and unreliable. The most competent games with manual save
systems will still do everything in their power to account for human fallibility and
maintain the full, intended experience. Save stations’ second restriction is that
they must be incorporated into the level design in a believable way, both aesthetically and
as a pacing tool, to ensure players have enough time at an appropriate spot in the gameplay
or story to save the game. Autosaves or checkpoints can help overcome
these potential aesthetic and pacing restrictions as well. For example, Resident Evil 7 offers a manual
save system but also automatically stores checkpoints as a single autosave file that
overwrites itself. The manual save system serves as a safe room
in the game. It’s a break from the chaos, allows players
to save on multiple save slots and have control over them, provides object association with
not only the presence of the safe room but the manual save station itself, and forces
the player to spend a minimum amount of time there to their benefit, allowing them to relax
and prepare for the next outing. The safe room fulfills a purpose that autosaves
can’t, and does so very well. However, the checkpoints are just as important. They maintain the game’s pacing that manual
saving can’t achieve on its own without compromising the level design and progression
and wrongly relying entirely on the player for save management. Resident Evil 7 took the time to understand
what constitutes completed content in their game to cultivate a challenge without compromising
the experience. They overall nail the game’s flow and pacing. [Mark] Wow… alright, welcome back to this
room. That was an ordeal for me. Very cool sequence… Didn’t want to play it 10 times but very
cool. I did like it… the first time. Even the second time… wasn’t too bad. [Shawn] In one of the most shockingly anti-player
and antagonistic design decisions I’ve ever seen, whether intentional or not: once you
can achieve your main goal of leaving the facility, Security Breach shuts off any and
all save stations. This is not the end of the game and it doesn’t
try to be. Security Breach actively encourages you to
explore and complete the rest of the game, but without the ability to save a single time. The rest of the game after this point contains
some amount of bonus content but also the rest of the main story — collecting the
last of Freddy’s upgrades to reach the final boss and finally reveal any semblance of story. We’re talking potentially hours of content,
between collectable hunting and the main and side story endings. You should complete as much of the collectable
and secret hunting as possible before hitting the point that removes save functionality
but there’s no way of knowing that beforehand, and even if you do, the rest of the main story
takes at least an hour to complete without saving a single time. Not to mention, every time you reach one of
the numerous endings, you reset back to the last save point. You lose not only every collectable you’ve
collected since the save point but also any and all of the main story progress that’s
involved in the multiple possible endings — each one resetting all progress since
the last save point. It’s an absolutely abysmal waste of time. Therefore players feel relieved by the end
of the main story, not because of any sense of accomplishment, challenge, or horror tension,
but because the game can no longer abuse you from the lack of any save system. Not only is the horror experience and tension
long gone by this point, but the general gameplay experience has been ripped to shreds by repetition
caused by, more likely than not, unfair deaths. [Dan] There were also various bugs. There were some times when… especially after
6 AM because you cannot save at all. And for some of the endings you have to do
a lot of stuff. You have to find an item in the bottom right
hand side of the Pizzaplex then you gotta go to the top left without getting caught. It was hard, basically. And there was a lot riding on not getting
caught. So one of the ways to avoid getting caught
was using Freddy. But then… There was… at least twice when I got stuck
in Freddy and lost ALL my progress. My recording… I lost an hour recording because I couldn’t
use it… I got stuck in Freddy and he jumpscared me. I couldn’t use the charging points — that
happened to me three times, I ruined two recordings. [Shawn] Even if Security Breach keeps the
manual save stations, optional, meaningless collectables should never reset from reloading
saves or at the very least should be baked into a reliable autosave or checkpoint system. If players spend the time scouring and exploring
to collect every optional thing there is to collect, then the player dies — until the
player gets back to where they were at, the same optional collectables become a new game
of tediously recollecting everything without engaging with anything. Security Breach doesn't respect the player’s
time and effort spent recollecting the content nor the time and effort spent collecting it
in the first place. Additionally, optional and mandatory collectables
should behave differently but also intuitively. For optional collectables not associated with
content or challenge, Security Breach should maintain their collection no matter what,
because there’s no benefit to forcing players to recollect them. For mandatory collectables or meaningful content,
the collectables should be subject to autosaves that vary depending on the sequence of current
events in the game. For example, reaching the end of a labyrinth
of rooms to grab a key, then escaping the same rooms with threats chasing you. If the threats kill you, you shouldn’t still
have the key when you respawn outside of the rooms. The key should reset because the challenge
wasn’t completed. Once the challenge is completed, however,
then the game should be subject to an autosave. Or… you can skip the entire segment by hopping
in Freddy, so who cares? Optional and mandatory collectables should
also be visually distinct from one another in some way. For example, Birthday presents can contain
mandatory key items, optional collectables, and useful upgrades. It’s difficult to distinguish what’s an
objective, what’s useful, and what’s rubbish, so the player ends up having to open up every
optional thing just in case. In the end, much of the game bases its horror
on the fear of losing progress. The fear of losing progress is the lowest
common denominator of artificial difficulty disguised as “challenge.” It results in an extremely frustrating, punishing,
and tedious experience replaying and recollecting already completed content trying to even reach
the section in which you need to retry, explore, and conquer. I should at least be able to trust the save
system not to screw me over, but I suppose if the save system doesn’t exist in the
first place then that can’t happen. From the February Patch Preview notes from
Steel Wool Studios, they gave in to player feedback to add in a single, new save station
in the second half of the game as the only active save station, instead of just enabling
the existing save stations in the game. Every area that’s left in the game at that
point already has save stations, so the developers wouldn’t even need to slap in additional
stations in the remaining areas; they just needed to not spend extra time screwing players
over by disabling them all. Again, depending on the remaining content
that the player has available or chooses to pursue, there’s at least an hour of time
investment to reach the final boss of the game without saves. The fact that Steel Wool is still not enabling
the saves but rather adding a single, completely separate save station means they’re listening
to player feedback without recognizing and understanding what the problem is and what’s
required to fix it. Another area in which Security Breach fails
to provide a sufficient horror experience is through its overwhelming number of constant
patrols in almost every area in the game. The open-world in particular is filled with
patrolling staff and security bots that, when they catch you, trigger an alarm that teleports
a roaming animatronic right to you. The constant threat of patrolling bots and
animatronics throughout the game results in poor pacing and tedious obstacles. The presence of a constant, predictable threat
considerably lessens the potential suspense and tension over time, and never gives the
player time to breathe. Players need time to breathe so they can reflect
on and recover from past events and the game can instill a false sense of security in them. More often than not, the security bots transform
what should be suspenseful or atmospheric areas into annoyingly slow and predictable
rudimentary stealth mechanics. The security bots follow simple and predictable
pathing, logic, and overall functionality — and because they essentially form the
backbone of the game from the animatronics’ reliance on them, Security Breach fails as
a horror game. Even worse, the security bots solely exist
to compensate for underdeveloped animatronic AI. So many of the areas emphasize the security
bots as the main threat because they’re the ones who cause the animatronics to spawn
in or teleport next to the player. The game relies on the bots’ patrolling
and the animatronics’ infinite vision range) to compensate for both the animatronics’
AI and the open areas. The animatronics and their AI weren’t developed
as competent or suspenseful threats on their own. Therefore the security bots exist to enforce
that the animatronics are indeed relevant, to essentially cover up the AI problem with
additional problems. There’s further evidence in that the security
bots don’t exist in areas with the endoskeletons who have simple but effective AI. The endoskeletons walk toward you whenever
you look away from them and fulfill their purpose very well, so for them, security bots
aren’t required to compensate for underdeveloped AI. If the security bots had to exist and the
game didn’t abuse them, they could ideally contribute to the game’s horror by alerting
an animatronic that then makes its way toward you from some unknown direction. Then, potential sound design and unpredictability
of the animatronics could produce some intense, suspenseful moments. Unfortunately, in reality, the animatronics
are almost never scary to alert because you always know where they are, either from the
constant repetition of the same voice lines over and over, or from them teleporting on
top of you. Additionally, the game’s sound design is
mostly ineffective, instead relying on the frequent voice lines. And any time effective sound design would
contribute to anything in the game, instead they insert a [alert] sound to let the player
know that they should be freaked out because they were spotted by something far away. The sound is heavily abused. The way to cultivate fear is through restraint
rather than desensitizing bombardment. The open areas should be dark, or at least
become dark at some point, perhaps caused by Vanny so she has a purpose in the game. Then, the open areas can be a sort of playground
for some number of specialized animatronics. They can emit creepy noises but are still
difficult to pinpoint, so you’re always on your toes against unknown threats. The game’s threats shouldn’t all have
almost the exact same behavior. The game should use the player’s imagination
and fear of the unknown against them, and keep the game unpredictable. Once players can predict patterns in the game’s
threats, the horror is all but lost. Previous FNaF games know this, so that’s
why they offer bonus challenges as extra content and not part of the core five nights. You play the extra nights not for the horror
factor but for the challenge. If the security bots and animatronics had
any miniscule semblance of tension left, the Fazer Blaster and Faz Camera would absolutely
blend it into a crisp. The blaster and camera are an abusable gimmick
that makes a joke out of the threats and player vulnerability. You obtain either the Fazer Blaster or Faz
Camera fairly early on, and from thereafter, you can completely disable bots and animatronics
by shooting or flashing their eyes. The blaster and camera are an all-in-one ticket
for avoiding and negating almost every threat in the game. If the player can just BLAM an animatronic
in the face every time they appear, players grow complacent. Threats are no longer relevant. The game becomes a running simulator from
one objective to another. Horror games must utilize player vulnerability
in some capacity to create an effective atmospheric, tension-filled game. The blaster and camera are clearly abusable
and trivialize the game — removing any sense of vulnerability. However, they provide the perfect opportunity
to place the player in a terrifying situation where the blaster or camera breaks and thus
the player’s comfort in safety is ripped from them and sends them into a state of vulnerability
and panic. In fact, Mark demonstrates the perfect dichotomy
between players becoming complacent to threats and the great potential of subverting expectations
and utilizing vulnerability. At first, he’s complacent and cocky, but
then the game throws a fast ball and he’s left vulnerable and he panics. The
blaster and camera do not affect Vanny and Monty and the potential to make the player
feel defenseless and vulnerable is palpable. However, Vanny only appears a couple times
in the game for a few seconds, and by the time Monty subverts the blaster and camera,
not only is it too little too late, but the blaster and camera still affect the other
animatronics. The situation changes once the animatronics
are destroyed. If you destroy Roxy, then she becomes blind
and thus immune to the blaster and camera. She supposedly can’t see you anyway so she’s
easier to avoid and not much of a factor, but it’s still better than the alternative
of abusing the blaster and camera. If you destroy Monty, then he actually loses
his immunity. Although, his loss of immunity doesn’t mean
anything since all he does is sit motionless in the middle of Fazcade doing absolutely
nothing. In the end, the Fazer Blaster and Faz Camera
were Security Breach’s bandages for all of its self-inflicted problems. Are security bots not moving out of your way
quick enough or at all? Fazer Blaster! Is an animatronic in your way from teleporting
or spawning next to you? Fazer Blaster! Does an animatronic spot you from across the
open space? Fazer Blaster! The blaster and camera are additional mechanics
to slap onto the game as bandages, and only creates further problems. And, you know what, I’m honestly glad that
the blaster and camera exist. Fundamentally Security Breach covers up problems
with more problems, and I’m okay with that because Security Breach is such a broken frustrating
mess of poor design and bugs, I’d rather circumvent them than deal with them. Just like every entry in the FNaF franchise,
Security Breach took a risk; however, every previous FNaF game, including some amazing
fan games, still adhere to game design in most capacities. Bugs aside, Security Breach is poorly designed. Security Breach attempted to implement similar
time limit, power management, and camera surveillance mechanics found in most FNaF titles, but either
came across as underwhelming and irrelevant, forced in with little consequence, or a detriment
to the game’s challenges. Security Breach bandages underdeveloped AI
and poor design decisions with additional broken and mismanaged systems. The main animatronic threats in the game are
only relevant when they cheat, resulting in frustration and the quick diminishment of
horror. The animatronics rely on an army of security
bots which creates a tedious hide-and-wait gameplay loop and, again, quickly desensitizes
the player to the game’s threats and horror. The bots ultimately result in rudimentary
stealth mechanics with underwhelming gameplay implications and an unfair fail state from
teleporting animatronics. The story and characters are shallow and practically
non-existent, instead devolving into fan-service and a cheap rehashing of the same ol’ William
Afton antagonist and surface-level motives. Security Breach is not only much more story-oriented
as ever so it demanded an active story but the antagonist and every other character related
to his plotline was already put to rest by Scott Cawthon himself. Security Breach very deliberately establishes
mysteries then virtually never develops them. Despite Vanessa and Vanny’s prominence as
the centerpiece of the beginning story and mysteries, they rarely appear if at all. The game touts Vanny as a red herring and
nothing more. I’m not kidding when I say you could remove
Vanny and Vanessa from the game entirely and virtually nothing would change. There’s a very harsh disconnect between
the story’s drama and the player — one that cannot achieve a suspension of disbelief,
killing all urgency and player motivation in whatever story events that exist. Both the destroyed animatronics and Freddy’s
upgrades were not utilized to their fullest potential. The destroyed animatronics were reintroduced
immediately and were overall underwhelming — Monty was broken and no longer a threat,
Chica’s mechanics remained the same, and Roxy was supposedly blind but sometimes not. The Burntrap boss sequence is an absolute
mess of inconsistent mechanics and standing around doing nothing. It’s simultaneously boring, confusing, and
frustrating. The game not only lacks a sufficient autosave
or checkpoint system, but removes save functionality entirely for a significant portion of the
game. Fairly early on, Security Breach provides
the player with an abusable Fazer Blaster or Faz Camera. Players grow complacent; threats are no longer
relevant; and the game becomes a running simulator. The blaster and camera take away all sense
of player vulnerability — an essential factor in any horror game. Overall, Security Breach not only failed as
a horror game but failed as a game in general with its numerous frustrating and broken design
flaws and problems pasted over problems. Security Breach desensitizes its threats and
horror and relies on cheap scares and rudimentary stealth mechanics over atmosphere and tension. The game is driven by the fear of losing progress
that results in frustration and unfair fail states. Security Breach failed to uphold and continue
the Five Nights at Freddy’s legacy. Please stick around for a quick rapid-fire
segment containing problems that I didn’t discuss in this video. But first, Scott Cawthon really did care about
his fans and his games. And even though we’ll all miss the FNaF
legacy that he left us when he was developing his games, we all wish him a happy retirement
with his family. And at least he’s still supporting worthy
fan games, so it’s not all doom and gloom. [Scott] If I had the mindset that "oh hey it's FNaF, people will love it"
regardless of quality, then we would already have several movies and they would all be terrible. And Ultimate Custom
Night would've come out way too soon, and it just served as a really important lesson for me that, you should never take- it taught me to never
take for granted how special it is to have a group of people who are eager to play what you make. Whenever I made the, you know -- I'll use The Desolate
Hope as my example again -- I saw one person made a piece of fanart of that on the internet. I found it on Google,
someone had drawn one of the characters. And that was the most special thing to me in the world,
that someone had drawn a picture of one of my characters. I can't even tell you how important seeing that one drawing was.
I had no idea who it was. But then, to have a fanbase and have kids that are drawing these
pictures and send- I got a letter I got a letter the other day addressed to Foxy. And God bless the post office in my town
for knowing me and for sending me these letters anyway. I kid you not, it was addressed to Foxy. ONLY to Foxy, and I think
below it might've had some other clue as to who it was for, but the post office made sure to pass it along to me.
You know, I mean, how spec- how awesome is that? And the letter was written to Foxy! (laugh)
It was asking Foxy a question. [Dawko] That's so awesome. [Scott] You know, that, that's so... there's nothing more priceless than that.
You know, and to have a fanbase of people who care about these characters in the games... that is the ONLY thing that matters.
You know? And it should NEVER be taken for granted. And, you know, who cares if something is commercial and who cares if something
is gonna make a whole bunch of money, you know, you just have to make sure that you- that whenever those people
finally get to see this next thing, that it's something that lifts them up and makes them happy and it's something that-
it was everything that they wanted to see. That's all that matters, you know? And I need to write that
kid back. I'm gonna go get a big envelope and put a bunch of Foxy plush toys and I'm gonna write a letter as Foxy. I've never done that
before but I'm gonna totally do it. AND I'm gonna even make a little tear in the paper and say that it was my hook that did it.
I'm gonna totally do that. [Dawko] Yeah that's awesome, that's really awesome. [Scott] But yeah so, yeah... that's a long story, but FNaF World
taught me to never take for granted your fanbase. I think I would just like to make sure everybody out there knows
how much I really appreciate this fanbase, and just how much I appreciate all of the support. Back whenever- before all this FNaF stuff
had started and I had just made The Desolate Hope, I was online and I found one piece of fanart that
someone had made of The Desolate Hope characters. Just randomly, I have no idea who it was, I have no idea
what happened to that picture, but you know the- that was so special to me, seeing that someone out there had
enjoyed that game and drawn one of those characters, that was just incredible to me, it made me feel so good --
made my day, made my week, made my month. And so now to be able to, you know... go online and just see this
incredible community of people, with people that are- that have ten times the artistic talent that I do. With all this
fanart... these fangames... there are some incredible games out there, and I don't wanna... I'm scared to mention
names 'cause I know that I'm gonna leave out [someone] important. Seeing these... insane games that Nikson comes up with,
and I've always heard nothing but good things about like the storylines of- in POPGOES. And then you know, the artistic direction of
games like Flumpty's.... And it's like... everybody has these specialties where they just flourish in the stuff that they make.
You go into Gamejolt and just see these pages and pages of all these really cool ones. I picked out a few
but- because those are probably the more experienced members of the community but
I don't want to overlook people who are up and coming game designers who decide to make fangames as their
first game. You know? And what an honor that is, you know? What an incredible honor that is for someone to want to be a
game developer and to have their first couple of games be a FNaF fangame, you know? It's such an honor. And like I
said just the incredible artistic community like on DeviantArt, and any time I go on Reddit to see illustrations that people are
making- and I've been fortunate enough to snag a couple of those artists to do official artwork for me, umm... but, you know... and the memes are great too. I've been
very fortunate to see myself featured in memes, you know not many people get to say that. And to see my characters
featured in memes, so that's always exciting. But yeah, and just the YouTube community just... you know, amazing.
I mean you [Dawko], Razzbowski, the Ryans, you know? Cory Kenshin, Fusion... this whole community of
great youtubers have just been so supportive over the years. I'm just blessed. I'm just really blessed. This isn't so much
a "Thank You" as just a... I'm just grateful. I'm grateful to be surrounded by just such an incredibly talented community.
It has been an amazing experience, it really has been. Well I'm gonna try not to let you guys down, but I hope-
I don't always- I don't always get these things just right but I hope everybody in the community believes at least that- you know,
just like what I said, how I've been trying to write this script... it doesn't mean it's gonna be- it doesn't mean the movie is gonna
be perfect, and it doesn't mean these next few games are gonna be perfect, but I hope everybody at least believes that I'm- that my
number one goal is to make sure that I don't let anybody out there down, you know? I know that a lot of people enjoy this, enjoy these
characters, enjoy these games and, that means the world to me. I'm just gonna try to not let anybody down, that's always
at the forefront of all of my thoughts, just making sure that I do right by everybody. [Dawko] So yeah! Thank you so much. Thank you so much Scott I really do-
really really do appreciate it... [Shawn] And I didn’t even cover the nightmare that
is Mazercise — where your cursor presses buttons that you don’t have your cursor
on and where the solution is trial & error. And once you trial & error your way through,
you’ll get stuck on the vent. Some presents contain rare stamina upgrades,
or at least I think. It upgrades something related to sprinting,
but no one really knows for sure because the game doesn’t tell you, and that’s not
okay. There are other types of upgrades in the game
that also just kinda exist without explanation. Security bots have some seriously messed up
hit detection. Comedy staff bot doesn’t say anything when
he’s supposed to, but if you’re really lucky then you get to read his script once
you’re outside the room through the subtitles. Whenever you hop in a Recharge Station to
charge Freddy, the charge is delayed so it looks like the game is broken and not doing
anything, especially when you clip through it. This delayed charge occurs with every single
Recharge Station and is extremely confusing to deal with. Eventually you have to learn that you can
hop into the Recharge Station then hop out and walk away and Freddy will fully charge
after a while. A surprising number of security bots walk
in front of closed doors so they’re unreasonable and impossible to react to if you’re unlucky. If you take the stadium platform elevator
down, when you return to go back up it’ll have reset back to the top, so you have to
take an alternate route. DJ despawns in front of us when he activates,
no animation attached. He’s also almost never a factor or presence
in the Fazcade where I think he’s supposed to be the main threat, but I’m not
really sure. When you return to Fazcade, Shattered Chica
will be there, even if you haven’t destroyed her yet. If you destroy Chica last, she just won’t
show up in her area at all for some reason. You can place the Monty’s Mystery Mix, turn
on the power generator, and press the cutscene button to destroy her without any interference. Towards the end of the game, once you destroy
the last of the three animatronics, you can’t go back to Parts and Service through the usual
route, so good luck remembering the other hidden route. The segment where DJ chases you down a hallway
can either be an easy straight shot or if you’re slightly slower then a bunch of obstacles
randomly fall down in front of you, basically guaranteeing your death. Obviously the trial & error obstacles are
problematic but also the fact that the fundamental mechanics of the sequence changes based on
how fast or not as fast you are. It feels unintentional. “Get to the Recharge Station,” it says. “Don’t go to any Recharge Station,”
it clarifies a few seconds later.
