Questionable Job, Superstar! FNAF Security Breach Review

After being teased and delayed for over a year, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, was finally released on Dec. 16, 2021. Security Breach is the first free-roam game in the franchise. You play as a young boy named Gregory, who somehow ended up in the “Mega Pizzaplex” after hours. In true FNAF fashion, you have to stay alive until 6am, but this time you have help from everybody’s favorite animatronic bear Glamrock Freddy.

One of the major differences between this game and past FNAF games is the missions and boss battles. In past games, the premise was to sit in an office, check security cameras, close doors, etc. to make it through the 6 hour night without getting jumpscared. However, Security Breach has you wander around different areas of the pizzaplex and complete missions while avoiding the other animatronics. Along with that, each newly introduced animatronic in the game has their own boss battle you must complete in the game.

The new line up of animatronics for this game consist of Glamrock Freddy, Glamrock Chica, Roxanne “Roxy” Wolf, Montgomery “Monty” Gator, and the Daycare Attendant. Each character has their corresponding attractions that you are able to play. Monty has Gator Golf, Roxy has Roxy Raceway, Freddy has Fazerblast, and Chica has MAZErcise. The Daycare Attendant animatronic has his own daycare center (that he ends up escaping). 

Even though the game had an extremely delayed release, the “complete game” that was available was extremely glitchy. One of the features in the game is being able to “summon” Freddy. It ended up being way more impractical than expected since Freddy could sometimes spawn from too far away, glitch through walls, run past you, or even not ever run up to you. Along with that, there also were a few glitches where you could go through walls, enter rooms that weren’t unlocked yet, or not be able to enter or exit Freddy’s chest cavity. 

A few bugs were fixed a week after the release, but the game would have benefitted from staying in development for a lot longer. Soon after the game was released, a glitch was discovered to complete the game in less than five minutes, when it really should take around 10 hours to complete.

Some areas in the game were a bit confusing to maneuver around, like a locker room that is supposed to lead into a laundry room. Most players ended up spending an unnecessary amount of time trying to find the exit to the laundry room because the direction was unclear. Another tough location to get through was the daycare, which is basically like a fast food play-place. It’s difficult to tell where you are and which areas of the play-place you’ve been through, especially because it’s the first area where you use your flashlight. Honestly, the whole layout of the pizzaplex is a bit confusing unless you take a bit to look around and get familiar with it. 

A new feature that Security Breach introduced was the recharge stations for your available tools. There’s flashlight recharge, which is pretty self explanatory. Flashlight recharge stations are placed pretty frequently around the pizzaplex. Having a flashlight isn’t necessarily a new feature for the franchise, but recharging it definitely is. It makes sense for the free roam aspect of the game. Then there are Freddy recharge stations, which you enter to make sure Glamrock Freddy doesn’t run out of energy and can continue to help you. However, sometimes the recharge stations can shut down because they aren’t available in certain time frames, or they bug out and can softlock your save file.

Savepoints are definitely one of my favorite features of Security Breach. After doing long tasks or hard boss battles, most areas will have a place for you to save your progress just in case you end up getting jumpscared later in the game. However, once you hit the 6am mark, the save points are shut down. Depending on the ending you choose, you could have to survive the rest of your stay without saving. Consider it night six or seven.

Some other tiny differences between the rest of the games and security breach include the Fazwatch and the new hide and distract features. Rather than the classic computer or tablet that is commonly used in the game to search around for animatronics, you get a Fazwatch. The watch serves as the games main control center where you can find a map of the pizzaplex, security cameras, your tasks, and a message board from a few NPC’s. Freddy is also able to talk to you through the Fazwatch. Knocking over certain items can distract animatronics and allow you to escape. There are also certain spots placed around the map that allow you to hide from animatronics who are nearby if you’re in danger of being spotted or are being chased.

I can’t really tell if it’s because I have built a tolerance for jumpscares or what, but the scares in this game aren’t really that scary. I expected more from the main animatronics since they are able to follow you around, but the map bot telling you to take a map is more terrifying. The animatronics honestly look more on the silly side than the spooky side. Personally, I’d say the daycare attendant itself is creepy, so it’s jumpscare definitely is the most unsettling.

If you know anything about FNAF at all, you would know that the most crucial element to each game, book, website, etc. is the lore. It’s the lore that ties each game to the next, that creates the timeline, that makes the game so unique and interesting. Yet, Security Breach felt like it was really lacking in that aspect. Besides little callbacks in the NPC message board, a room full of sticky notes, and a couple voice lines, there was virtually nothing else. 

For a game that seemed like it was going to mention more about the whole Glitchtrap-Vanny situation originally introduced in FNAF: Help Wanted, they really didn’t touch on it at all. Vanny is a character you see in the Help Wanted DLC, a costume put on by Vanessa, the person in the tapes in Help Wanted. In Security Breach, we see Vanessa again as the security guard looking for Gregory, although it’s not revealed to new players that Vanny and Vanessa are the same until playing one of the endings. You see Vanny once or twice but besides that and an ending called “Vanny” at the end of the game it’s not explained at all. If I didn’t previously know that Security Breach was a FNAF game, the gameplay definitely wouldn’t give it away.

Speaking of the endings, there are six in total: There are two good endings, the goodbye ending, princess quest ending, superstar ending, and the worst ending. Each of these endings reveal different pieces of the lore, although it’s difficult to deduce which ending is canon, and which are bonuses. Rather than animating cutscenes for the endings, they opted to show a storyboard sequence of each of the endings. Considering the amount of extra time they allotted themselves with pushing back the release date, this showcased another lack of effort or attention to detail.

Security Breach honestly wasn’t my favorite game in the franchise. This game lacked substance that I usually appreciate from other FNAF games. All the bugs and glitches made it feel a bit less worth the additional year wait it took to be released. The newly introduced characters were probably the only redeemable quality of the game. Would I still recommend people to buy it? Yes. All Five Night’s at Freddy’s games are extremely enjoyable, regardless of the many critiques people may have for them.