Five Nights at Freddy’s Into the Pit by Mega Cat Studios and Scott Cawthon plunges players headfirst into a retro-inspired, 2D horror adventure that spans time and space. I dove into the pit on Steam, and it was five thrilling nights I’ll never forget.

Being dropped off by my dad at a dreary, run-down pizzeria in an equally gloomy town for the night isn’t my idea of a good time. Oswald’s father, unfortunately, needed to do just this. Oswald did not appreciate being left to his own devices amongst the once-thriving establishment’s bland and stale remains. So naturally, a little prank on his dad, who was late for pick-up on this particular evening, seems perfectly reasonable, a quick dip into the very ominously labelled “do not use” ball pit. It turns out the pit, which most certainly caused many cases of pink eye, was also the gateway to another time. The pit takes him back on a trip to 1985 when Jeff’s Pizzeria was Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a place filled with happy kids, arcade machines, party activities, and animatronic entertainment; life was good. So what happened to it to become the derelict pizza joint in the future? It turns out that the animatronics got a little too lively.

Oswald leaves the ballpit, and his father finally arrives at the pit’s edge, only to get dragged under, kickstarting five nights of fear. I didn’t spend all my time at Freddy’s. I needed to navigate Oswald’s home while the super menacing Yellow Rabbit moonlighted as Oz’s dad and lurked through the hallways. Gameplay involves finding and using objects to progress, in the house this could be a phone number, or finding a ladder. In the pizzeria, it was often finding keys and gadgets to get ahead of the creepy creatures; in most circumstances, the best course of action is to sneak by and find a way to use items to escape.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Into the Pit takes classic old-school 2D-pixel art style and point-and-click gameplay, adding a dark, modern twist. It’s a game of hide and seek gone wrong in all the right ways. I’ll sneak through the eerie pizzeria and hear the robotic footsteps in the distance. The options are to play it safe and hang back until the robot completes its pass or use an item, like some form of noisemaker, to lure it elsewhere. When those stingers hit, and Oswald is seen, it’s on, run and hide. My whole being is focused on survival at that moment. A QuickTime event can be the difference between life and death. Each night amps up the tension tenfold. Thankfully, the way the gameplay is set up, there’s a good balance of tense and quieter moments so that you can catch your breath after particularly harrowing encounters.

The suspense is palpable, with eerie minimalistic sounds, a few whirrs of abandoned arcade machines, creaks of floorboards, and music that peaks and lulls based on detection. The escalating heartbeat sound while hiding wrecked my nerves. When getting seen or during a jumpscare, the intensity is enough to make me turn tail and run right back out to the pit rather than work my way through the rooms trying to lose my pursuer. While that doesn’t sound like a good thing, it most definitely is in the way it delivers the scares.

Though the sound was so well done for ambience, it had its gameplay pitfalls. At times, pinpointing where the rabbit and its friends would come from took a lot of guesswork. Even with headphones on, it was often too late by the time a door handle started rattling, or I walked slightly too close behind in a hallway and would be found out. Likewise, the screen border effect acts like a sensor, glowing red and yellow based on their vicinity to me, but it could have been more helpful. I often would hide somewhere and wait for a complete cycle of the creature’s path before making my way to the next zone.

There is a surprising amount of variety in gameplay. Visiting locations like home and school in between gave me time to prepare for another dive. While each area falls into zones, there are shortcuts, obstacles, and fun mini-games. It’s much less constrained than expected. Exploration rewards the most involved players with plenty of secrets to discover, collectables, and alternate endings. Finding all of these adds plenty of replay value, and it stays fresh with how the game is structured. Completing the five nights took me a few hours, a short but super-stimulating horror experience with plenty of reasons to dive back in.

As expected, there are a few jumpscares and quite a bit going on for light sensitivities that might be overstimulating. Playing on a keyboard, mouse, or controller is pretty straightforward. It’s primarily an option to run, hide, and interact with inventory items. You’ll test your trigger finger when it comes to QuickTime events. For those like me who won’t even risk being caught, there’s an option to auto-play hiding mini-games for peace of mind.

This game is not for the faint-hearted. I played on Creepy (the “story” difficulty) and found it challenging to keep my cool. I had many moments where I was lucky if I inched out a getaway. For the braver, there’s Frightening, which is essentially the balanced experience.

On completion, there’s the addition of Terrifying and Nightmare difficulties, with advanced settings to tailor the aggressiveness of bots and manipulate spawns of items. I can tell you now that I did not try these. I’m sure extra difficulty modifiers make for a rip-roaringly good time for those into torment by animatronics. There are multiple endings and secrets for those strong-willed enough to find them.

For any difficulty, it’s a case of if you fail and die the checkpointing becomes a problem. Rather than picking up where I left off, I sometimes found myself back at the beginning of the evening, which broke some of the immersion. It can also be challenging to figure out the next step in progression. It could involve a lot of back and forth between environments; it was cool to see how areas would change each night; if I found an escape route at home, the bad bunny would board up the windows. While the game has a few pitfalls, the clever gameplay, exciting story, and ultimate feeling of being a loving extension to the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore make Into the Pit a crucial addition to fans of the series.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Into the Pit perfectly captures the essence of the FNaF series. It takes the creepy lore and finds a way to turn it into a scary yet scintillating tale of a son trying to save his father wrapped up in a retro package. I would prefer a better pizza party, but it is a perfect game to cap off the 10th anniversary of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise.

Written by: Yasmin Noble