Why FNaF 4 is Still Terrifying

So after receiving some requests from people in the comments I decided it was time to face my fears and play FNaF 4 in its entirety for my first time ever. The experience was horrifying, but I'm glad I did it, it's a great game!

Music:
Hibernating Evil- Leon Riskin
Where Dreams Die- Leon Riskin
Last Breath- Leon Riskin

[tomato]

I think another reason this game is so scary is because theres no tech to protect yourself with. In fnaf 3 you at least had the balloon boy audio, the vents, all that. Here, it's a normal bedroom, and you're a little child. No iron door, no built in light, just a dark room, you, and your flashlight.

[inconveniencestore_]

I happen to be legally blind so playing these games is a strange experience for me. I can still see, but even less than intended. Fnaf 4 reminds me of walking around my house at night, blind with only my ears to aid me, except that tension is justified by 10 foot tall murder robots

[The_Nocturnal_Raven]

I am more frightened by audio horror than visual horror. And Fnaf4’s terrifies me. It’s a perfect blend of hard to hear and startlingly loud. I can’t really bring myself to play this.

[HoradelJuegoV]

This game in a nutshell:

"You may not rest now, there are monsters nearby"

[FlipMyster]

Another factor to why this game is scary is the relateable atmosphere. Having it set in a dark bedroom really creeps me out as I and many were playing in one. It reminds me of when I was little and got freaked out by how dark it was when going asleep.

[rk]

Didn't Scott have to raise the decibels of the breathing because they were so hard to hear?

[filer]

You need to have your volume up to 90% (you can also use headsets or speakers and set it to 40%-50%) to hear the breathing the animatronics make, failing to hear it will cause a jumpscare to happen and most likely busted eardrums

[halftime]

Can we just appreciate how terrifying nightmare’s design is. His rows and rows of sharp teeth combined with him looming over you like a mountain blending into the darkness behind really makes him one of the scariest characters in the game series

[mcdc]

Gosh dang bro. How the heck did you complete a full playthrough of FNaF4 and then make such a high quality video about it in two days?

[goroakechi]

Frankly, I find Help Wanted easily the scariest. Something awful about actually being there and not having a computer screen to remind you it isn’t real is terrifying to me.

[cevichelife]

I have a friend that is supposedly immune to anything scary and finds almost nothing in the fnaf franchise remotely terrifying, even other horror games. Fnaf 4 tho?

He got a panic attack the last time he played it. He vows never to never play that game, it mortifies him

[JollyRanchersGrandma]

Personally I've always found psychological horror to be my favourite because there's never jumpscares, there's usually never a real threat but you go through it with a never ending sense of Dread and anxiety that causes you to get spooked at things that dont even classify as jumpscares, it grips you harder and longer than any jumpscare could, however when it comes to them I certainly think FNAF 4 is one of the best at using them.

[BubblesZap]

Definitley agree with all the great points made here!! For me the scariest FNAF I played (need to do a couple yet) is Pizzeria Simulator. And that's for 2 main reasons.
1 is not knowing, unless you have the motion detector on which the game actively punishes you for you have no clear way of knowing where any of the 4 animatronics are. It's a constant guessing game where there's no camera or door confirmations to help you or warnings, you're all on your own guessing based of noises. And unlike FNAF 4 which you can prove your guess as right by shining the flashlight, here you just have to hope you made the right call and have no way of knowing until the jumpscare comes. Having no control of knowing ANYTHING for nearly the entire night is the worst
2 Is that inversely you are in control of how the night goes. You can't just panic your way through it just being pushed through it until the end nope. You have to choose and actively put yourself in danger or else you'll never beat it. Being on a Haunted house ride is scary, but all you have to do is sit and wait for it too be over, walking into the dark having to truly force yourself to do it is way worse and way scarier imo than someone doing it too you. It goes against all preservation instinct and makes it miserable which is why I love it XD

[envystar]

Fell into a rabbit hole of watching all of your fnaf videos at 2 AM. Don’t regret it at all, they’re high quality and your commentary is interesting to listen to!

[Carshtime]

Finally! Someone who doesn’t declare FNAF 1 as the scariest game! FNAF 4 is really terrifying

[IncorporationXII]

As someone with automatonophobia this is also my scariest entry cause I have never been one to be scared of the dark, but rather scared of the unknown elements the dark hides, and when the first 3 games came out I was on meds that caused vivid hallucinations and made my sleep paralysis/ night terror episodes more frequent. Then this game comes out which is basically the embodiment of what I had already been experiencing in life minus the death, and it to this day terrifies me by returning me to that time of my life.

[Syvwulf]

I agree so much that FNaF4 is the scariest game. The only fault I have with the game in my opinion is that the animatronics are really overdesigned to the point that they just look badass and not actually "scary", but the gameplay is downright horrifying. FNaF4 is by far the perfect example of how to handle jumpscares in a game; almost none of them are cheap, because its your own fault.

The other FNaF games while still having a good amount of skill behind not dying always had a degree of RNG. FNaF4 still does have some luck behind it on nights 7 and up plus the challenge modes, but from nights 1 to 6 FNaF4 is surprisingly skill-based.

The game forces you to become vulnerable to the jumpscares in order to properly assess the situation and avoid them, forcing you to act immediately to avoid death or else you'll get jumpscared anyway. It delivers so much stress and fear since you have to raise your volume, listen extremely closely for the breathing, and hit the right key, all while making sure you manage everything properly so nobody gets in. The game sets up the perfect situation to scare you shitless with its jumpscares. Eventually, you get used to the mechanics. You THINK you know what you're doing, you THINK you know you're safe, you start feeling a little more comfortable with yourself. But each night, you gradually feel more and more tense since you know the game is going to get harder, and you feel less comfortable with your skills, and the feeling of dread slowly rises as the animatronics get faster and more aggressive. You open the door, you listen, and you turn on the light. But one little mistake, not listening close enough, not listening long enough, not managing things correctly, and you die, and you only have yourself to blame.

You aren't being cheaply scared out of nowhere for something you couldn't control, you only get jumpscared if you mess up and *allow* it to happen. The only truly cheap jumpscare in the entire game is the Foxy closet one since its completely and utterly unexpected.

Of course, it does get old after a bit. By the time I reached Night 6 I had become mostly immune to the fear and was just mildly startled by jumpscares, not quite as terrified as I would be on a blind playthrough. However, that's a given if you play any horror game for long enough, and FNaF4 still manages to at least still have a mild sense of dread and tension for me even though I'm used to the gameplay by now.

[theorphanobliterator]

One thing to note: you CANNOT get through the entire franchise without seeing a jump scare. A: you have the 8 bit mini games, some of which end in scares. B: when passing through foxy's auditorium (or whatever it's called) on night 3 to end the night, there is an unavoidable funtime foxy jump scare that is scripted

[nobodywl]

When I was younger I was TERRIFIED of everything related to fnaf, i would be scrolling through YouTube and I'd get really shaken up when Id see anything related to fnaf, but now Ive become so used to it that it's no longer scary anymore...

[Nazberrypie]

I always think of the fnaf sister location trailer giving a specific word to each of the fnaf games from 1 to 4:

FNAF1: fear
the first game plays on the "fear of the unknown", on how mysterious and uncanny the place and the animatronics are.
Many things are "unstable": animatronics glitching out, golden freddy appearing sometimes, The freddy poster removing his own head sometimes, which should be impossible.
All of this "out of logic" effects does bring fear to the player.

FNAF2: panic
the second game brings the plot more to the front and the animatronics makes sense in a way now.
That's why FNAF2 uses the overwhelming amount of new threats to make you lose your composure.
That's also why FNAF2 is the most linear game when you understand how the animatronics works.

FNAF3: dread
the third game makes a complete 180 here with only one real enemy.
The dread part here comes from the fact that springtrap is much more clever and present that any other animatronics prior.
This coupled with the fact that actions takes precious time (closing a vent, rebooting systems, going from the cameras to the reboot system)
all you can do while waiting is wondering what springtrap might be doing. That's the "dread" part I believe.
There is also no defense mechanisms when springtrap is in the office (no doors, no masks) so you end up staring at him until 6AM or the jumpscare, adding on to the stress.

FNAF4: terror
the fourth game changed one major thing, and that's why it's the most frightening of them all.
the game went from visual cues to audio cues.
It adds another fear, other than what you don't understand, being the fear of what you can't see. It forces you to use your earing, making jumpscares that more powerful.
the game also keeps you on edge all the time. even outside of the five nights: the plushtrap minigame and the 8-bit story parts all have their jumpscares.


All this to say that these four games play on different "types" of fear (personal favorite being FNAF 1) and FNAF4 being the most terrifying one is a no contest to me, audio cues forces you to stay alert while visual cues are less interesting here. You actually can play this game without seeing it and still perform really well.