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2 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 47.0 hrs on record
Posted: 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:26pm
Updated: 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:28pm

The Rant:
Gang, what a wild ride Freddy Fungus has been these last few years. What isn't as wild to me is the RIDICULOUS amount of bugs this game has. That, however, isn't why I'm poorly rating this game. I can ignore boundary breaks and occasional confusing broken bits, since every game since the 80's has had them, but there was so much potential here! The first hour is so well polished, but the lack of proper guidance after that only made the game confusing for me. For example, did you know Chica's voicebox ALSO allows you to break through specific fences, that AREN'T MARKED LIKE MONTY'S? Neither did I, because I was slamming my head into the two fences leading into Roxy Raceway for 20 minutes as Gregory with no result. I had to look up how to get past it, and the game doesn't make it clear to those who decommission Chica first that there's a ChicaTM only fence you can also break through. Her power was listed as "Stun_Animatronics.exe", not "MontyClaw2.exe"! Plus, there's only roughly 5 ChicaTM fences in the game, so it only exists as a barrier to 2-3 collectibles and something for players to get lost over.

What makes me even sadder, though, is how they handled actual Freddy. Not about his personality or how he's designed, but how they handled him in gameplay. The first time Freddy runs out of battery, you are designed to be in him when it happens. It then simply boots you out and shoves him off to the nearest Recharge Station. A simple way to handle him losing power, and he's your friend so he let you out before running off. Makes sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too! So, w h y, pray tell, does Freddy pull you out and jumpscare you the SECOND time you run out of power while waddling around in him? I completely understand the need for the battery system, but Steel Wool Studios didn't even keep one of the first things that we were taught consistent. Sure, it gets a scare out of us, but Freddy is supposed to be our one ally in this game. It just doesn't make sense for him to eat us for walking around an extra SECOND past the roughly 75 we're normally allowed without battery upgrades. What makes this offense worse though, is that there are several hidden dialogues Freddy can have with Gregory if you walk to certain spots in him. So, I'm already discouraged from using Freddy because of power consumption with sparse recharge stations. Fine. But you design him to kill me after a SINGLE second too long up in his guts, and I'm not going to walk in him everywhere I go.

The two examples of hidden dialogue I'm aware of are in Parts & Services, where Freddy has an existential crisis seeing the endoskeletons. This was a hilarious bit of interaction between Freddy and Gregory, and I just wish I heard it outside of a YouTube video of someone else who happened upon it. Sure, you could argue that bringing Freddy back there was kind of the reward, but this is exactly my issue. You have to be IN Freddy to hear it (Granted, you might not have to be for this specific example since I didn't test it, but you do for the next so I presume it functions similarly). This is rough enough on its own, but the second example grinds my gears. If you are inside of Freddy when walking past Bonnie's curtains in Bonnie Bowl, he offers a small blurb about how he doesn't come up here anymore, and how he misses Bonnie. This was an awesome, heartwarming thing to hear about someone we're supposed to get attached to, again, if I didn't find it in a YouTube video.

*You do, in fact, need to be in Freddy to hear this!*

Why is that a problem, you may be asking yourself? Because they designed a fun little thing called the FazWatchTM that allows Freddy to talk to Gregory without being nearby! So, Steel Wool, you expected me to walk through a specific area of Bonnie Bowl, inside Freddy, who has a 75 second death timer that discourages me from wearing him more than it should, even though he could just say that to me through the watch? Pardon my French, but that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous.

"But Cheebsy, we wanted Freddy to be there to tell you-"

Let me stop you right there. Ignoring the FazWatchTM communication entirely, we aren't shown a single memorable example of him talking to us about things when we're specifically walking him around. And that's the key here, memorable. If you really wanted us to tote Freddy around, don't punish us when he runs out of battery. You didn't the first time! And if you're too stuck on some free scares to give on that, then at LEAST provide a memorable few times when we're joyriding Freddy that they have conversation. Perfect example of things they could talk about: Why Gregory is in the PizzaPlexTM to begin with, for starters! Tease or foreshadow the disappearances sooner than in ONE OF THE GAMES ENDINGS. If you wanted the Vanny Ending to hit us harder, show the two bonding some more. Honestly, it would solve a lot of the problems this game has with investment.

Speaking of investment, how about you tell us a bit more about Vanessa? It sure would make the Savior ending a little more interesting if we were allotted a SECOND to care about her! Turn Gregory being afraid of being caught to being determined to save the Vanessa behind the bunny! It would spice up every single ending, and maybe make the comics a little less hard to sit through.


The Good Parts:
This game had some BEAUTIFUL scares. (Rest removed Due to Length, See Comments!)

Footnotes:
Please, God, fully voice the comic endings! (Rest removed Due to Length, See Comments!)

Bugs I've Found (From Memory):
First patch taking up an extra 75 gigabytes before 'refunding' the space (Patched?, Fixed by Second Patch). Freddy being unable to carry Gregory (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Fixed on Restart). Injured Freddy walk-cycle breaking in the hallway before pointing Gregory off the main stage (Unpatched, Multi-occurence (See Markiplier's SB playthrough for partial), Fixed on Personal 4th Restart). Being unable to enter certain Recharging Stations throughout the game (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Fixed on Restart). 14 Miscellaneous OOB (Out of Bounds) locations I could e a s i l y access, 5 of which are used in speedruns and achievement hunting. Freddy opening doors and sliding doors for Gregory without proper security clearance ("Patched" for the most part, but still possible). 25+ crashes that wasted at least 10 hours of the 47 I have in this game due to memory leakage when loading large areas like the PizzaPlex that caused the game to freeze and couldn't be reported as crashes, even on Low settings (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Not Fixed by Restart). Blind Roxy shuffle where she moved as fast as a crawl during her Blind Chase Sequence (Unpatched, Multi-occurence (See Markiplier's SB playthrough), Fixed on Restart). Monty's lunge causing him to become a God and phase through the ground floor walls in the West Arcade (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Possibly Fixed by Restart). Opening the Fazwatch also causing you to crash, wasting a few more hours of my time (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Not Fixed by Restart). Loading Dock dialogue, entry, and interactions entirely broken when visiting after completing El Chips (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Not Fixed by Restart). 'Glitched' save points not becoming unglitched after leaving certain sections of the game (Unpatched, Multi-occurence, Fixed by Restart). These are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.


TL;DR:
This game has excellent parts, but the sum of its whole isn't worth anything more than watching someone else deal with its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Removed sections of review due to length, see the rest in the comments.
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9 Comments
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the scronk 27 Dec, 2024 @ 12:09am 
the schizophrenic ramblings of a man with truly good taste:amongusbird:
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:40pm 
One last thing; Steam didn't give me the achievement for getting all the other achievements. Another thing to add to the pile.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:33pm 
The Good Parts (Cont.) I
Horror is the FazbearTM family breadwinner, and this game lived up to it for the most part, despite its flaws. The Map Bot scares were fantastic, the Endo section made my skin crawl, and Roxy. Ooh, MAN, Roxy! Her running at you and having to dodge lunges to have her break doorways was awesome. She had a bug occasionally where she'd be stuck in a waddling animation and it basically broke the sequence, but aside from that, hats off to the Steel Wool team there!
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:33pm 
The Good Parts (Cont.) II
I mentioned that the first hour (12-1AM, not the pre-game, which was also handled well), and how polished it was. Introducing us to Sun and Moon, the whole Daycare Sequence, and stealthing around one of the bots for the first time were all excellent teaching methods for how the rest of the game would play. Even if it took a bit to get to, the Music Man gauntlet, while frustrating, put a panic in my soul I didn't expect this game could pull off. The use of loud, thumping beats with a giant spider crawling through holes in the wall distracting me from things like hearing the animatronics notice me made the whole section so intense I was at the edge of my seat! What a fantastic way to bring in this weird creature who we've been confused by since Pizzeria Simulator.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:32pm 
The Good Parts (Cont.) III
The use of Security Badges to dictate how players navigated through the PizzaPlexTM was a clever implement of limiting where players could go at the start of the game. I wish it was used a little more, and that the actual max Security Level obtainable was 10 so we could see what was behind the level 10 doors. That's just a small exploration itch for me, but its worth mentioning.
I really loved how the animatronics got more dirty throughout the night. Having fully beaten the game, I'm still not fully sure if that has lore significance or if its just them being so active that caused all the bruises and scrapes, but I thought it was a really cool detail nonetheless.
Lastly, I wish I could've given this game a positive review with these good parts in mind, but it doesn't make sense to.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:32pm 
Footnotes (Cont.) I
Freddy speaks to Gregory for one line and that's all we get?! Not getting to hear Gregory say "Disassemble Vanny!" or hear a single fucking thank you from Vanessa that isn't our FazbearTM branded ice pop was such a letdown, and made the grind to get all the achievements even more of a slog.
The loading dock area was completely broken because I did El Chips first. So much so that the collectibles in the stealth sequence with Chica afterwards weren't reachable by one of the doors that led into it. If it was such a "one-or-the-other" choice, then remove it from my Missions board.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:32pm 
Footnotes (Cont.) II
Speaking of the Missions board, if you have it, USE IT. If you had added some things like "Investigate the Strange Happenings in Roxy Raceway" to help figure out how to get the Stay ending, "Investigate Under the Daycare Theater" after picking up the MazerciseTM bag that gives you a hint about it, and "Find a different way into Chica's Green Room" when you try the door and don't have the security clearance to grab whatever pass was in there so you can remember the vent system behind Rockstar Row and use the Screwdriver, just to name a few.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:32pm 
Footnotes (Cont.) III
All the little hints that this game was rushed to meet the postponed deadline are too obvious sometimes. The removed holes from Monty Golf, the lack of any affect outside of an achievement from getting the glitched BBWorld ending (Which was hard enough to warrant something extra, by the way), and the fact that the comic endings struck me less as stylized showcases of the other possible endings, and more Steel Wool losing the animation budget all lend credence to the idea that this game could've stewed a bit more in the Game-Making OvenTM before being released to millions of waiting fans.
Cheebsy 7 Jan, 2022 @ 9:31pm 
Footnotes (Cont.) IV
General confusion. Is there a normal, non-glitched ending to BBWorld? I got to 50,000 points before I died, but the moon gauntlet killed me before I could get past the second cloud section. An answer on this would be neat. Other confusions came from the exact mission suggestions I had. Those didn't come from nowhere. Oh, and all of Mazercise. Give us a top-down view and colored buttons that correlate to sections or don't make us guess at all.