3/5 ★ – PhatBaby's review of Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic.

I try to play pretty much every major mascot horror game. I don't really know why. I guess it reminds me of reading books like Goosebumps as a kid; spooky horror stories directed towards younger audiences. FNAF, Poppy Playtime, the one with the little fox guy that was surprisingly very genuinely funny. I've played a whole heap of these, and that's why I'm gonna piss off the crowd that really wants to hate this game and tell you its the best 3D mascot horror game ever made. Steel Wool has definitely been a little all over the shop since they took the reins, but you can tell they poured their heart and soul into this, and they've made what's essentially a baby's first Alien Isolation. Does it have the finesse, the tightness, and the complexity of Alien Isolation? No, it doesn't. But the metroidvania influences, and the idea of constantly being stalked while you explore are fun, and the whole thing has zero bloat, which is what made playing Security Breach feel like eating an endless buffet of sawdust while your dad sat in the corner telling you that you couldn't leave until your plate was clean. There's an actual direction here that isn't "throw some gameplay concepts at a wall so we can pretend this is a sellable product, and then spend the rest of the time plastering in fan service and non-sensical secrets with no tangible answers so YouTubers can create speculation videos on storylines we have no clue how to finish." And yes, I think that vision largely just shifts between being baby's first Alien Isolation, then cutting to a Poppy Playtime chase, then cutting back to being baby's first Alien Isolation again, but it's a direction, and there's a lot here that shines through as being a competent horror game that can stand on its own even if its not at world class level. I think Scott Cawthon's original games had a vision. Each one had a purpose and a unique approach to the formula, and that's why they manage to capture such a passionate fanbase. But some of the new brand of semi-open world, 'big monster runs at you in scripted hallway chase' games are just lacking a clear, distinct focus. They're trying to be AA horror games, but they're just a vessel to pump in purposefully obscure "lore" that they desperately hope you'll talk about on Reddit while they sell you plushies on a half-baked merch store. There's no direction to the horror; no control over the experience that makes it feel like anything but a way to deliver theory bait. Meanwhile, here, the monster designs are cool, some of the fights have neat ideas, and the way the core environment connects is clever and rewarding, never requiring you to backtrack like crazy and unlocking new areas at a steady pace. But my favourite thing about this game is that it finally finds some semblance of balance between being obscure and upfront with the story. Security Breach was like speaking to a troll under a bridge who asked you to solve three riddles when he actually wanted you to play 20 questions with him instead. It has no goddamn idea what the story actually is, so it disguises every mystery with another mystery, and then that mystery somehow has a third branch of five other mysteries. This, by comparison, has a base storyline that is actually tangible and interesting, and the main branches of it are resolved while also giving you some little side branches to speculate on. Poppy Playtime is actually very good at storytelling, even if the story itself is less compelling, and this feels a lot more akin to how Mob Entertainment is weaving their narrative. Tell a main story that has answers and solutions, while sewing new mysteries to be speculated upon by the community while they wait for a new game. There are a lot of things I could rag on here. The story itself is backloaded, which is always somewhat annoying, meaning the first half is just moving through a gauntlet of spooky, scary monster chases and then all the good stuff comes in the last hour. They definitely could've spread that out a little more to make the big reveals feel less clumped together. The Mimic is a cool villain, but they never use his mimicking abilities to do anything even remotely compelling or inventive. Why isn't there a mechanic where he tries to lure you somewhere pretending to be another NPC? At the moment, bro just has that shit on his CV when all he can do is be like "I'm an elephant now, lol." And the whole thing is still just a bit janky, clunky, and lacking polish. But I was surprised by how I genuinely just had a decent time from beginning to end. Is it the best horror game of the year? No. Is it the most fun I've had with one of these "we're going beeg 3D mode" mascot horror games? To be honest, yes. People constantly rag on them for "killing the franchise" and "ruining Scott's vision," but Steel Wool isn't working with PNGs anymore. They're trying to evolve the franchise while not being a major league studio, and despite some stumbles, they're getting better and better. I'm excited to see what they do next, because it gives me hope that maybe, one day, we'll see these games successfully flourish into really great AA horror games that aren't propelled into being great because they have such large, passionate and creative communities propping them up.