Let's talk about Security Breach. Spoilers ahead! You have been warned...
To start off I'd like to say that, yes, I do enjoy the game. I had a lot of fun with the 25 hours I've spent playing it. Maybe its because I spent so much of my childhood in malls that hadn't been worked on since the 80's, but the setting of Security Breach really resonated with me. Why yes, I would enjoy holding Freddy Fazbears hand while we walk around an (almost!) empty mall, how did you know SteelWool? Exploring the various locations inside the mall was easily my favorite part of the game. I took my sweet time looking at all of the things, and god was it lovely. So much love and care went into making the Pizzaplex a believable place (I wanna go!! I wanna go!!) The places that really stuck out to me were Monty Golf, the Atrium, and Rockstar Row.
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Monty Golf is one of the most unique locations in Security Breach. It feels like stepping into a jungle, which is a harsh contrast from the man-made shiny mall. I absolutely could see kids hanging out in there (hell I would too...) My only gripe with good old gator golf is the lack of things to be afraid of. During my playthrough no animatronics spawned in Monty Golf, so walking through and completing my fetch quest was a breeze. This wouldn't be too much of an issue in other games...but this is a horror game! I want to be scared, its what I paid for! Despite this, I still really enjoyed exploring and seeing the small details. Ok...the lack of animatronics thing is only partially true, as you do have to complete a Monty bossfight. The bossfight is surprisingly good! I did have to reset due to a bug where Freddy kept glitching onto the walkways, but I can look past that.
The Atrium is a hub to the Pizzaplex, so you'll probably be seeing it a fair amount. At first I didn't really care for the place, but the giant hologram of the main animatronics really stole my heart. The Atrium is another place that I would love to visit (during the day please.) There is also the added threat of Roxy and Chica patrolling the various floors, and sometimes Monty and Vanny too! The Atrium is great for a central hub, it really made all of the backtracking I had to do much less gruelling.
ROCKSTAR ROW!!!!!!!!!! I love Rockstar Row so much. Giving the main animatronics green rooms was such a good idea. At the start of the game, you crawl through a vent and look into every green room. Its easily one of my favorite moments in Security Breach, such a great introduction to the animatronics. Ok I've gone on for a bit about locations lets talk about gameplay.
Security Breach is the first person shooter of FNAF games (you literally have a gun.) Some controls feel a little wonky, mostly with pressing buttons and switching between your held item. There have been many times that I pressed E to activate a button but the game lovingly whispered into my ear "you better do that again pal! that E press was NOT up to our standards." I don't see people talk about this often (probably because most people who complain about Security Breach have never even played it BUT we'll get to that later.) This whole E pressing conundrum frustrated me to no end, especially during the parts of the game where I needed to activate buttons faster than the speed of light. Then there's the item switching issue I brought up earlier. Whenever you exit Freddy mode, Gregory stops holding whatever item he had before. This means you have to press the button bound to whatever item you need to pull out. This would be annoying, but fine if it WORKED. However, it does not in fact work. So you end up pressing the button multiple times until Gregory decides its time to pull out whatever item you wanted.
Controls aside, a majority of Security Breach is fetch quests. Don't worry about it though, Gregory getting the piss pass from Monty's penis palace is extremely important to the lore. I actually don't mind the fetch quests that much. Many things can be forgiven if the enviroments are interesting enough (they usually are!) HOWEVER, I do not care for another common Security Breach activity, the breaker missions.
I played Security Breach a day after launch, and I went in completely blind. I did not have access to any exploits, cheats, or anything remotely helpful! The daycare breaker quest brought me to my knees and gave me the fear of god. "But author!" I can hear you say through the screen, "(INSERT YOUTUBER) beat the daycare first try! Could it be that you just need to get good?" I do not claim to be good at the video game, beloved reader, but the breaker missions are designed in a way where you don't know where the damn breakers even are (unless of course...you die enough times to memorize it...) This is at its worst with, unfortunately, the first breaker mission in the game. This leads to a frustrating loop of trying to map out the breaker locations, while being repeatedly killed by the moon animatronic with janky A.I. Remember when I mentioned that I went in completely blind? If I hadn't this section would not have given me trouble. There are little distractions all over the ground that the moon guy prioritizes over chasing you, and if I would have known they were viable...
Moving on to another fun breaker experience, the Arcade! I had less trouble with the arcade than I had with the daycare, but it still was not fun to play. Unlike daycare with its distractions, arcade gives you no such luxuries. You also get Monty and Chica! Monty is immune to the gun and the camera (your only two lines of defense), so you gotta slink around him. Sadly, the arcade is also filled with S.T.A.F.F bots that will instantly alert Monty to your location whenever you bump into them. Fun!
The breakers in the arcade are significantly easier to locate than in the daycare. You even get a hint from the announcer as to where they are! This doesn't make getting to them any easier though. Every time you alert a S.T.A.F.F bot (and trust me, this will happen at least once or twice), you have to either get to the breaker without dying and pray that the game respects your pressing of the E key, or run away and lose your progress of approaching said breaker. I completed the arcade in 4 attempts, but I know this section took others a lot longer. Its not an easy mission! There are also no save spots in the arcade during the breaker mission, so you gotta do it all in one go. Easier said than done.
Ohh boy, lets get into it.
Security Breach's plot is almost nonexistant until the end of the game. Suddenly everything kicks into gear with like 5 minutes of gameplay remaining and you're thinking "holy shit slow down! Who is Vanny?? Who is GREGORY?? WHY ISNT FREDDY ALSO POSSESSED BY AFTON??" So, so many questions. Security Breach destroyed one of the best endings in video game history, only to drag William Afton out of his disgusting, maggot covered coffin to be the villian to yet another FNAF game. Poor William, he's been burned and killed so many times that I don't even thing a meteor colliding with Earth could take him out. I don't know how big of a role Scott played in writing the plot, but it really lacks the mysterious charm all of the other FNAF games have. Every thing is far too vague for a majority of the game, and when Security Breach does hold your hand and blast lore at you it feels...wrong. We got answers to questions no one was asking, and everything else was left vague. Ok Steelwool, these little facts about the Glamrock animatronics are cool and all, but who is Gregory and why is he homeless. This is all ignoring the bunny shaped elephant in the room, Vanny. Vanny was hyped up to be some mastermind villian, but you see her TWO times during the game (not counting the endings.) A majority of Security Breach is spent without a real antagonist, which is fine I guess...but the whole Vanny thing just left me disappointed. A new FNAF villian could have been so interesting! Alas, we once again had William Afton shoved in front of our faces like you would with a ring of keys and a baby. That's all I really have to say about the plot. I hope the DLC can improve it.
THIS IS IMPORTANT I SWEAR...ok maybe not important but at least noteworthy. To elaborate on what I said earlier about most FNAF fans not even playing the game they talk so much shit about, Security Breach is a very made-for-YouTube game. This makes it super easy for the new generation of FNAF kiddies to consume it without shilling out 40 bucks of their parents money. I even watched Markiplier play the damn thing despite having it in my own Steam library. A fandom consisting mainly of children is typical for five nights, but unlike the other games Security Breach dragged hundreds of thousands of TikTok kids into Freddy hell. Thinking back to my days as a homunculus, FNAF fandom culture was quite different years ago. I remember talking about how much I loved Foxy on iFunny (does anyone else remember iFunny?? Huge part of my earlier internet days), and someone in the comments would tell me foxy x mangle was the TRUE and HONEST ship. Nowadays I open up TikTok and see someone getting death threats over what race they make their human version of the robots. It feels...less special. Perhaps I am looking through nothing but a lens of nostalgia. Maybe I no longer have the ability to relate to 13 year olds...maybe maybe maybe.
On a positive note, the new fanon content has been pretty damn good. It's a little silly to see such angsty art featuring the glamrocks (easily the cutest and most anime-esque of the FNAF animatronics), but I'm here for it.
I know I just spent the last 1000 words bashing this game, but trust me when I say that I enjoyed it a lot. This was the breath of fresh air that Five Nights at Freddy's needed. I've been a fan of the series since 2014, and I really wanted something different than the last 7 years of confined offices and ClickTeam graphics. Not to say that Scotts FNAF games aren't good, you just can't keep making the exact same thing forever! I'm also a big fan of the new animatronic designs. They aren't scary, not even slightly, but they're so unique and interesting to look at.
These are the best character designs we've gotten out of a FNAF game in years (in my OPINION.) I would absolutely attend their concerts and then cry when I don't get a Freddy Fazbear autograph. I also like the character personalities in general. I know some FNAF fans don't care for the new trend of voice acted animatronics in the games, but I love it personally. It's everything I wanted when I played the original games!
Security Breach is a broken, sometimes frustrating, mess of a game. But they sure did make those robots nice to look at. Nice personalities too! They make believable children's performers. They're also a joy to watch throughout the game.
Well, it appears as if I have exhausted my main thoughts on Security Breach. Let's all look forward to the massive bug fixing patch SteelWool will release...eventually?