‘Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage’ a short and sweet beat ‘em up

 

Menu screen for 'Fury's Rage.' Image Credit: Scott Cawthon

To say people are hyped for “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach” would be an understatement. The trailer has over 10 million views on YouTube, there’s an active community on social media, and more merch continues to be made despite the game still being unreleased. Sadly, the game was recently delayed on April 28th to late 2021 with “Five Nights at Freddy’s” developer Scott Cawthon citing that the company working on it, Steel Wool Studios, needed more time to make sure it was “finished properly.”

Despite the delay, Cawthon did not leave fans empty handed as on the same day he published “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage” a free-to-play short fighting game that gives the player control of animatronics from the new game and lets them beat up other animatronics. So could something that was made on such short-notice live up to the hype of Security Breach? Heck no, but it’s still a pretty fun game. 

“Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage” embraces the fact that it's not supposed to exist, even going as far as incorporating Cawthon himself into the game. When he’s not helping the player beat up animatronics, he’s calling himself out for not releasing “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach” on time. This self-awareness allows Cawthon to treat the whole game as if it was one big joke, making what should be bizarre feel natural and hilarious.”

Like all beat ‘em up games, “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage” has dedicated buttons that allow the character to move in all directions as well as attack and block. However, the game introduces a few unique elements such as the ability to summon Scott Cawthon and perform a side-kick by clicking both the jump and attack buttons at the same time. There is also a special move that can occur randomly with each side-kick

But that’s not to say the combat is flawless, in fact it can be quite frustrating when combined with the game's slow character movement. It is by no means unplayable, but when enemies are coming from both directions it can be especially difficult to avoid taking damage, even with a slide-kick. Using Scott usually takes care of this problem but it is not fun to get sandwiched between two animatronics with no way to escape. 

Roxanne Wolf performs special move. Image credit: Scott Cawthon

It’s hard to judge the difficulty for “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage,” especially since the player can choose from 4 characters, each with different strengths. For example, Freddy Fazbear has the fastest recovery time while Roxanne Wolf has the most luck and a poor recovery time. The difficulty all depends on how each animatronic is used and how generous the game is with restoration items that are all based upon luck. 

Let’s talk about the visuals. Everything from the characters to the enemies to the backgrounds and interface are just so fantastically designed and really nail the 80s aesthetic the game is going for. While the animations can be a bit stilted at times it never feels distracting and the expressiveness of each character and enemy really make up for it. 

If there’s one thing that conveys the 80s vibe it’s the music. Every soundtrack in this game brings in that classic synthesizer mixed with guitar riffs present in many songs during that decade. It also makes it a point to change the music during each boss battle to something that sounds a lot more threatening. Not every song is a winner but it's definitely one of the game’s strong points for sure. 

By far the biggest downside of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage” is that every level must be played in one sitting. There is no way to select each stage and once the game is closed the levels reset making it so that the player has to start over with the first area. Perhaps this was done to keep the arcade style but at least beating the game awards a star that doesn’t reset. 

“Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach: Fury’s Rage” might be nothing like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” but that’s what makes it so special. It doesn’t try to be like the horror games it's based upon and instead creates its own category within the franchise. In true “Five Nights at Freddy’s” fashion it is one game where fantasy and fun come to life.