Sense the series is complete, or at least presumably complete, I thought I would share my thoughts on the series. I think that the series is good but has some room for improvement. The games required that you pay attention to the little details in the background so that the story can be understood. Personally I liked this, mostly because it was obvious enough if you paid attention but not so obvious that players can get it without thinking. The story itself was unique and did not seem to borrow from any other stories, at least not any stories that I know. A unique story is something that really makes or breaks a horror game. If you know what's coming and how the story will develop then it's hard to be afraid of things when they do happen. This is the biggest thing that makes Five Nights at Freddy's stand out.

Following up on that point, the FNAF series has some really good fundamentals and is a great game. The series gives you just enough information to tell its story but not so much information that you truly understand what is happening around you until the series is over. This is key to any horror game. Control of information is tantamount to the control of fear. In addition the series doesn't ever allow its premise to go stale. What I me by this is that there isn't ever a point where the jump scares or use of animatronics gets old. This, like control of information is critical for any horror game. Jumpscares are particularly difficult to keep fresh because they become routine when reused too much.

All of this is not to say that the FNAF series is without any real problems. Most pointedly the good and bad endings in FNAF 3. Getting the good ending requires some very convoluted and strange inputs from the player. Getting into the requisite mini games and properly using "glitches" to beat these games properly is beyond what should be reasonably required of players. Without a guide it is unlikely that players will get the good ending. In addition the series isn't particularly subtle with how it gets most of its scares. Jumpscares are not subtle, period. Something jumping at you and screaming is far from being a high form of terror. Without these jumpscares the series loses a lot of its strength, so to speak. Because the series reqires such "cheap" and "low" methods to gain scares it is my opinion that the series isn't as good as it could be. This is not to say a reliance upon jumpscares is unexpected from an indi game with a single person designing it.

So, those are my thoughts on the series. What do you guys think?