FNaF: Pizzeria Simulator

FNaF: Pizzeria Simulator, also known as Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator or FNaF 6, opens like a joke. A cheerful little 8-bit Freddy throws pizzas at hungry kids, and a voice tells you it is time to run your own restaurant. A few minutes later you are sitting in a dark office with a computer, a fan and a vent behind your back, listening for something that should not be in the building. That bait-and-switch is the whole idea, and it is why many fans call this the most surprising game in the Five Nights at Freddy's series.

Running Your Own Fazbear's Pizza

Every in-game day starts in the management screen. You have a budget, an empty pizzeria and a catalog full of attractions to buy, from cheap ball pits and arcade cabinets to expensive animatronic stages. Each item raises your restaurant's stats - atmosphere, health and safety, entertainment, bonus revenue - and also its liability risk, the chance that something goes wrong and you get sued. Cheap, shady catalog items usually have high risk. Sponsors and promotions can earn you money, but some of them make your night shift harder in exchange.

It is a small business game hiding inside a horror game, and the choices actually matter. More attractions mean more money and a better final rating. More stuff in the building also means more noise and more places for trouble to hide.

Salvaging the Animatronics

Some days start with something waiting in the back alley: a damaged animatronic. You can throw it out, or you can salvage it for cash. Salvaging is a tense little scene - the animatronic is strapped to a chair in front of you while you follow a checklist and play audio cues to test how it reacts. Watch it closely. If it moves, use the controls you are given to stop it, and if things go badly you can always stop and throw it away. Each successful salvage raises your money but also brings that creature into your pizzeria at night.

The Night Shift

The night is where the series' classic tension comes back. You sit at a desk and must finish a list of tasks on the computer: ordering supplies, printing advertising, approving deliveries. Each task makes noise and takes time. Meanwhile the animatronics you let in are crawling through the vents toward your office.

• The motion detector shows where something is moving in the vents.
• The audio lure plays a sound in a vent to pull animatronics away from you.
• The controlled shock stuns whatever is close.
• The fan and the computer itself make noise. Turning them off makes the room quieter but hotter.

The best approach is to finish tasks in short bursts and keep checking the motion detector. When you hear something close, stop working, turn things off and use the lure. Nights end once your task list is done, and the payday screen shows what your choices earned you.

Familiar Faces

The animatronics in Pizzeria Simulator are twisted versions of characters from earlier games: the rusty Scrap Baby in her claw and wheeled chassis, the tangled Molten Freddy, the burnt Scraptrap and the eerie Lefty. If you have played Five Nights at Freddy's and its sequels, the story pieces click together in a big way here. Hidden mini-games, side paths and several endings reward players who follow the rules - and players who break them.

Controls

The whole game is played with the mouse. Click to buy items in the catalog and place them in your restaurant, click the options during salvage, and in the office click the buttons on your computer screen to start tasks, switch between the motion detector and vent controls, and turn the fan and computer on or off. The short 8-bit scenes in between are simple arcade bits - just follow the on-screen prompt.

Tips to Survive More Nights

• Do not over-buy cheap items with high liability. A lawsuit can wipe out a whole day of profit.
• Think twice before salvaging. More money is nice, but each salvaged animatronic is one more visitor in the vents.
• Work in short bursts. A long uninterrupted task is when something sneaks up on you.
• The audio lure is your most important tool. Use it on the vent closest to the office first.
• Turning off the fan makes the room quieter, but watch the temperature before you forget to turn it back on.

Want more nights in a dark office? Try FNaF 2 with its mask and flashlight, or FNaF 4 where you defend a bedroom instead of a security office.