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Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
Steam storefront header
Developer(s)	Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)	Scott Cawthon (PC) Clickteam LLC USA (Console and Mobile)
Composer(s)	Leon Riskin
Series	Five Nights at Freddy's
Engine	Clickteam Fusion 2.5
Platform(s)	Windows Android iOS Nintendo Switch Xbox One PlayStation 4
Release	Windows WW: October 7, 2016 Android WW: December 22, 2016 iOS WW: January 3, 2017 Nintendo Switch NA: June 18, 2020 EU: July 10, 2020 Xbox One WW: July 10, 2020 PlayStation 4 EU: July 21, 2020 NA: July 22, 2020
Genre(s)	Survival horror, point-and-click
Mode(s)	Single-player

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location is a 2016 point-and-click survival horror video game developed and published by Scott Cawthon. It is the fifth main installment in the Five Nights at Freddy's series and the sixth game overall. As the title implies, the game does not take place at one of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurants featured in previous installments, but instead at a sister location called Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental. This new location features its own set of animatronic characters, with Circus Baby being the central figure. Players control a new employee who must perform maintenance work at the facility where the animatronics are stored while defending themselves from the animatronics, which become mobile and homicidal at night. The gameplay in Sister Location is drastically different from previous Five Nights at Freddy's games, as it allows players to move between rooms and requires different objectives to be carried out from night to night.

Cawthon teased the game in April 2016 with the tagline "There was never just one". Following a trailer released in May, it was released on Steam on October 7, 2016, on December 22 of the same year on Android, and on January 3 of the next year on iOS. It received mixed reviews, with praise for its plot and voice performances, and criticism for some aspects of its gameplay. A sequel, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, was released on December 4, 2017. Ports for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 were released in 2020.

Gameplay

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location is a survival horror video game wherein the player assumes the role of a late-night technician named Mike at Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental who must survive against murderous animatronics each shift.

Though it continues the series' point-and-click format, Sister Location is the first game in the series to utilize a more dynamic gameplay environment. Players use crawlspaces to move between the facility's rooms: Primary Control Module, Funtime Auditorium, Circus Control, and Ballora Gallery. The player must perform tasks (which vary from night to night) in each room to continue. Instead of requiring the player to survive within a set timeframe against the animatronics each shift like in previous installments, the night concludes upon the completion of the player's assigned tasks.

As with all Five Nights at Freddy's games, failing to defend oneself from the animatronics results in a jumpscare, causing the night to restart. However, in this game, the animatronics do not actively pursue the player; instead, a jumpscare occurs if the assigned tasks are not completed correctly. If the player dies, there is a chance for them to enter an Atari-style platformer minigame—akin to the post-death minigames in Five Nights at Freddy's 2—the completion of which grants access to a Night 5 secret level, which brings back the immobile survival aspect of the original Five Nights at Freddy's.

Completing all five nights unlocks extra features: pictures and blueprints of the game's animatronics, their making-of, a map of the facility, and menu access to Circus Baby's cupcake minigame. As of the December 1, 2016 update, clearing all nights also unlocks the non-canon Custom Night mode, which is set in a modified version of the Night 5 secret room. The player can choose from several modes and difficulty settings, facing new animatronics, and must conserve both power and oxygen supplies to survive. Completing these modes allows the player to view a series of cutscenes that have been declared as part of the series canon; all except the last scene are in 8-bit resolution.

An achievement system exists in the form of four stars, obtained by unlocking both of the game's endings, completing the Circus Baby minigame, and completing the hardest difficulty on each custom night preset. Completing each custom night preset on each mode grants its star in the specific custom night mode.

Plot

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Mike is hired by Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, an underground facility where various animatronics are stored and are rented out to children's birthday parties. The animatronics originate from Circus Baby's Pizza World, a sister location of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza which shut down due to supposed gas leaks. Every night, Mike is assigned maintenance tasks by the facility's partially malfunctioning artificial intelligence HandUnit. These tasks typically make up an entire "night" of gameplay, with the game featuring five nights similar to its predecessors.

On the second night, the power goes out and the animatronics come to life. Circus Baby begins to communicate with Mike, warning that the other animatronics will kill him if they catch him, and gives instructions to help Mike survive as he goes to reset the circuit breakers. The following night, Mike is ambushed by the animatronic Funtime Foxy and hidden in a springlock suit overnight by Circus Baby. Mike is left to repel the tiny Minireenas from crawling into the suit before freeing himself. On the fifth night, Mike finds two hanged technicians where the animatronics should be, which prevents HandUnit from noticing they are missing. Circus Baby instructs Mike to destroy her empty body by going to the Scooping Room, where endoskeletons are violently "scooped" out of the animatronics' exterior shells, to "save what is good so the rest can be destroyed". She soon tells him that he is being followed by the animatronic Ballora, who intends to kill him.

Between nights, Mike watches an animated sitcom at home. Elizabeth, William’s daughter, is heard begging him to play with Circus Baby, despite her father's insistence that she must stay away.

Endings

If the player follows Circus Baby's instructions, they will find that all of the animatronics, including Ballora, had actually already been "scooped". Circus Baby's voice is revealed to be an amalgam of all of the animatronics named Ennard, who uses the Scooper to eviscerate Mike and disguise itself in his skin to live among people.

An alternate ending can be unlocked by playing an 8-bit minigame which occasionally appears after a game over, where the player controls Circus Baby. If the minigame is completed a certain way, Circus Baby is shown extending a claw from her stomach and pulling a little girl into it. This girl is implied to be Elizabeth, whose soul now possesses the animatronic. The player is then able to disobey Circus Baby's instructions and enter a private room, where they must fend off Ennard (who is upset that the player ignored its instructions) until 6 AM, similar to the first game in the series. An easter egg accessible in this area shows camera footage of the house featured in Five Nights at Freddy's 4, which belonged to William Afton and his family. After successfully surviving the night, Mike returns home, where Ennard is revealed to have followed him.

A series of 8-bit cutscenes plays if the player completes each mode of Custom Night on the hardest difficulty. Ennard eventually abandons Mike's decomposed body, but as Circus Baby's voice repeatedly says "You won't die", Mike somehow reanimates. In a final cutscene, Mike is revealed to be the son of William Afton, the mysterious murderer mentioned in the first game and represented by a purple figure in the last three games. He mentioned that he is now "living in shadows" due to his disfigurement. He reveals that William had instructed him to head to the underground facility to find and free "her", which he did, and that the animatronics mistook him for William, which is why they attacked him. With nowhere else to go, Mike resolves to find his father. The camera then pans over to the burned remains of Fazbear's Fright, from which Springtrap emerges.

Development and release

Five Nights at Freddy's (FNaF) developer Scott Cawthon had previously stated that Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (2015) would be the final game in the series. However, he announced Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location on his website in April 2016 with the tagline, "There was never just one." A trailer was uploaded online on May 21. The release date was later confirmed to be October 7. In October, Cawthon announced he was delaying the game to make certain dark plot elements more "kid-friendly"; this was revealed to be trolling.

Sister Location was first released on Steam. Shortly after, a patch was released that eased the difficulty of the fourth night, which many players had complained about. It was the first FNaF game to feature professional voice acting. The development of Sister Location was the longest in the series yet: the previous four were all released within a year. Rock Paper Shotgun believed that Cawthon was being more cautious after spin-off FNaF World (2016) was panned as "rushed"; retrospectively, The A.V. Club opined that "the extra time and care Cawthon put into both the game’s writing, and its production values" led to a "more ambitious sequel".

Downloadable content was later added for a non-canon Custom Night. Sister Location was also ported to Android. On January 3, 2017, a mobile port for iOS devices was released on the App Store. In March 2020, Clickteam released a remastered version of the iOS port closer to the Steam version, as they had done with previous games. They also released a Nintendo Switch port on June 18. Ports for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released respectively on July 10 and July 21, while Maximum Games included the first five games in the Five Nights at Freddy’s: Core Collection, which was released for the Xbox One, PS4 and Switch on January 12, 2021.

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	PC: 6/10
Gamezebo	MOB:
GameCrate	PC: 7.50/10

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location received mixed reviews. According to Metacritic, a review aggregator website that compiles reviews from publications and assigns a weighted average score out of 100, the game received a score of 62 based on 4 critic reviews. The aggregate website OpenCritic calculated that only 20% of critics recommended Sister Location.

Critics have praised the voice acting. GameCrate's Angelo D'Argenio opined that "he best thing spent his money on was a full voice-acting cast." He felt that the addition of voices to fit the animatronics enhanced the scare factor, stating that the animatronics "don’t seem like mindless death machines anymore. They are intelligent. They know who you are, and they can manipulate you." GameCrate and Kotaku praised the use of humor in addition to horror in the script—the latter noted an early scene where HandUnit glitches out and misinterprets the character's name as "Eggs Benedict".

Destructoid rated the game 6/10, while GameCrate rated it 7.50/10. Rob Rich of Gamezebo gave the mobile version a decent review, giving the game 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "I don't necessarily think Sister Location is the worst mobile iteration of the FNaF series, but it's certainly not the best despite the overall improved visuals."

References

1. Gelmini, David (August 8, 2016). "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location Launching in October; New Plot Details Released". Dread Central. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
2. Oxford, Nadia (October 14, 2016). "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location - Guide, Tips, and Walkthrough". VG247. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
3. Herrick, Langdon (October 27, 2016). "Local voice actor's first stab at horror game is scarily successful". The Advocate. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
   Derek Russell, W. (June 4, 2018). "Zombies, 'Avengers,' '5 Nights at Freddy's': Ex-teacher finds new voice". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
4. ^ Walker, John (April 25, 2016). "Sister Location Is Probably Five Nights At Freddy's 5". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
5. Good, Owen S. (April 23, 2016). "The next Five Nights at Freddy's game is called 'Sister Location'". Polygon. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
6. Favis, Elise (April 24, 2016). "Five Nights At Freddy's Creator Teases New Game Sister Location". Game Informer. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
7. Donnelly, Joe (May 23, 2016). "Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location Gets First Trailer". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
8. Blain, Louise (May 23, 2016). "Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location trailer goes back to the series' creepy model roots". GamesRadar+. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
9. Hernandez, Patricia (October 4, 2016). "Five Nights at Freddy's Creator Gives Worst Reason For Possible Delay [UPDATE]". Kotaku. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
10. O'Connor, Alice (October 10, 2016). "Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location Lurches Out". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
11. Hughes, William (October 21, 2019). "Five years of Five Nights At Freddy's". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
12. Santos, Jerome Delos (October 19, 2016). "Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location Custom Night DLC: How To Unlock, Release Window, And What To Expect". TheBitBag. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
13. Dotson, Carter (January 3, 2017). "'Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location' Finally Available on iOS". TouchArcade. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
14. Nelson, Jared (March 20, 2020). "'Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location' Remastered Update Now Available on iOS and Android". TouchArcade. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
15. Craddock, Ryan (June 18, 2020). "Five Nights At Freddy's: Sister Location Surprise-Launches On Switch". Nintendo Life. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
16. Romano, Sal (November 12, 2020). "Five Nights at Freddy's: Core Collection coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on January 12, 2021". Gematsu. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
17. ^ "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 24, 2024.
18. ^ "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location". OpenCritic. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023.
19. ^ Rowen, Nic (October 10, 2016). "Review: Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 9, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
20. ^ Rich, Rob (January 10, 2017). "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location – Why Always With the Sacrifices?". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
21. ^ D’Argenio, Angelo M. (October 11, 2016). "Review: Sister Location isn't FNAF...but it is terrifying". GameCrate. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
22. Hernandez, Patricia (October 7, 2016). "Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location Is More Than Just Jump Scares". Kotaku. Retrieved October 10, 2016.

External links

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