Five Nights at Freddy's 3

The gameplay deviates from the previous games in the series slightly. In keeping with the first two installments, players are once again tasked with surviving a week of night shifts, lasting from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. (4 minutes of real time). However, this game features only one animatronic that can physically attack the player. Several animatronics from earlier games return as "phantoms" that cannot harm the player directly, but can hinder efforts to survive until 6 A.M.

The game takes place in a horror-themed attraction named Fazbear's Fright, which is constructed using props and equipment salvaged from the former Fazbear Entertainment restaurants. The attraction aims to capitalize on the previous incidents that occurred at the various restaurants formerly operated by the company. The player must monitor two separate security camera systems, one each for the rooms/corridors and ventilation ductwork in order to track the animatronic's movements. If the animatronic is in the vent, it can be sealed, but there are no doors in the attraction. In addition, the player must watch the status of three operating systems and reboot them whenever they malfunction. These systems control the cameras, a set of audio devices that can be used to lure the animatronic away from the player's position, and the ventilation. Failure to keep the latter of these running can cause the player to momentarily lose vision as well as hallucinate seeing multiple animatronics in the building. If the real animatronic enters the office, it jumpscares the player and the game ends.

The game consists of five nights, increasing in difficulty, and completing all five unlocks an even more challenging "Nightmare" night. Going through the game normally grants a star at the fifth night. Several low-resolution minigames are hidden within the main game; completing all of them unlocks the game's "good ending" and grants access to bonus content[4] as well as a second star.

If the player completes the "Nightmare" night, they will unlock the cheat menu and a third star. The cheat menu offers a range of options, including a mode to make the animatronics act more aggressive and therefore make the game harder, depending on the player's skills. Other cheats include a radar and the ability to make nights faster. Once again completing Nightmare mode with only the aggressive cheat enabled grants the fourth star.

Set thirty years after the events of the first game, the player assumes the role of a newly-hired employee at Fazbear's Fright, a horror-themed attraction based on the unsolved mysteries of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, constructed using paraphernalia salvaged from the original restaurants. During the week before the attraction is scheduled to open to the public, the player must watch over the facility from the security office during their shift (12:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. game time), using a network of surveillance cameras placed in the rooms and air vents. In addition, the player must monitor the status of three operating systems – cameras, audio and ventilation – and reboot them whenever they begin to malfunction. Camera problems cause the video feeds, already poorly lit and distorted, to become totally obscured by static. If the ventilation fails, the player's vision begins to black out. The player may also see phantoms of animatronics from the previous games; these can cause system malfunctions, most commonly in the ventilation, but cannot directly harm the player.

After the first night, the staff at Fazbear's Fright uncover an older deteriorated, rabbit-like animatronic which they nickname "Springtrap"; The player must now prevent it from entering the office and attacking; if this occurs, the game ends. The player can seal off the air vents at certain points to block its progress, but cannot seal the door or air vent that lead directly into the office. The audio system, when functioning properly, can be used to play sound effects that draw Springtrap away from the office. Ventilation malfunctions can cause the player to hallucinate seeing more than one animatronic on the cameras.

As the nights progress, the player hears a series of instructional cassette tapes (similar to the telephone calls from the first two games) that instruct employees how to operate two suits which can function as both an animatronic and a costume for humans. The tapes also discuss a "safe room," an additional emergency room which "is not included in the digital map layout programmed in the animatronics or the security cameras, is hidden to customers, invisible to animatronics, and is always off-camera."

However, later nights discourage use of the suits. The Night 4 recording states the suits are "deemed temporarily unfit for employees" following "an unfortunate incident at the sister location involving multiple and simultaneous spring lock failures." To replace the faulty suits, the archive states that temporary costumes that "were found on very short notice" would be provided, though requesting that "questions about appropriateness/relevance should be deflected."

The recording which plays during Night 5 reminds employees that the safe room is "a safety location for employees only" and that customers must never be taken there. Also, after discovering that one of the special suits was "noticeably moved," it reminds employees that the suits are "not safe to wear under any circumstances."

Low-resolution minigames between nights hint at the restaurant's troubled past, with the first four nights' minigames depicting the original animatronics following a dark purple animatronic before being violently disassembled by William Afton, previously seen in the minigames of Five Nights at Freddy's 2 as the man responsible for the various murders that occurred throughout the fictional franchise's history. In the fifth night's minigame, the ghosts of the five children who inhabited the animatronics corner William Afton, who attempts to protect himself by hiding in the "Spring Bonnie" suit. However, the suit's faulty spring-lock mechanism fails, and the man is crushed as the children fade away, leaving their killer to seemingly bleed to death, explaining Springtrap's origins.

"Happiest Day" minigame

Unlike the previous entries, Five Nights at Freddy's 3 contains two endings, depending on whether the player has found and completed all of the hidden minigames within the main game. Some of these are only available on specific nights, while others can be accessed during any night. The "bad ending" is attained from completing the game without completing all the hidden minigames, and shows a screen depicting the heads of the five animatronics from the first game with lit-up eyes, implying that the animatronics are still possessed. Completing all the hidden minigames before completing the game earns the "good ending", which is the same screen as described previously but with the animatronics' heads turned off, with one head disappearing, presumably Golden Freddy. This implies that the children's souls have finally been put to rest.

Completing all five nights unlocks a bonus night, "Nightmare", which boosts the game's difficulty, similar to "Night 6" in the previous titles. While playing the mode, an archived recording states that all Freddy Fazbear's Pizza locations' safe rooms will be permanently sealed, instructing employees that they are "not [to] be mentioned to family, friends or insurance representatives." When this night is completed, a newspaper clipping reveals that Fazbear's Fright was destroyed in a fire shortly after the events of the game and that any salvageable items from the attraction are to be auctioned off. However, brightening the image reveals Springtrap in the background, confirming that he survived and is set to return in one of the next games.

In January 2015, a new image was uploaded to Scott Cawthon's website, teasing a third entry in the series.[5] A short while later, a second image was released, depicting the redesigned animatronics from the second game apparently scrapped.[6] Various teaser images followed, before a trailer was released on January 26, 2015.[7] The game was posted (and later accepted) onto Steam Greenlight the same day.[8]

A demo for the game was released to selected YouTubers on March 1, 2015, with the full game being released hours later on March 2, 2015.[9] On March 6, 2015, a mobile port was released for Android devices, and for iOS on March 12, 2015.

Metacritic's aggregate reviews for Five Nights at Freddy's 3 has received an average score of 68 out of 100.[10]

Omri Petitte from PC Gamer gave Five Nights at Freddy's 3 a score of 77 out of 100, praising the reworked camera system, but commented on how the jumpscares from the other animatronics "felt a little stale by the third night." In a more critical review, Nic Rowen from Destructoid gave the game a 6.5 out of 10, saying that even though the game is "by far the most technically proficient and mechanically satisfying installment yet," he criticized Springtrap and Fazbear's Fright for lacking the "charm of the original cast and locations."

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