Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted

Information

Platform(s)

PlayStation 4 (PlayStation VR)
Windows (Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive)
Nintendo Switch

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

Developer

Steel Wool Studios

Genre

Horror and Puzzle

Theme

Horror

Mode

Single-player Virtual Reality

Project

Indie

Release Date(s)

May 28th, 2019
May 21st, 2020 (Switch)

Download(s)

Steam
PlayStation

ESRB Rating

T for Teens

Page Navigation

Overview • Gallery • Updates • Credits

“Everything is working as intended!”
— First teaser image’s tagline, 
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted, alternately known as FNaF VR, is a virtual-reality survival horror game and the eighth Five Nights at Freddy’s installment that is published by ScottGames and developed by Steel Wool Studios. It was first announced on August 19, 2018.[1] It released on May 28th, 2019 for PlayStation VR, Steam, and Oculus Rift, and it is the first game in the series to be officially rated by the ESRB, being T.[2] The Nintendo Switch port was released on May 21st, 2020,[3], the Oculus Quest port was released on July 16th, 2020, [4] and the Xbox One port released on October 29th, 2020.[5]

The physical release for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, published by Maximum Games, was released on December 15, 2020.

Summary

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted is a collection of classic and original mini-games set in the Five Nights universe. Survive terrifying encounters with your favorite killer animatronics in a collection of new and classic FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S™ experiences. “Where fantasy and fun come to life!”

A VR headset is NOT required to play.

• YOU’RE HIRED – Time to get your hands dirty. Repair claustrophobic ventilation systems, troubleshoot broken animatronics that could activate at any moment, or spend your evenings cowering in the nighttime security guard office.

• FUN FUN PRIZES – Toys, Plushies, Bobbleheads, and candy candy candy! Earn super fun prizes you can play with at the interactive Prize Counter! Collect well hidden Faz-Tokens to unlock even more rare collectibles for more SUPER FUN FUN FUN.

• PIZZA PARTY – Scenes from classic titles have been updated and remade for a fully immersive experience including; Five Nights at Freddy’s, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location.

• TWO WAYS TO PLAY – Experience the horror in flat (non-VR) mode or VR. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are supported.

Gameplay

There is a total of 40 playable minigames in the base game with three of them being featured in the demo. After completing the mini-games, players can replay them again in a nightmare mode of some sorts, which cranks up the difficulty and distraction in every game. Upon fully completing the game, players are treated to an end game which expands upon the lore of the games.[6]

Development

Development for Help Wanted began when Scott Cawthon hired Steel Wool Studio to produce a fully-fledged FNaF VR experience. VR experiences were teased by Scott as an idea he had, and was anticipated heavily by the community to happen eventually. In an interview with Scott, he confirmed the developers to be Steel Wool Studios.

A few months later, an ESRB leak confirmed the name of the game to be Help Wanted. The game was confirmed to be a fully fledged VR experience with no other platforms (As of currently you can play Help Wanted without a VR headset). He mentioned again in an interview that some sections of the game would take inspiration from other sources in the FNaF franchise, such as Funtime Foxy and the original collection, and some would be completely unique experiences.

In PlayStation’s State of Play livestream, a trailer for Help Wanted was released. Scott confirmed during Dawko’s livestream that the game would be releasing in a couple of months. On March 11th, 2019, Scott posted a teaser on his website and a bunch of hidden images found in the site. The teaser was eventually taken down due to questionable traces of Spring Bonnie from fan works.

On May 4th 2019, the Steam and PlayStation pages are created, revealing a bunch of details about the game. A couple weeks later on the 21st, a demo was released to specific people and youtubers. The game is released one week later on the 28th.

Post-Release

Due to the game’s high reception, a few patches and updates were made, including the halloween-themed Curse of Dreadbear. On December 17th 2019, a non-VR version of the game is released for PC, known mostly as “flat mode.”

After a long period with no news, Steel Wool Studio announced that the game would be made available on Quest 2, and flat mode would be ported to consoles such as the Xbox and Nintendo Switch during 2020. The Switch version was released on May 21st 2020, and the Xbox and Quest ports were close to being finished. The Quest port was released on July 16th, 2020.

iOS and Android ports along with the Xbox port were released on October 27th, 2020, and the mobile ports contained some exclusive content such as Princess Quest, a mobile exclusive game. Physical console releases of the game were made available on December 15th, 2020.

Add-Ons

Curse of Dreadbear

Main article: Curse of Dreadbear

Curse of Dreadbear is a Halloween-themed DLC for the game. This DLC features 10 new minigames, two brand-new animatronics called Dreadbear and Grim Foxy, and returning nightmare animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (excluding Nightmare Mangle and Nightmare).

The DLC was first released early on October 23rd, 2019 in Australia and was unlocked around the world as the date changed in each country.

Non-VR Mode

The non-VR mode was announced on December 13th, 2019 and released on December 17th, 2019. This update includes a flat mode and upgraded graphics, with no virtual-reality sets required. The version also includes some new Easter Eggs and a loading screen, as well as featuring cross-progression between itself and the VR mode.

Reception

Reviews

Aggregate scores

Aggregator

Score

Metacritic

(PC) 81/100[7]

The game was met with positive reviews from critics, holding a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic.

The game is listed as one of PlayStation’s “Favorite Horror Games of 2019”.[8] It is ranked on top 5 “VR Games of the Year” by 2019 Steam Awards on December 17, 2019.[9]

Game Modes

Trivia

• On March 11, 2019, a teaser, a portion of the box art for the game, was uploaded on Scott’s website. Fans, however, soon realized that half of the animatronics from the teaser art were questionably traced from fan-made renders (noticeably Funtime Foxy and Spring Bonnie). A few hours later, Scott took the teaser down and sent an apology[10] and revealed some gameplay details about Help Wanted.[11]
  • The deleted teaser reveals hidden messages when brightened:

“Don’t listen to them.“
“We let something inside.“
“It was an accident.“
“Remember Jeremy.”

• The source code for Scottgames.com had a set of scrambled numbers and letters, which would reveal black and white images of the game. Seven images were found as a result, though one of them remained unrelated to the VR game itself.
• In the trailer, Nightmare Fredbear had brown fur and a black top hat/bow tie, similar to Nightmare Freddy, rather than the yellow/gold fur and purple top hat/bow tie that he had in all other games, he was also missing his buttons on his stomach. According to Scott, this was because the trailer was made a long time ago, and the models were unfinished at the time, which explains Nightmare Fredbear’s off color scheme.
• This is the first title to be made in a game engine other than Clickteam Fusion 2.5, as Help Wanted is made in Unreal Engine 4.
• This is the first title to have been developed by another company, rather than by Scott Cawthon.
• This is the first game in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series to be published on a console.
• Scott Cawthon planned to have a website to advertise the fake company that help create the The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, Silver Parasol Games, but decided not to do it because he did not want to blur the line between fact and fiction. [12]
  • This was still left in the game in early builds, however, resulting in somebody creating a fan-made website idea that featured a developer named Jeremy. This was debated on until Scott eventually disproved it.
• This is the first game in the series to have subtitles, and is also the first game to have different language support as well.
• The name of the game is now titled as simply Five Night’s at Freddy’s: Help Wanted due to a virtual reality system no longer being required to play as of December 2019 with flat mode.
• The models for the animatronics in the game were given a lower polygon count and less detail due to the game being in virtual reality and being more system intensive.
• This is the first game in the series that Scott Cawthon has collaborated with multiple game developers.
• Help Wanted was previously the largest game in the series but was beaten by its sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach currently making Help Wanted the second largest game in the series.
• Help Wanted is currently the only game of the Cooperative Era to be available on every major platform

References