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Description
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S: SECURITY BREACH - RUIN.
Developed by: Steel Wool Studios.
Published by: ScottGames.
Based on the long running series by: Scott Cawthon.
Genre: Metroidvania and Survival Horror.
Rated: PG (may contain suggestive imagery and themes).

Original Review: www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…
www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…
Rhi-Visit: www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…

Before we begin, a quick thing about DLC expansions. They will qualify for the annual end of year list, provided they meet two requirements.

1: The DLC must include a brand new story that either continues the base game's plot, or is connected to it (a prequel for example).

2: The DLC must be 2 hours or longer. When you consider I gave Game of the Year awards to Sonic Mania and Resident Evil 2 (2019) and they can be finished in under an
hour via speedruns, it's only fair to include DLC that's equally as long.

I think Security Breach can be charitably called “a fuck up” now that we’re a year or so removed from launch; To the point that when the DLC was announced, it was difficult not to make the joke: “is this the name of the DLC, or just the current state of the franchise?”

It seems Steel Wool Games took everyone’s “feedback” into consideration and promised to right the ship with Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach - Ruin: An expansion that bins all attempts to be like Bioshock or Resident Evil 7 and slips into the mould of 2010s indie horror like Slender: The Arrival or Amnesia: the Dark Descent. I will congratulate Steel Wool for producing a decent horror experience and correcting a few issues the base game had. However, there are one or two nagging problems I'll cover during this review. If you want the short version - Yes, you should play Ruin.

Now let’s break it down.

We play as a young girl named Cassie who's arrived at the now ruined Pizzaplex (supposedly caused by an earthquake) after Gregory sent cryptic messages about being trapped in the establishment’s basement and she needs to rescue him. Without even thinking to herself: “that sounds a bit sus!” She shows up with gusto. Personally, I would have called the police first, or asked for some verification before putting my fucking running shoes on. Well, you know what they say: “Horror game’s got a horror game I suppose.”

Given the amount of damage and devastation within the Pizzaplex, I'm gonna hazard a guess and say this DLC takes place a year or so after the events of Security Breach. That aside, I still don’t see how any of these robots are still active if the main power grid is off and all the recharge stations have been destroyed.
As Cassie travels through the derelict building, she encounters the damaged and ruined animatronics, turns off things called ‘Child Nodes’ and we even discover what happened to poor old Bonnie, all the while following Gregory's cryptic and mysterious instructions to get beneath the Pizzaplex.

Now if that sounds like an obvious trap to you, then it's only because it is. It turns out that it's not really Gregory at all, but rather a new antagonist called “the Mimic”: a highly sophisticated A.I. robot that's only really good at mimicking voices and murdering people. How and why Fazbear Entertainment needs this Ultron level shit for a Pizzeria is beyond me.

Also, where the hell was this asshole in the main game? After dealing with the Glamrocks, Vanny and Burntrap in Security Breach, only for the DLC to plop this spawn of Satan upon you is such a reach, it’d give Reed Richards a cramp!

After doing some digging online, I discovered the Mimic was first introduced in the FNAF book series, so my old complaint from Frozen rears its ugly head once again - When I have to consult additional media to understand your main story, that's bad design! Seriously, the only way to understand the plot of FNAF these days is “just watch the last 10 Game Theory videos!” That's not me taking the piss out of MatPat mind you. I'm literally quoting what he said from one of his live streams!

Adding to the sci-fi shenanigans, Cassie also encounters this ghost-like Entity that I called “Ghostrap.” It appears to be trying to stop her from getting beneath the Pizzaplex, almost as if to keep the Mimic from escaping the building altogether. He only seems to be a thing when you put on the new security mask to integrate with the AR segments of the game. Beyond that, he really does nothing besides float there while grinning at you like a bellend, or if I may attempt a SpongeBob meme for a second: “He’s just standing there… menacingly!”

In order to defeat this digitised poltergeist, you must perform the HIGHLY COMPLEX action of... Wait for it... Taking the mask off. When you realise he cannot physically hurt you and can be avoided by not wearing the mask, he becomes a bit of a joke. I think the Arkham Knight, Infinite and Lady Dimetrescu now have someone to laugh at.

Do you guys remember Vanny and Burntrap? Well guess what? They're not in this DLC. That’s one of my main issues with the Security Breach era of Five Nights of Freddy's: They'll introduce a new antagonist as a possible replacement for William Afton, play with it for about five minutes, get bored of them and then introduce a brand new antagonist.

Vanny was supposed to be the poster girl for Security Breach, yet the game quickly got bored of that and introduced the Blob as a possible final antagonist… for about five seconds and then reintroduced William Afton as Burntrap, again, for about five seconds and now we have the Mimic and Ghostrap skulking up to place. It’s only now that I realise the true antagonist of the Five Nights of Freddy's franchise is indeed Scott Cawthon's indecisiveness and inability to commit to a single idea.

In the base game, I made a few jokes at Roxie's expense; mainly her being as dumb as a rock. However, Ruin has taken those ill-feelings and turned them into genuine sadness about deactivating her while she and Cassie had a genuine heart-to-heart moment. I know it's one of those moments designed to tug at your heartstrings, because Cassie is essentially killing the only real friend that attended her birthday party, but this sad moment is for naught as Roxy reappears during the final showdown with the Mimic. Hang on a second, I thought we deactivated her, so how is she able to follow us down into the ground beneath the Devil's basement?

This leads me to believe another ending was intended for Ruin, where you find Roxy's eyes and she aids you in finding Gregory, but was cut due to either time constraints or budget. Regardless, I do feel bad for Roxy now and I'll purposely have her kill Gregory five times in a row when I replay Security Breach this Halloween. I still hate Monty though. He can go fuck himself in Robot Hell.

It's all but cliche to say that Ruin is the game Security Breach should have been, but by God does it ever ring true as it has a tighter focus, cuts out all the chaff and offers a more streamlined experience, compared to the tangled mess of stupidity that was the base game. Sure it feels like you're on a roller coaster ride with no stakes, but at least this roller coaster ride has an occasional scare now and then.

It also confirms something I said in the main review that “if you removed every single security droid, Security Breach would have lasted about 20 minutes” and that's exactly what Ruin feels like. The DLC even punctuates this feeling within the opening moments, when a single security droid sounds that irritating alarm, before collapsing before your very eyes; as if Steel Wool Studios is saying to the player: “Yeah, we're not doing that again. Sorry about that.” This also renders the three animatronics as after thoughts because, if you play the game pitch perfect, you will never encounter a single jump scare in this entire experience. Whether that's a good or not is entirely how you feel about jump scares.

The main gimmick at play here is the new V.A.N.N.I. Mask that allows you to see things that are not there in a sort of AR virtual reality experience, but honestly looks like something Apple are going to come out with in a few years. This is probably a strange reference to make, but the main thing I could think of while using this mask was the Phantom Ruby from Sonic Mania: An object that creates illusions or brings to light things that don't really exist. That idea felt very strong when dealing with the headless Freddy bossfight because, when I put the mask on, he suddenly disappeared - As if he wasn’t real to begin with. I know it's a weird connection to make, but that was all I could think of while using the mask. The use of pink and purple really cemented that feeling for me as well.

If I have any major complaint with the DLC, it would be the rather repetitive nature of the puzzles as it basically followed this structure from start to finish: Enter area - find security nodes - avoid Ghostrap by removing the mask - deactivate security node using the BioShock pipe puzzle game - move to next area - rinse and repeat.
It tries to break up the tedium with the inclusion of a golf mini game and a Chica Bullet Hell style game, but I was left wanting more. Would have liked a Bonnie Bowl minigame is what I’m trying to say.

Another issue regarding Ruin is the fact you don't really get to explore the entire Mega Pizzaplex as that could have fleshed the DLC campaign out to at least three hours long. We do get to see more of Roxie Raceway, Monty Golf and behind Bonnie Bowl, but without the entire building to visit, it's a missed opportunity to make the whole place look spooky and unsettling.

And to just cap off the criticisms here is the question of which SB ending is Ruin based on? Given some key evidence in the latter half of the game, it appears the Princess Quest ending is the canon ending. On the one hand, that’s great as I truly felt satisfied with how things played out by freeing Vanessa and deleting Glitchtrap. However, it does render the Burntrap ending entirely pointless, when you consider players go through all that hard work to get the animatronic parts to upgrade Freddy, get down to the FNAF6 location and destroy Burntrap in a FRUSTRATING AS HELL bossfight - only to be told “LOL! None of that was canon. Here's the real ending!”

Look, I get it. It's a massive course correction because nobody wanted Springtrap to come back, while setting up the Mimic from the books as a new antagonist, but this could have been handled better is all I'm saying. Why not outright state that the Mimic was Burntrap instead of just doing this slap dash/panicked approach to try and fix things? Also, why did you even waste the budget for that CG ending if it was never the canon ending to begin with? All that setup of the Blob grabbing Afton is now pointless because you never had any intention on either explaining it or elaborating further.

(Conclusion)
At this point, I'm just nitpicking at a reasonably solid core of an experience. Ruin is easily the better game compared to Security Breach, but that's only because the bar was set so low that all Ruin had to do was not shit itself in order to succeed. When Security Breach 2 comes out (and it probably will at this point) take what you've learned from Security Breach and Ruin, combine the two experiences to give us a solid AAA FNAF experience and for the love of all that is good and holy, leave Afton in the past!

Description
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S: SECURITY BREACH - RUIN.
Developed by: Steel Wool Studios.
Published by: ScottGames.
Based on the long running series by: Scott Cawthon.
Genre: Metroidvania and Survival Horror.
Rated: PG (may contain suggestive imagery and themes).

Original Review: www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…
www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…
Rhi-Visit: www.deviantart.com/randomdc3/a…

Before we begin, a quick thing about DLC expansions. They will qualify for the annual end of year list, provided they meet two requirements.

1: The DLC must include a brand new story that either continues the base game's plot, or is connected to it (a prequel for example).

2: The DLC must be 2 hours or longer. When you consider I gave Game of the Year awards to Sonic Mania and Resident Evil 2 (2019) and they can be finished in under an
hour via speedruns, it's only fair to include DLC that's equally as long.

I think Security Breach can be charitably called “a fuck up” now that we’re a year or so removed from launch; To the point that when the DLC was announced, it was difficult not to make the joke: “is this the name of the DLC, or just the current state of the franchise?”

It seems Steel Wool Games took everyone’s “feedback” into consideration and promised to right the ship with Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach - Ruin: An expansion that bins all attempts to be like Bioshock or Resident Evil 7 and slips into the mould of 2010s indie horror like Slender: The Arrival or Amnesia: the Dark Descent. I will congratulate Steel Wool for producing a decent horror experience and correcting a few issues the base game had. However, there are one or two nagging problems I'll cover during this review. If you want the short version - Yes, you should play Ruin.

Now let’s break it down.

We play as a young girl named Cassie who's arrived at the now ruined Pizzaplex (supposedly caused by an earthquake) after Gregory sent cryptic messages about being trapped in the establishment’s basement and she needs to rescue him. Without even thinking to herself: “that sounds a bit sus!” She shows up with gusto. Personally, I would have called the police first, or asked for some verification before putting my fucking running shoes on. Well, you know what they say: “Horror game’s got a horror game I suppose.”

Given the amount of damage and devastation within the Pizzaplex, I'm gonna hazard a guess and say this DLC takes place a year or so after the events of Security Breach. That aside, I still don’t see how any of these robots are still active if the main power grid is off and all the recharge stations have been destroyed.
As Cassie travels through the derelict building, she encounters the damaged and ruined animatronics, turns off things called ‘Child Nodes’ and we even discover what happened to poor old Bonnie, all the while following Gregory's cryptic and mysterious instructions to get beneath the Pizzaplex.

Now if that sounds like an obvious trap to you, then it's only because it is. It turns out that it's not really Gregory at all, but rather a new antagonist called “the Mimic”: a highly sophisticated A.I. robot that's only really good at mimicking voices and murdering people. How and why Fazbear Entertainment needs this Ultron level shit for a Pizzeria is beyond me.

Also, where the hell was this asshole in the main game? After dealing with the Glamrocks, Vanny and Burntrap in Security Breach, only for the DLC to plop this spawn of Satan upon you is such a reach, it’d give Reed Richards a cramp!

After doing some digging online, I discovered the Mimic was first introduced in the FNAF book series, so my old complaint from Frozen rears its ugly head once again - When I have to consult additional media to understand your main story, that's bad design! Seriously, the only way to understand the plot of FNAF these days is “just watch the last 10 Game Theory videos!” That's not me taking the piss out of MatPat mind you. I'm literally quoting what he said from one of his live streams!

Adding to the sci-fi shenanigans, Cassie also encounters this ghost-like Entity that I called “Ghostrap.” It appears to be trying to stop her from getting beneath the Pizzaplex, almost as if to keep the Mimic from escaping the building altogether. He only seems to be a thing when you put on the new security mask to integrate with the AR segments of the game. Beyond that, he really does nothing besides float there while grinning at you like a bellend, or if I may attempt a SpongeBob meme for a second: “He’s just standing there… menacingly!”

In order to defeat this digitised poltergeist, you must perform the HIGHLY COMPLEX action of... Wait for it... Taking the mask off. When you realise he cannot physically hurt you and can be avoided by not wearing the mask, he becomes a bit of a joke. I think the Arkham Knight, Infinite and Lady Dimetrescu now have someone to laugh at.

Do you guys remember Vanny and Burntrap? Well guess what? They're not in this DLC. That’s one of my main issues with the Security Breach era of Five Nights of Freddy's: They'll introduce a new antagonist as a possible replacement for William Afton, play with it for about five minutes, get bored of them and then introduce a brand new antagonist.

Vanny was supposed to be the poster girl for Security Breach, yet the game quickly got bored of that and introduced the Blob as a possible final antagonist… for about five seconds and then reintroduced William Afton as Burntrap, again, for about five seconds and now we have the Mimic and Ghostrap skulking up to place. It’s only now that I realise the true antagonist of the Five Nights of Freddy's franchise is indeed Scott Cawthon's indecisiveness and inability to commit to a single idea.

In the base game, I made a few jokes at Roxie's expense; mainly her being as dumb as a rock. However, Ruin has taken those ill-feelings and turned them into genuine sadness about deactivating her while she and Cassie had a genuine heart-to-heart moment. I know it's one of those moments designed to tug at your heartstrings, because Cassie is essentially killing the only real friend that attended her birthday party, but this sad moment is for naught as Roxy reappears during the final showdown with the Mimic. Hang on a second, I thought we deactivated her, so how is she able to follow us down into the ground beneath the Devil's basement?

This leads me to believe another ending was intended for Ruin, where you find Roxy's eyes and she aids you in finding Gregory, but was cut due to either time constraints or budget. Regardless, I do feel bad for Roxy now and I'll purposely have her kill Gregory five times in a row when I replay Security Breach this Halloween. I still hate Monty though. He can go fuck himself in Robot Hell.

It's all but cliche to say that Ruin is the game Security Breach should have been, but by God does it ever ring true as it has a tighter focus, cuts out all the chaff and offers a more streamlined experience, compared to the tangled mess of stupidity that was the base game. Sure it feels like you're on a roller coaster ride with no stakes, but at least this roller coaster ride has an occasional scare now and then.

It also confirms something I said in the main review that “if you removed every single security droid, Security Breach would have lasted about 20 minutes” and that's exactly what Ruin feels like. The DLC even punctuates this feeling within the opening moments, when a single security droid sounds that irritating alarm, before collapsing before your very eyes; as if Steel Wool Studios is saying to the player: “Yeah, we're not doing that again. Sorry about that.” This also renders the three animatronics as after thoughts because, if you play the game pitch perfect, you will never encounter a single jump scare in this entire experience. Whether that's a good or not is entirely how you feel about jump scares.

The main gimmick at play here is the new V.A.N.N.I. Mask that allows you to see things that are not there in a sort of AR virtual reality experience, but honestly looks like something Apple are going to come out with in a few years. This is probably a strange reference to make, but the main thing I could think of while using this mask was the Phantom Ruby from Sonic Mania: An object that creates illusions or brings to light things that don't really exist. That idea felt very strong when dealing with the headless Freddy bossfight because, when I put the mask on, he suddenly disappeared - As if he wasn’t real to begin with. I know it's a weird connection to make, but that was all I could think of while using the mask. The use of pink and purple really cemented that feeling for me as well.

If I have any major complaint with the DLC, it would be the rather repetitive nature of the puzzles as it basically followed this structure from start to finish: Enter area - find security nodes - avoid Ghostrap by removing the mask - deactivate security node using the BioShock pipe puzzle game - move to next area - rinse and repeat.
It tries to break up the tedium with the inclusion of a golf mini game and a Chica Bullet Hell style game, but I was left wanting more. Would have liked a Bonnie Bowl minigame is what I’m trying to say.

Another issue regarding Ruin is the fact you don't really get to explore the entire Mega Pizzaplex as that could have fleshed the DLC campaign out to at least three hours long. We do get to see more of Roxie Raceway, Monty Golf and behind Bonnie Bowl, but without the entire building to visit, it's a missed opportunity to make the whole place look spooky and unsettling.

And to just cap off the criticisms here is the question of which SB ending is Ruin based on? Given some key evidence in the latter half of the game, it appears the Princess Quest ending is the canon ending. On the one hand, that’s great as I truly felt satisfied with how things played out by freeing Vanessa and deleting Glitchtrap. However, it does render the Burntrap ending entirely pointless, when you consider players go through all that hard work to get the animatronic parts to upgrade Freddy, get down to the FNAF6 location and destroy Burntrap in a FRUSTRATING AS HELL bossfight - only to be told “LOL! None of that was canon. Here's the real ending!”

Look, I get it. It's a massive course correction because nobody wanted Springtrap to come back, while setting up the Mimic from the books as a new antagonist, but this could have been handled better is all I'm saying. Why not outright state that the Mimic was Burntrap instead of just doing this slap dash/panicked approach to try and fix things? Also, why did you even waste the budget for that CG ending if it was never the canon ending to begin with? All that setup of the Blob grabbing Afton is now pointless because you never had any intention on either explaining it or elaborating further.

(Conclusion)
At this point, I'm just nitpicking at a reasonably solid core of an experience. Ruin is easily the better game compared to Security Breach, but that's only because the bar was set so low that all Ruin had to do was not shit itself in order to succeed. When Security Breach 2 comes out (and it probably will at this point) take what you've learned from Security Breach and Ruin, combine the two experiences to give us a solid AAA FNAF experience and for the love of all that is good and holy, leave Afton in the past!