Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted

*"THE ICONIC HORROR FRANCHISE. NOW IN VIRTUAL REALITY."* **-Trailer tagline**

### Release date

May 28th, 2019 (Windows & Playstation 4) October 26th, 2020 (Android) October 27th, 2020 (iOS) May 21st, 2020 (Nintendo Switch) October 30th, 2020 (Xbox One) July 16th, 2020 (Oculus Quest)

### Rating

10/10 (Steam)

Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted is a 2019 virtual reality survival horror video game developed by Steel Wool Studios and published by ScottGames. It is the eighth main game in the Five Nights at Freddy's series, following Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, and the ninth installment overall. It presents itself as "The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience", produced for the fictitious corporative entity Fazbear Entertainment to help improve its public image after a series of debilitating lawsuits, following several incidents and disasters that allegedly occurred at their various locations.

Gameplay is presented from the first-person perspective and focuses on a series of minigames based on previous games in the series, in which the player must evade attacks from sentient animatronics. The game's canon establishes that Fazbear Entertainment hired an unnamed indie developer to create a video game series based on the events of the previous seven games, before cutting ties with him, and commissioned a virtual reality game meant to make light of the rumors and convince players that those events were completely fictitious.

Development of Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, the first licensed game by Steel Wool Studios, began in 2018 and took less than a year. The game's design took inspiration from the history of Five Nights at Freddy's across all media. First announced in August 2018, the game was released on May 28, 2019, for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets on Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation VR headsets on PlayStation 4. A non-VR version of the game was released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 on December 17, 2019. A Nintendo Switch port was released on May 21, 2020. An Oculus Quest port was released on July 16, 2020. An Android port was released on October 26, 2020, and an iOS port was released the following day. An Xbox One port was then released three days later. The game received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised it for its narrative, content, voice performance and original soundtrack. and is among the top selling virtual reality games on Steam.

Downloadable content, Curse of Dreadbear, was released on October 23, 2019. A spin-off set after the events of the game, Five Nights at Freddy's: Special Delivery, was released on November 25, 2019, for Android and iOS, while a main game sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, was released on December 16, 2021. A direct sequel, aptly titled Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2, is planned for release in late 2023.

The first trailer was released March 25th, 2019.

## 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.

## Plot

Fazbear Entertainment has not become extremely popular, due to several incidents and disasters that allegedly occurred at their various locations over the years, which have been established as urban legends. The problem is aggravated by a horror video game series based on the legends, created by an unnamed indie developer. In an attempt to overturn the bad reputation these rumors gave the company, Fazbear Entertainment commissioned the "Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience", a virtual reality game meant to make light of the rumors and convince players that those events were completely fictitious. However, this narrative is contradicted by sixteen cassette tapes hidden throughout the game, which contain logs recorded by one of the game's developers.

Meant as a warning for future players, the tapes expose a lawsuit happening during the game's development, involving an incident with a past employee, Jeremy, that put the game's completion in jeopardy. In addition, the tapes reveal that Fazbear Entertainment hired the unnamed indie developer to create the video game series based on the alleged legends, before cutting ties with him; the games were part of an elaborate ploy to discredit the rumors surrounding the company. Most importantly, the tapes warn of a malicious code that was uploaded to the game from an old circuit board. This code takes the form of a sinister character known as Glitchtrap, who appears as a humanoid in a rabbit costume. Glitchtrap is ultimately revealed to be attempting to escape from the game by merging with the player.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted contains four endings, depending on the player's choice:

1. Upon completing all thirty-nine levels and playing the final level "Pizza Party", the player will enter a dark room with animatronics and a tape. Glitchtrap will appear and gesture for the player to follow him behind a curtain. After doing so, the player will appear on a stage as Freddy Fazbear while a show starts, implying they were stuffed into an animatronic like the original murdered children, while Glitchtrap is seen dancing gleefully in the background.

2. If the player follows the tapes' instructions, they will be taken to a room with handprints and scratches all over it. Glitchtrap will appear on the other side of a door, shushing the player before backing up into the darkness. After this, the player will receive a Glitchtrap plush. Upon completing the secret ending of the Curse of Dreadbear Corn Maze, where they receive a rabbit mask, putting on the mask and grabbing the plush triggers a new conversation between the player and the plush. The player, who is later revealed to be a beta tester named Vanny, tells the plush that no one suspects anything, assuring him that she won't let him down, completing Glitchtrap's control of Vanny.

3. If the player fails to follow the tapes' instructions, they and Glitchtrap will body-swap, with the player being in Glitchtrap's place.
If the player completes the Princess Quest level, exclusive to the mobile port of the game, the player's avatar, the Princess, confronts a monstrous form of Glitchtrap, who distortedly says "I always come back. Let me out."

4. After the non-VR version was released, there was a door in a level that leads to a snowy Christmas tree farm. In the distance, there is a silhouette of a large building being constructed by Fazbear Entertainment, with a nearby billboard showing that they are now hiring.

## Reception

Template:Reception
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". It is ranked on top 5 "VR Games of the Year" by 2019 Steam Awards on December 17, 2019.

## Development

### Unknown Year

Unknown Date: 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.

Unknown Date: 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.

### 2019

Unknown Date: 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.

March 11th: 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.

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

#### 2019

Unknown Date: Due to the game's high reception, a few patches and updates were made, including the halloween-themed Curse of Dreadbear.

December 17th: A non-VR version of the game is released for PC, known mostly as "flat mode."

#### 2020

Unknown Date: 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.

July 16th: 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.

December 15th: 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.

## Links

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm1xtxYFba4
2. ↑ Our Favorite Horror Games of 2019 - PlayStation
3. ↑ "*FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S VR: HELP WANTED, from ScottGames & @SteelWoolStudio #SteamAwards2019 Survive terrifying encounters with your favorite killer animatronics in a collection of new and classic FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S™ experiences.*" - Steam. December 17, 2019. Twitter.