Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

Gameplay

The bulk of the gameplay in Sister Location does away with the survival aspect of previous games. Instead of remaining in one place and preventing the animatronic antagonists from attacking, the player must move from room to room in order to fulfill a series of objectives that change during each of the five nights. For example, Night 2 requires the player to sneak across a dark auditorium and reset a group of circuit breakers, while for Night 4, the player is placed inside a costume suit and must keep its spring locks wound up while shaking off the animatronic dolls that climb onto it.

As in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, when a game ends, the player may be given a chance to play an 8-bit minigame, in which Circus Baby must give cupcakes to children and then bring an ice cream cone to a little girl. Completing this minigame grants access to a secret level during Night 5, a near-recreation of the gameplay in the original Five Nights at Freddy's. Here, the player remains in a security office and must prevent a hybrid animatronic called "Ennard" from entering it by watching surveillance cameras and closing electric doors, all of which consume a limited power supply.

Clearing all five nights unlocks a gallery of extra features: pictures and blueprints of the game's animatronics, their making-of, a map of the facility and automatic 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 in order 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.

Like in all Five Nights at Freddy's games, failure to defend oneself from the hostile animatronic characters will result in a jumpscare, ending the game.

Plot

Before the core gameplay begins, a prologue cutscene is presented to the player, where an interviewer is questioning "Mr. Afton", supposedly the creator of the game's animatronic characters, on certain design choices he has made when building the animatronics. Afton lists several features of Circus Baby, such as her ability to make ice cream and inflate balloons at her fingertips. The interviewer is unsatisfied with this answer, as the features Afton mentioned were not what he was referring to.

The player character, seemingly named Mike, mistakenly referred to as "Eggs Benedict", is a new employee of the underground Circus Baby's Rentals and Entertainment, a sister company of Fazbear Entertainment featuring animatronics that are rented out to children's birthday parties; they were originally intended for use in a pizzeria called Circus Baby's Pizza World, but the pizzeria had been shut down shortly before it was supposed to open due to "gas leaks". Both locations are owned by a certain British-accented individual called Mr. Afton. It is also implied in the source code of teasers for the game that both locations are part of a robotics company going by the name of "Afton Robotics".

Mike is instructed by HandUnit (an AI that helps the player throughout the game) to watch and 'motivate' the animatronics by electrocuting them so they may be used during the day. Mike is also guided by the voice of Circus Baby, a female, clown-like, animatronic and the star of Circus Baby's Pizza World, who gives instructions sometimes contradictory to those of HandUnit. Baby's instructions help Mike survive the nights from the hostile animatronics: the ballerina Ballora and smaller ballerinas known as Minireenas; miniature animatronics known as Bidybabs; and 'Funtime' versions of Freddy Fazbear and Foxy the Pirate Fox. It is implied via monologues throughout the game, as well as the ending of the 8-bit-style minigame, that Circus Baby houses the remains of Mr. Afton's daughter, who was previously killed by her in a freak accident.

In between nights, the voice of a young British Girl, whom is presumably Mr. Afton's daughter, is overheard, asking her father if she can go and play with Circus Baby. This is further elaborated on during Baby's third night speech and the mini game, both of which imply the girl went against her father's wishes.

As the week passes, the animatronics are taken to the Parts and Service room one by one due to apparent malfunction, later to be taken to the "scooping room". At the end of the third night, Circus Baby reveals that she kidnapped Mike, and on the fourth night, hides him in a spring lock suit just outside the "scooping room", where the animatronics' endoskeletons are forcibly removed by a machine Circus Baby refers to as "The Scooper" (designed in a way similar to an excavator), and has Mike watch as the machine tears Ballora's endoskeleton out. On the final night, two agents sent to fix the animatronics are found hanged in the Ballora and Funtime auditoriums, respectively. After reaching the Parts and Service room, Mike is told by Circus Baby to take her to the scooping room. From there, the player can heed Circus Baby's instruction and obtain the normal ending, or sidetrack to the hidden "private room" and get into the alternate ending after completing Circus Baby's minigame, where the player needs to clear a survival mission modeled after the first game for the alternate ending.

In the normal ending, after entering the scooping room,the player discovered that Ennard (an animatronic formed out of the other animatronics) had used his voice mimicking capabilities to sound like Baby, reveals that he and the other animatronics have been attempting to escape the complex, but without a human guise, they are unable to. However, now that they have gained Mike's trust via Baby, they have merged into a single animatronic called Ennard to take his body. Ennard then locks Mike inside the scooping room and uses the machine to disembowel him and take his body. The final scene of the game's canon area shows Ennard inspecting itself in the mirror while inhabiting Mike's body.

In the alternate ending, after surviving inside the security office, Mike escapes to their home and watches the season finale of the animated series The Immortal and the Restless (whose previous episodes are shown in-between the nights and whose plot lampoons the series). After the show ends, however, Ennard appears in the room and slowly advances towards Mike. This ending is apparently non-canon, since it has been labelled the "fake ending" of the game. The veracity of this title has not been confirmed, however.

Completing the various Custom Night modes on the hardest difficulty setting unlocks a set of 8-bit cutscenes that have been confirmed as being canonical. These scenes show Ennard walking down the block disguised in Mike's skin - appearing normal at first, but gradually decaying and deteriorating from one scene to the next. Neighbors initially wave to him, but later become concerned and hide as his outward appearance worsens. In the last of these scenes, Mike vomits Ennard into the sewer and collapses, presumably due to the lack of innards. However, he rises to his feet again as Ennard repeatedly says, "You won't die."

The cutscene that follows the most difficult mode ("Golden Freddy") is rendered in the same resolution as the game itself. This scene depicts the burnt wreckage of the Fazbear's Fright attraction from Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and is accompanied by a voice-over narration by "Michael"/Mike(?), addressed to his father. He states that he has found "her" and put "her" back together, adding that he should be dead and that he will seek out his father. Just before the scene ends, Springtrap steps into view.

Development

In April 2016, Cawthon released a teaser image of the game on his website, entitled Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, featuring a clown-like animatronic, revealed to be named "Circus Baby". Several teaser images followed, revealing different characters and hints at their origins.

The trailer for the game was released on Cawthon's official YouTube page featuring new animatronics and a new location. The release date was later confirmed to be October 7, 2016.

In August, a teaser image was posted on Cawthon's website with the words "Cancelled. Due to Leaks." This was initially taken to indicate that the game itself had been cancelled, due to one of the game's animatronics' voices being leaked, namely Ballora's. However, it was quickly revealed to be a part of the story line, as a fictional news article was found when the image was brightened, discussing how the in-game location had been closed due to "gas" leaks.

On October 4, 2016, Cawthon posted on the Steam Community forums, stating that the game has a very dark story line, and that it might not be kid-friendly. For this, he said that he might work on the game for several more months, to make the game and its story more suitable for younger players, which, however, turned out to be a hoax. The game was released on October 7, 2016.

On October 17, 2016, Cawthon announced on his website and the game's Steam page that a non-canon Custom Night will be added to the game in December, and that an update for it will be released prior to its original version. It was released on December 1, 2016.

On December 22, 2016, a mobile port for Android devices was released on the Google Play Store.

On January 3, 2017, a mobile port for iOS devices was released on the App Store.

Reception

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location received mostly positive reviews. GameRankings aggregated a score of 67.50% for the game. Destructoid rated the game 6/10, while GameCrate rated it 7.50/10. The game's Steam reviews are currently 93% positive, with the Android version receiving a 4.5 star rating on the Google Play Store. The iOS version of the game currently holds a 4.5 star rating, also making it as the top paid app on the App Store shortly after release.