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In a last-ditch effort to remain in the industry, game designer Scott Cawthon took onboard the criticism of his previous title, Chipper and Sons Lumber Co, and subsequently created a franchise that has become immensely popular across many mediums. Five Nights at Freddy’s needs no introduction.
Where'd It Start
Popularised by over-eager YouTube personalities screaming away, fans digging deep into the universe’s lore across the games and novels, and collectors scooping up each and every facet of merchandising with Freddy’s Fazbear’s face emblazoned upon it- it was inevitable that Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy would make it to the tabletop.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survive Til 6am is a 1-2 player game published by Funko. In this game you find yourself playing a security guard, attempting to fend off murderous animatronics until the bells chime at 6am. So far, so Five Nights at Freddy’s. Each turn takes place at 30 minute intervals throughout the night watch, with players revealing cards to show what’s on the security cameras at four locations within the pizzeria.
What's Up... Gameplay
In a similar vein to the video games, players must keep on top of their power usage as they attempt to counter what’s revealed at each camera during each round. It might be nothing, it might be a prompt to reveal another card or move an unknown card closer to or into the office, a power depletion, or even an animatronic in the- fur.
Once the four cards have been revealed, players choose up to two cards to ‘react’ to, either cancelling out their effects, or keeping an animatronic at bay. That’s where the power dice come in. Players roll a die for each card they react to, and deplete power accordingly based on the result. Each power depletion card revealed on that turn adds 5 to the result(s) rolled, making the choice to react to certain cards all the more difficult as your power drains.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survive Til 6am is a surprisingly complex, tactical beast. Many have been taken aback to it not being a simple roll ‘n’ move title, especially when looking at the usual demographic obsessed with the series. It’s brilliant how the stress of trying to keep tabs on where each animatronic is within the pizzeria was translated so convincingly to the table.
However, since you can only react to up to 2 cards you revealed, sometimes the odds are stacked against you. Have you revealed three animatronics? You can shut the doors and keep two at bay, but the third will move closer to you. Has Freddy appeared at the camera right outside your office? You have to react and stop him getting inside, or it’s game over. Three animatronics revealed in one go outside your office? You’re done.
The Progression
As the game progresses and more cards are put into the discard pile (which is technically your office), a camera might deplete its deck, and subsequently everything moves closer to you. Animatronics stay put as the deck sizes decrease, so the chances of them appearing increases, much like the video game. However, since you’re limited on how much you can ‘react’ to, and you’ve only got 100 points of power to play with, by the time you reach about 3:00am/4:00am in game time, your chances of survival are low.
While there is an element of strategy involved, such as deciding when to pick your power fights, dice being present instils a hefty amount of luck. Your early game might be scuppered by bad dice rolls, making even getting to the endgame disastrously difficult.
In all the games I have played of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survive Til 6am, only once have I managed to reach the final round of play at 5:30am. Everything came down to a successful dice roll of 15 or less, and I failed. I managed to make the right decisions to get this far, but in the end it all came down to luck-based dice rolls I had to do. Beneficially though, it’s not an overly long game, so not hours of time wasted in failure.
Multiplayer
As for the two player variant, both players have their own camera deck to keep tabs on using the reverse of the board. While it’s determined which of the two players goes first based on who has more power (or who’s got the star marker if both have the same amount), you’re basically playing the same single-player game at the same time. Player interaction is at zero. No mechanics involved allow you to interfere with your opponent. Technically you could buy 50 copies of the game and make it 100-player compatible.
The first person to be attacked by an animatronic loses, and the other player technically wins. They don’t have to survive until 6am as the title says, but when I’ve played the game with another player, we decided that the person still alive continued playing to see what happens. It’s not much of a two player game, but it is fun to see your opponent reveal a bunch of animatronics in one go, or roll an atrocious amount of power to lose.
Survive Til 6am: Final Thoughts
The artwork is nice, fitting in with the CRT-laden aesthetic of the games, and the quality of the components is good too. Special shoutout to the power dice looking the business. Wouldn’t expect anything less from the folks at Funko. The board is pretty superfluous in the grand scheme of gameplay, but it does fit the visual bill.
If you’re a fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s, it’s a neat, quickfire game to whip out every so often to see if you can eventually best Freddy and co. It’s even better if you stick some Fazbear Pizzeria ambience on while you play. If you’re a board game aficionado looking for something new to try, it’s probably not going to impress you all that much. Mechanically interesting, though slightly flawed in the endgame, I’m still waiting for that genuine buzz of actually reaching 6am.
