A yes or no recommendation is tough for this one so let me clarify: If you are a hardcore FNAF fan and want to keep up with all the lore, then yeah, obviously I recommend Into the Pit. If you are a casual fan or even just looking to get into the franchise for the first time, Into the Pit is probably a skip for me.

First off, the graphics and sound design are incredible the whole way through. Major props to Mega Cat for what they accomplished here. However good you feel the trailer looks and sounds, the game lives up to that expectation. Unfortunately, the game has pretty intense performance issues (which may or may not be linked to using a controller based on patch notes?) but jump scares and animations still look great.

As for the gameplay itself, I again give them props for taking the franchise in a wholly new direction. Approaching the game as a 2D horror game in the vein of Clock Tower, The Coma, or Detention was a great idea. The trouble is that none of the puzzles or horror here are all that interesting and investigation is basically non-existent. Throughout the whole game, you are pretty explicitly told what you are supposed to do via objective clues. The few times these are vague are usually more frustrating than thought-provoking. That said, I imagine the younger target audience might find some of the time-travel elements entertaining. For me, I just had trouble not comparing it unfavorably to Day of the Tentacle.

The horror comes from Springtrap chasing you around places but it's hard to be scared of him since he's remarkably easy to avoid. Despite what the trailers show, he actually runs slower than you do and the game even is built around this, with one particular point in the game seemingly requiring you to just run around him to progress. Once you realize that you can just go around him at any point in time, he becomes entirely trivial and the game never becomes any more difficult. Even as more animatronics start showing up, they seem to just make noise alerting Springtrap, rather than posing any direct threat. The flashlight is also entirely useless, making resource management a non-issue. The flashlight flickers constantly while using it and each battery is used up in somewhere between 10-15 seconds. You can always see Springtrap's eyes, even in the dark, so I preferred just running through the dark rather than using the entirely unreliable flashlight.

I will say that there are moments of inspired gameplay here. Several of the nights, you have to get out of your house, with several options available from the start. As you use escape paths though, they become blocked off for future nights. This forces you to find new ways out each time. I loved this concept and honestly wish it was expanded on in the pizzaria. Instead, they seem to switch things up from night to night by just locking certain doors and opening others. You never know which are open or closed though without simple trial and error and there doesn't seem to be any actual logic behind it that I could determine. Despite hints at further areas to explore via a world map, the Pizzaria and your house are the only two places that ever require any level of exploration, with the other locations only serving to house NPCs to talk to and items to obtain.

The story of Into the Pit is an interesting beast in itself. As with all FNAF games, the plot is ultimately cryptic but it does offer more of a narrative than pretty much any other game in the series. Ozwald has a goal and works to complete that goal throughout the game. This is never left to interpretation and is pretty straightforward. What's less obvious is why any of this situation is happening. If you're playing to understand why there's a time traveling ball pit, why Springtrap is impersonating Ozwald's Dad, why nobody else sees Springtrap for what he is, well, just know those answers won't come easily. I won't say they aren't in the game, that's more for online theorists to figure out, but I certainly couldn't figure any of that out.

If you are a fan of FNAF and just want more FNAF content, I think you'll be happy with Into the Pit. It's different than other games in the franchise but trying something different is good, especially from this side-story made by a partner studio rather than Steel Wool. If you are hoping to finally get the answers to the franchise, you likely won't be finding them here. I can't honestly even tell you if this is canon to the main games or not even after seeing all the endings. If you aren't a FNAF fan though and just love 2D horror games, this might be a good introduction to the genre for kids but it won't be much more than that. The puzzles and difficulty are remarkably easy, even on the hardest difficult (there are only two), the story is simplistic, and the game is quite short (I finished the game and got all the endings in 4 hours and that was taking my time casually looking around for everything).

A yes or no recommendation is tough for this one so let me clarify: If you are a hardcore FNAF fan and want to keep up with all the lore, then yeah, obviously I recommend Into the Pit. If you are a casual fan or even just looking to get into the franchise for the first time, Into the Pit is probably a skip for me. First off, the graphics and sound design are incredible the whole way through. Major props to Mega Cat for what they accomplished here. However good you feel the trailer looks and sounds, the game lives up to that expectation. Unfortunately, the game has pretty intense performance issues (which may or may not be linked to using a controller based on patch notes?) but jump scares and animations still look great. As for the gameplay itself, I again give them props for taking the franchise in a wholly new direction. Approaching the game as a 2D horror game in the vein of Clock Tower, The Coma, or Detention was a great idea. The trouble is that none of the puzzles or horror here are all that interesting and investigation is basically non-existent. Throughout the whole game, you are pretty explicitly told what you are supposed to do via objective clues. The few times these are vague are usually more frustrating than thought-provoking. That said, I imagine the younger target audience might find some of the time-travel elements entertaining. For me, I just had trouble not comparing it unfavorably to Day of the Tentacle. The horror comes from Springtrap chasing you around places but it's hard to be scared of him since he's remarkably easy to avoid. Despite what the trailers show, he actually runs slower than you do and the game even is built around this, with one particular point in the game seemingly requiring you to just run around him to progress. Once you realize that you can just go around him at any point in time, he becomes entirely trivial and the game never becomes any more difficult. Even as more animatronics start showing up, they seem to just make noise alerting Springtrap, rather than posing any direct threat. The flashlight is also entirely useless, making resource management a non-issue. The flashlight flickers constantly while using it and each battery is used up in somewhere between 10-15 seconds. You can always see Springtrap's eyes, even in the dark, so I preferred just running through the dark rather than using the entirely unreliable flashlight. I will say that there are moments of inspired gameplay here. Several of the nights, you have to get out of your house, with several options available from the start. As you use escape paths though, they become blocked off for future nights. This forces you to find new ways out each time. I loved this concept and honestly wish it was expanded on in the pizzaria. Instead, they seem to switch things up from night to night by just locking certain doors and opening others. You never know which are open or closed though without simple trial and error and there doesn't seem to be any actual logic behind it that I could determine. Despite hints at further areas to explore via a world map, the Pizzaria and your house are the only two places that ever require any level of exploration, with the other locations only serving to house NPCs to talk to and items to obtain. The story of Into the Pit is an interesting beast in itself. As with all FNAF games, the plot is ultimately cryptic but it does offer more of a narrative than pretty much any other game in the series. Ozwald has a goal and works to complete that goal throughout the game. This is never left to interpretation and is pretty straightforward. What's less obvious is why any of this situation is happening. If you're playing to understand why there's a time traveling ball pit, why Springtrap is impersonating Ozwald's Dad, why nobody else sees Springtrap for what he is, well, just know those answers won't come easily. I won't say they aren't in the game, that's more for online theorists to figure out, but I certainly couldn't figure any of that out. If you are a fan of FNAF and just want more FNAF content, I think you'll be happy with Into the Pit. It's different than other games in the franchise but trying something different is good, especially from this side-story made by a partner studio rather than Steel Wool. If you are hoping to finally get the answers to the franchise, you likely won't be finding them here. I can't honestly even tell you if this is canon to the main games or not even after seeing all the endings. If you aren't a FNAF fan though and just love 2D horror games, this might be a good introduction to the genre for kids but it won't be much more than that. The puzzles and difficulty are remarkably easy, even on the hardest difficult (there are only two), the story is simplistic, and the game is quite short (I finished the game and got all the endings in 4 hours and that was taking my time casually looking around for everything).