Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach – Ruin (DLC)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

Although the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise remains as successful as ever, the most recent entry from Steel Wool, Security Breach, has fought an uphill battle. The game launched in a blatantly unfinished state, with glitches galore and a story too vague for its own good. Even with numerous patches that addressed countless issues, its reputation hasn’t quite escaped the one it had since launch. Despite its troubles, however, it still received a free piece of DLC, Ruin, that offered a glimmer of hope in addressing remaining questions from the base game. While it doesn’t quite fix everything within its roughly four-hour runtime (when playing normally), Ruin does still represent a substantial improvement over the original Security Breach to the point where someone would wonder why Steel Wool didn’t simply play to their strengths the first time around.

Sometime after the events of Security Breach, Gregory’s best friend Cassie arrives at the now-ruined Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex. She had received a distress call from Gregory saying that he was trapped and needed help getting out. Now inside the Pizzaplex, she must venture to the sinkhole beneath Roxy Raceway while avoiding the horrors that await, both in the real world and the digital world.

Cassie steps forward into the dilapidated Pizzaplex
and towards the horrors that await.

Considering the short length, Ruin understandably has a simple narrative, though it (sadly) still feels more substantial than the main game. Across the DLC’s nine Chapters (which aren’t labeled during gameplay), Cassie comes across the Glamrock animatronics in various states of further disrepair, all of whom still harbor murderous intent. While this may be taking their lingering anger towards Gregory out on anyone who dares intrude the Pizzaplex, there is still room for a degree of relative complexity. The Daycare Attendant, for instance, suffers from an internal struggle between its Sun and Moon personalities and actually begs for Cassie’s help. As with the base game, Roxanne Wolf is the most complex, as she actually acts friendly towards Cassie once she finally recognizes her and even shares a rather touching moment. On the flip side, Chica doesn’t have much going for her apart from eventually finding a place to rest and Montgomery Gator has gone completely feral, which doesn’t give him much of a personality apart from murderous rage.

Although Ruin doesn’t solve all of the base game’s storytelling problems, there is an admirable attempt through its visual storytelling. For example, there’s a section in Monty Golf where Cassie travels through a dark ride that tells Monty’s backstory of how he joined the band, or at least what the player could interpret as Fazbear Entertainment’s official story should they uncover a particular secret in Bonnie Bowl that suggests something far more brutal. The twist ending of the DLC is foreshadowed pretty well, though the exact nature of it and certain details surrounding it seem like they have far more significance if the player had read the Tales from the Pizzaplex anthology novels, which I hadn’t read in the gap between the base game and Ruin. While the twist also arguably helps explain the ending of the base game, the lack of any official word in-game leaves that up to pure speculation.

A hint at Monty's true ambitions.

While Ruin’s story comes after the events of the base game, there’s also the question of which ending it considers canon. For all intents and purposes, Steel Wool considered the two-star Burntrap Ending the true ending, as it was the only one with a fully animated CG cutscene and the official guide even stated as such. However, there is plenty of evidence in-game that suggests the three-star Redemption Ending, or some variation of it, happened instead. Since I preferred the Redemption Ending out of the original six, I would personally go with this interpretation, though I also acknowledge the possibility of some version of both this and the Burntrap Ending occurring based on what Cassie sees in the final Chapter.

Regardless, Ruin has its own trio of original endings, each one locked behind different requirements and with different degrees of satisfaction. The Elevator ending, which players will most likely obtain on their first run, is a bit mixed, since while it does explain exactly what was going on in Ruin, its conclusion is vague and makes Gregory surprisingly hardcore in his final action. The Brazil Ending, which requires simply going a different direction during the finale, references the 1985 Terry Gilliam film of the same name and is probably the boldest of all the endings in Security Breach for its dark implication. Then there’s the Scooper Ending, which requires more effort, as the player must find four hidden cameras throughout the game and activate them to open four doors that open up a new path during the finale. While this ending is arguably the most positive in Ruin, it’s still a little open ended and, again, seems to require knowledge of the tie-in novels to understand its full significance. Of course, how one feels about the endings, and their impact on theorizing about the story, is up to the player.

While those who have played Security Breach will have at least some idea of what they can expect while playing Ruin, there are plenty of differences between the two campaigns that help keep things fresh.

For one, Cassie has similar abilities to Gregory, but otherwise plays very differently. She can’t access as many tools on the fly, but her flashlight now has an infinite battery and doesn’t require recharging. While she doesn’t have Gregory’s Faz-Watch, she’ll occasionally communicate with her friend through the Roxy Talky, which also adds to the world of Security Breach in a more subtle way (and they have an impressive range to boot). Early on, Cassie will also obtain a Faz-Wrench that lets her open certain doors through a minigame (charging a certain number of conduits, which lose charge when not selected, until they all light up blue).

You'll see plenty of these.

Another unique mechanic is the Fazbear Technician Remote Camera Station, which lets Cassie check nearby cameras and lure visible animatronics to different locations with the Intercom (like how the player can lure Springtrap away from them in Five Nights at Freddy’s 3). While this mechanic only shows up once at the beginning as a tutorial, it does get used more frequently in the back half of the game to help Cassie advance the story, which suggests that Steel Wool had a better handle on actually making the core systems more relevant to the experience. Cassie can also use ladders now, though there are only a few and they use the “Classic Resident Evil” logic of confirming that you want to use it before you actually go up or down. While this could easily set up cheap jumpscares, they thankfully never come and the closest we get is having other unexpected objects come into view a couple times.

Some other design aspects shake up the player’s expectations in a good way. While there is still a degree of exploration, complete with hidden treasures and secret interactions, the more linear level design helps keep the story and the horror much more focused and take more advantage of the first-person view by adding a baseline fear of the unknown that permeates the air. There’s also more of an opportunity for obstacles and hazards to realistically impede Cassie, including oil slicks that can make her fall off the edge during a particular section of Monty Golf. On top of that, the new layouts make many areas feel more claustrophobic, opening up more unique interactions with the animatronics, such as a segment with Montgomery Gator that felt somewhat reminiscent of the Killer Croc boss fight in Batman: Arkham Asylum (though that’s not to say Ruin ever reaches the quality of Arkham Asylum).

Perhaps the biggest benefit of the new approach, however, is that unlike the base game, Ruin actually features autosaving and spaces out its checkpoints in a way that minimizes potential pain on death. Though the save icon does telegraph once in a while that something major will happen, it’s still a welcome change that I wish had made its way into Security Breach at the same time. There’s also a Chapter Select upon completing the DLC once, which helps for finding collectibles or secrets without replaying the entire campaign (especially since all progress is saved between runs on the same save), though you have to load the relevant Profile and select the option, as hitting Continue will bring you back to your last autosave.

And if you go fast enough, you'll see a loading screen.

The biggest gameplay wrinkle, however, is the introduction of the Security Mask, which connects Cassie to the V.A.N.N.I. (Virtual Augmented Neural Network Integration) network, which turns the Real World into the AR World through augmented reality, acting as a sort of “detective mode”. With the mask on, Cassie will also communicate with Helpi, who will assist and occasionally gaslight her. Wearing the Security Mask has a number of advantages. Certain obstacles and debris, marked by an environmental distortion, are easily bypassed in the AR World, though Cassie can also access new pathways to cross gaps. Some collectibles are only accessed in this layer of reality, dividing part of the inventory screen into “Real Collectibles” and “AR Collectibles”. In addition, animatronics won’t notice you while the mask is on and the player can now disable Caution Bots for a special secret in the Bonnie Bowl section. Certain camera stations are also only visible in AR, usually requiring the player to switch between cameras and quarantine anomalies in a specific order to open up a new pathway or otherwise alter the environment.

As Cassie journeys through the Pizzaplex, she will have to disable Security Nodes that are only visible while wearing the Security Mask. Rabbit-shaped Mother Nodes require disabling Child Nodes, which are environmental objects highlighted in red and connected to the Mother Node with red wires running along the ground. Once all Child Nodes are disabled, Cassie can disable the Mother Node through a minigame that involves connecting matching holograms together without crossing any lines. These minigames are randomly generated, but have a more gradual difficulty curve to prevent overwhelming the player too early. Once the Mother Node is successfully breached, a change will occur in the Real World that allows Cassie to advance.

 

One of the more complex Mother Node puzzles.

While the Security Mask has plenty of advantages and creates more interesting gameplay than the base game, there is one major disadvantage. If Cassie wears the mask for too long, a lagomorphic anomaly within the V.A.N.N.I. network known only as The Entity will spawn and slowly teleport towards Cassie. If it makes contact, it will spawn an animatronic nearby that can jumpscare the player for an instant Game Over. Once you’re aware of The Entity’s existence, there’s a baseline feeling of dread in areas where AR is absolutely necessary, as you don’t want to erase any amount of progress, which encourages solving puzzles as quickly as possible. This intensifies when dealing with Inhibitors later on, which can prevent you from either equipping or removing the mask until they are disabled. Some segments are even built around the Inhibitors, which helps immensely with keeping the mechanic relevant to the player.

The Entity remains a constant threat.

Similar to the base game, the player can also interact with two particular arcade machines for two unique minigames. The first is a remixed version of Monty’s Gator Golf with new holes, but the same unexplained awkward controls. The other is a new game, Chica’s Feeding Frenzy, a bullet hell game that plays like a twin-stick shooter. While it’s cool to finally play the game, the enemies looked a little too small to see properly and the distribution of both health and special bullets felt a little too stingy. I also noticed that despite the instructions saying to hold a button down to fire, you really only need to hold the right analog stick in the direction you want to fire; I don’t know if this was a result of also developing the game for PC users who don’t use a controller, but it’s still worth noting for console players. The only real benefit to playing Chica’s Feeding Frenzy is that completing Wave 20 gives you the Chica’s Voice Box collectible, which players can use for a short secret interaction in the Glamrock Salon segment.

Not the most exciting way to uncover a secret.

I will also mention that while not as buggy as the base game, Ruin still has its own share of bugs. These range from beneficial, like Monty getting stuck in the environment during his sort of “boss fight” and making that portion of Monty Golf significantly easier, to infuriating, like pretty much the entire Bonnie Bowl segment. It’s one thing in Bonnie Bowl to go around one of the largest areas in the campaign to disable four Child Nodes, which thankfully have their own checkpoints between them, but it’s another to also dodge swarms of Music Man Bots. The Music Men themselves are easy to deal with, just lure them to another spot and disable them with the Child Nodes, but the difficulty comes from how they’ll sometimes outright ignore the Security Mask and attack you anyway. I even ran into a softlock not unlike the Roxy softlock I encountered form the base game, where a rogue Music Man appeared in a position it wasn’t supposed to and jumpscared me, preventing me from accessing a crucial camera station. As such, this area may take longer than any player can anticipate (and may throw off speedrunners).

 

 

And then this one just popped into existence.

(Jumpscare Warning)

There’s also a generally more “scripted” feel to the overall design, which made the campaign a bit less scary once I noticed it (it admittedly didn’t help that I had played several Resident Evil games in a row at the time I played Ruin, which made me quickly figure out when a lot of the scares would be). Still, I felt a little bit of genuine fear during one of the chase sequences (perhaps not to the same level as Jack Baker from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, but still a lot more than in the base Security Breach). The “scripted” feeling also didn’t prevent me from feeling bad for Roxanne Wolf, who was easily my favorite of the new characters.

Outside of Ruin, I did notice that in base Security Breach, shooting a Caution Bot in the eyes no longer summons an animatronic to attack Gregory, even in the safe space of Rockstar Row. I have no idea if this came from a patch or the DLC itself made this change, but it’s a welcome one nonetheless.

Visually, Ruin continues to impress. Apart from some superficial changes like altering the menu to include the Ruin logo and changing the game’s icon on the PS5 to an orange on white (from orange on black), there’s still an incredible attention to detail. The opening area tells a story on its own, with the suggestion that in the time since the Pizzaplex’s closure, people had been tagging the place and possibly challenging others to stay the night, giving it a lived-in feel. There’s also an incredible sense of environmental storytelling throughout the campaign, with certain details that help fill in certain gaps or explain certain backstories. Other smaller details seen earlier help subtly tie in to others seen later, like a Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex that highlights the “ME” in green underneath the image of Montgomery Gator, tying in to his self-centered personality (either that or I’m reading too deeply into it). Either way, the deterioration of the Pizzaplex is very evident as Cassie explores not only what Gregory had already seen, but all new areas that give more of an idea of just how big the building is. Wearing the Security Mask also transforms the environment in very visually interesting ways that fans will surely have a lot of fun uncovering (such as a Fizzy Faz vending machine displaying Monty in the Real World and Roxanne in the AR World). The only issue I ever had was that sometimes I’d see flashes of white at the edges when turning the camera, though nowhere near the levels of Call of Cthulhu.

A brilliant subtle detail or a random act of vandalism? You decide.

Either way, this is pretty neat.

The voice acting is also comparable to the base game, though in some sense also improved. Cassie has more of an emotional range than Gregory, for one thing displaying some actual sense of empathy and remorse, and Roxanne Wolf in particular has a little bit more of a vocal range than before, as we also get to see her good side. There’s a great sense of sound design, such as the music sting that signals the arrival of The Entity, whether you’re prepared or not, which doesn’t sound overbearing in how it instantly instills a sense of dread. Without getting into too much detail, there’s also a pretty (narratively) effective use of sentence mixing at one point. Additionally, the sound bites heard while wearing the Security Mask come up at what I eventually realized were pretty appropriate moments.

Now, there are still a couple issues here. The more major one is that while the ambient sounds are designed really well for making the player wonder just how close a “Ruined” animatronic is to their location, it loses its impact at some point once you realize that for a majority of the DLC, you’re never in any real danger unless you invoke the wrath of The Entity. This realization actually put me at ease most of the time, which had the side effect of helping me focus more on completing the task at hand as fast as I could. The other, more minor, issue is that the PS5 version I played missed the opportunity to have the audio from the Roxy Talky come out of the controller speakers, as in Resident Evil 4 (2023), which would have helped a bit with the immersion (though I feel that this is an underused feature in general).

 

Not that controller audio would have elevated Ruin to the level of
Resident Evil 4 (2023), but it would have been nice.

While Ruin does indeed bring out the better elements of Security Breach and represents a substantial improvement over the base game that plays to the developer’s strengths, it still feels unfortunate that a piece of free DLC is better than a $40 game (or perhaps less at the time of this post). Playing Ruin feels like a no-brainer for Five Nights at Freddy’s fans and those who have played Security Breach, regardless of their opinion on it, though whether or not this is a complete and fun experience on its own is still up to the player. Personally, I’m hoping that Steel Wool has learned the right lessons from this installment of the franchise and can do better at avoiding the issues that plagued this title moving forward.