I've played this game abt 5 times now, and I think I've gathered my thoughts on it and they're all pretty darn positive. (Sorry for it being long I just like to blab..)
Starting with aesthetics, I don't think I've seen one of these "FNaF Beta/Proto" type things interest me in the way this one has. Taking the concept of "What if Scott didn't really evolve his style beyond Chipper's for FNaF?" Is a super interesting question to ask for one of these hypothetical games and it's one I've never even considered. This is most evident in Chickadee 2.0, and its definitely one of the most unique Chica designs I've seen. The cameras and environments are also oozing with #scottcharm, but, to me at least, are just unique enough to have their own recognizable style. The camera renders in this game feel a lot more open and clear than FNaF 1's, and while that may compromise horror or whatever, I don't really care all too much. Beyond Chickadee, I think the character designs are quite good, with Jailbird being my favorite, easily. I think that character's inclusion alone elevates this game. Weird freaky zombie Chica with a knife is awesome and cool end of story.
The ambience in this game is great. It's spooky, weird, oppressive, and it really does feel like a strange, alternate version of FNaF 1's ambience and that is really impressive. There's one sound in particular that I could easily picture being in the original game. Whenever you witness a character "move" in the cameras there's a little *ding* and I think that's actually fantastic. It adds a lot to the game's personality.
Tiny things also come together to really help me get immersed, like the dev notes at the beginning of each night, some characters having multiple renders for certain rooms, and the custom night being listed as a debug menu that you have to enter good ol' 'CD+' to access.
Also, the Easter Eggs I encountered were great. Zero idea if I saw all of them, but I liked the ones I did see a lot.
Aesthetically and stylistically this game sets out to do some super specific things and succeeds at basically all of it. Any nitpicks I have are sort of irrelevant, as I know they simply do not apply to what this game was interested in accomplishing
Gameplay wise, I think this is the most I've enjoyed one of your games from a pure fun standpoint. (If not evident from my 5 playthroughs.)
Yes, at face value, this is upside down FNaF 1. The map is upside down, the doors stay closed and you have to open them, the power goes up instead of down, and Foxie is SUPPOSED to peak in and say hi! (or yarrr, I guess) But, the game introduces some new characters and a lot of tiny nuances to the formula that make it super fun to play.
The main mechanic that I think does a lot for the game is desyncing Benny and Chickadee. The concept of this is simple but it adds a lot. It makes keeping track of absolutely everyone super beneficial and really makes them both feel like their own unique threats, despite basically doing the same thing. I also like that there's sometimes a choice you have to make, "I should probably ignore Chickadee/Benny for a bit to have some more time to devote to checking someone else, and catch them later on when they're closer to my office." On aggressive mode this especially becomes quite necessary. Also since I'm not really gonna mention the high score system anywhere else, I'll mention it here. Building up points while stalling either threat is a nice little bit of feedback I appreciate a lot.
(Another important thing to mention is characters killing you immediately upon reaching an open door. It was just a good decision to add that, plain and simple. Gets rid of some easy cheese strat possibilities.)
Foxie is great as well, (if a tiny bit super ultra obnoxious on aggressive mode) and I think how she works does a lot for the game. She's a threat you have to constantly monitor without needing CONSTANTLY monitor her if that makes sense. Not much else outside of that to say. (she is very charming I like her a lot)
Freddie and Dolly are in a similar camp to me, react when you hear the correlating sound. They're both different from each other, obviously, but they serve a similar purpose. Pulling your attention away from the door threats. They work just fine, Freddie is cooler though, I like catching him in the garage.
Jailbird is strange but I'm not really concerned all too much with their mechanic. Their renders and presence are more than enough. Besides, if they were any crazier it would have been too much, and if they were too little it would have been underwhelming. I think they serve their purpose.
The difficulty curve of this game is great as well. Everything is introduced and paced properly, and Night 5 and Overtime are great challenges that are properly built up to. Aggressive mode is pretty much what I want from every fangame. I often dislike that the only real challenge in any FNaF game is just every character on the hardest possible difficulty, an extra campaign is great. I don't have much else to say abt this game's difficulty due to how natural it is. Game work good, game feel good.
Only complaint regarding difficulty is more of a nitpick, and it's that I find the power to be far too generous, but that doesn't really bother me.
Overall, this a great game that excels at what it wants to do. It kept me wanting to toy around with it even after I beat aggressive mode.
Also, maybe I'm kookoo banana bonkers but I'm seeing hints of maaaaybe a possible series here. Just small things that make me think that, if it's not already planned, there's possibilities to explore the other Night Watch at Freddie's archives. Stuff like the website etc etc...(I wanna see your take on FNaF 3 so bad)
But again maybe I'm bananas, this works just fine as it's own little thing!
Whatever you do next, I can be sure I'll be sat down for it day one. Big fan of your work and I'll always try to throw a wall of text at you about it : )
