Summary
- FNAF Ruin is a free DLC for Security Breach that aims to deliver on the game's broken promises by returning to the series' darker lore and providing a true horror experience.
- The DLC takes place years after the events of Security Breach and reintroduces previously abandoned locations, hinting at the return of important elements from the series' lore.
- FNAF Ruin has the potential to establish connections to previous games, including Sister Location and Fazbear's Frights, and rewrite the mistakes of Security Breach, proving the series' best days are still ahead.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach transitioned the fan-favorite horror franchise into the modern era. Security Breach promised to deliver a dark and lore-infused experience, a fact developer Steel Wool Studios would reaffirm in developmental interviews. However, in the months leading up to its release, Security Breach was edited to create a more family-friendly experience, changing critical lore reveals and dialog. By the time players got their hands on Security Breach, it was a far cry from the promised experience. FNAF Ruin, a free Security Breach DLC, seeks to make good on the title's broken promises, returning Security Breach to the series' darker lore, while providing fans with a true horror experience.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach followed Gregory, a boy who found himself trapped at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex. Encountering a malfunctioning Glamrock Freddy, Gregory claimed that a woman, Vanessa, was chasing him for an unknown reason. Freddy and Gregory soon found themselves embroiled in a series of strange events, as Vanessa, the other animatronics, and Vanny, whom only Gregory can see, allied to catch the pair as they explored the Pizzaplex. Toward the title's endgame, Gregory and Freddy discovered that the Pizzaplex holds much deeper secrets, including a direct connection to the last known location of the series' longtime antagonist, William Afton.
FNAF Ruin Seeks to Contrast Security Breach's Muted Horror Experience
FNAF: Security Breach failed to deliver on the series' longtime lore, while concurrently muting its darker horror elements. Both issues seemingly stem from the title's late-development shifts, which changed crucial dialogue and some narrative events to fit a more kid-friendly tone. These shifts left Security Breach in a broken state, both literally and figuratively, as players experienced a host of gameplay glitches while attempting to make sense of its disjointed, and contradictory, narrative. Fans have since discovered an immense amount of content that was cut from the game, including dialog that connects the dots between Security Breach's narrative and the larger FNAF lore.
FNAF Ruin will return players to the Mega Pizzaplex years after the events of Security Breach. Ruin seeks to re-establish the series horror roots, with developers claiming the DLC's overall tone to be, "...a stark contrast to that of Security Breach...far more dark, dreadful, and ominous than the base game". It appears that some of the cut content from Security Breach has been restored as well, with previously abandoned locations, like Chica's Bakery, hinted at in the DLC's trailer. Most importantly, Ruin appears to dive head-first into the series' lore, paving the way for major reveals that have been developing since Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location.
FNAF Ruin Seeks to Re-Establish the Series' Trajectory
Prior to the release of Security Breach, a collection of 37 short stories, titled Fazbear's Frights, prepared fans for the next era of FNAF's lore. The epilogue of each book told a story that connected these short stories into one sweeping narrative, establishing Sister Location's Circus Baby as the series' next "big bad". However, Security Breach was utterly devoid of any connections to Fazbear's Frights. Even worse, the title failed to address the events that directly proceeded it, as Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted and FNAF AR both set up the events of Security Breach and first introduced its main antagonist, Vanny.
In the time since Security Breach, another, much darker, book series, Tales from the Pizzaplex, has provided incredibly crucial context to the title's setting and characters. Perhaps the most significant reveal was the mimic1 virus, which controls the entire Pizzaplex and its animatronic characters. The virus also holds potential connections to Glitchtrap, Circus Baby, and Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place was revealed to exist below the Pizzaplex in Security Breach's Canon Ending.
Five Nights at Freddy's Mimic1 virus originates from an animatronic aptly called the Mimic. Completely programmed through teaching and observation, the Mimic's creation helped streamline the creation of animatronic characters and business-management systems. That said, the Mimic's programming became corrupted, learning, through a series of violent encounters, to mimic human voices. It went on to utilize this skill to lure people, over radios and speakers, to the darker corners of the Pizzaplex, before killing them.
While Five Nights at Fredd y's original Mimic was salvaged, its corrupted program, the Mimic1 virus, was inadvertently placed at the heart of the Mega Pizzaplex, serving as the template for the locations' animatronics. During Security Breach, players see signs of its implementation in the Endo Daycare. While Gregory and Freddy are shown to escape the Pizzaplex in Security Breach's various endings, the Ruin DLC introduces a plot in which he is trapped in the Pizzaplex years later. It is extremely likely that Ruin is preparing to debut the Mimic lore, as Cassie, like so many others, is lured to the Pizzaplex by a plea of distress over the radio.
How Ruin Can Make Good on Security Breach's Broken Promises
While The Mimic appears to be another random addition to Five Nights at Freddy's complicated lore, longtime fans believe it may have origins that trace back to Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location. Circus Baby, the title's most prominent animatronic, is known to contain "pieces" of both Elizabeth Afton and Charlotte Emily. Near that game's conclusion, players remove a chip containing the "parts that are good" from Circus Baby, before the rest is absorbed into Ennard and destroyed in Five Nights at Freddy's Pizzeria Simulator. Some fans believe that this chip played a part in the creation of Help Wanted's Glitchtrap virus, a mimicry of William Afton's crimes as described within the game.
The details of how Five Nights at Freddy's Circus Baby's chip obtained the Mimic1 virus remain unsubstantiated. Rather, this connection between Circus Baby and Glitchtrap opens the door for FNAF Ruin to make good on all the lore surrounding Security Breach. The Mimic's in-game debut potentially places Circus Baby at the heart of the Pizzaplex, confirming the relevant lore from Fazbear's Frights while placing the events of Security Breach into context. When FNAF Ruin releases, Steel Wool Studios has a chance to rewrite the mistakes of Security Breach, proving to fans old and new that the series' best days are still ahead of it.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach is available now for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. The Ruin DLC will release on July 25, 2023, for PS4, PS5, and PC.