Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

When it comes to modern horror gaming, few names are as iconic as Five Nights at Freddy’s. Since its humble beginnings in 2014, the franchise has exploded into a cultural phenomenon, spawning sequels, spin-offs, novels, and even a feature film. But in 2019, the series took one of its boldest steps yet: moving into virtual reality with Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted.

This game reimagined the terrifying animatronic world of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in a fully immersive VR environment, turning what was once a tense point-and-click experience into a terrifying physical encounter. The result was both a fan-pleasing celebration of the series and one of the scariest VR titles available today.

From 2D Jumpscares to VR Terror

The original Five Nights at Freddy’s thrived on atmosphere, sound design, and anticipation. Players sat in the shoes of a nighttime security guard, monitoring security cameras to track the movements of haunted animatronics while trying to conserve power. The limited gameplay mechanics actually enhanced the tension—because players could do so little, the fear of helplessness set in.

Translating that into VR required more than just porting the old games into headsets. Help Wanted succeeds because it doesn’t just copy; it reimagines. The game includes a mix of remastered content from previous entries and brand-new minigames designed specifically for VR. Classic encounters feel familiar but are completely transformed by immersion. When an animatronic lurches out of the shadows inches from your face, the fear is visceral in a way flat-screen jumpscares could never achieve.

The Structure of Help Wanted

The game is presented as an in-universe Fazbear Entertainment “job simulator” arcade cabinet. This clever framing device allows it to stitch together different modes and minigames into a coherent whole, while leaning into the franchise’s meta-lore about corporate cover-ups and glitchy training tapes.

The modes break down into three broad categories:

This variety keeps the experience fresh and allows players to sample different flavors of horror. It also makes the game more approachable, since not every mode demands long-term endurance.

The Horror of Presence

What makes Help Wanted special is how it leverages VR presence. In traditional horror games, you know on some level that you’re looking at a screen. In VR, you are in the room. Animatronics tower over you at life-size scale, their glowing eyes boring into your soul. When you lean in to flip a switch or repair a circuit, you can feel their hulking frames looming just inches away.

Sound design plays an equally critical role. Headphones immerse you in creaking machinery, distorted laughter, and sudden metallic footsteps. Even without a visible threat, the directional audio makes you spin around instinctively, paranoid that something is behind you.

Perhaps the most brilliant design decision is restraint. The game doesn’t throw constant monsters at you. Instead, it lets silence and anticipation do the heavy lifting. Long moments of tension are punctuated by sudden, explosive jumpscares. The unpredictability keeps you on edge, and in VR, that heightened state of alert is physically exhausting in the best possible way.

Gameplay Mechanics in VR

Unlike traditional FNaF entries, Help Wanted requires you to physically interact with your environment. You’ll flip switches, press buttons, repair wiring, and open doors with motion controls. This tactile interaction dramatically raises immersion.

For example, in the animatronic repair minigames, you have to open panels, carefully remove components, and replace them under strict instructions. One wrong move and the animatronic springs to life, ending your shift. The fact that you physically reach out with your hands makes mistakes feel more personal and terrifying.

The ventilation crawl levels push this even further. Armed only with a flashlight, you physically crawl (or simulate crawling) through narrow, pitch-black tunnels. Animatronic noises echo from ahead and behind. The claustrophobia is unbearable, and when something lunges at you, the headset makes it feel like your personal space has been violently invaded.

Accessibility and Comfort

One of VR’s challenges is player comfort. Horror is already intense, and adding motion sickness or discomfort could ruin the experience. Thankfully, Help Wanted offers several options to ease players in.

Teleportation-based movement reduces nausea for those sensitive to free locomotion, while room-scale setups allow players to physically walk short distances in smaller minigames. The overall pacing also helps—most scenarios are short, intense bursts rather than hour-long marathons, which lets players take breaks between scares.

Still, this is not a game for the faint of heart. Many players report needing to remove the headset after just a few minutes, overwhelmed by tension. That’s not a flaw; it’s a testament to how effective the horror design is.

The Role of Lore

Beyond scares, Five Nights at Freddy’s has always thrived on mystery and lore. Hidden tapes, secret endings, and cryptic storytelling keep fans theorizing endlessly about the series’ timeline, characters, and conspiracies.

Help Wanted doubles down on this. Scattered throughout the game are hidden cassette tapes left by a former Fazbear employee. Collecting and listening to them reveals a deeper story about digital corruption, corporate manipulation, and the introduction of a new entity: Glitchtrap. This creepy, rabbit-like figure represents a digital manifestation of evil, and it has since become a central antagonist in later entries.

By embedding lore in the VR experience, Help Wanted ensures that even the act of playing feels like uncovering evidence. It’s not just about surviving nights—it’s about piecing together the sinister history of Fazbear Entertainment.

Fan Reception

Upon release, Help Wanted was praised as one of the best VR horror titles available. Fans loved how it captured the essence of the original games while amplifying them through immersion. Critics highlighted the clever minigame variety, the intense presence of the animatronics, and the terrifying unpredictability of jumpscares.

Of course, it’s not a game for everyone. Some players found the intensity overwhelming, to the point where they couldn’t progress past certain levels. Others wished for longer-form gameplay rather than a collection of shorter experiences. But overall, it was hailed as a successful and innovative translation of FNaF into VR.

The game’s success even helped revitalize the series, showing that it could thrive beyond its original formula. Its influence is still felt in later entries like Security Breach, which expanded on characters and lore first introduced in Help Wanted.

Why It Works So Well in VR

This alignment between franchise identity and VR strengths is why Help Wanted is considered not just a good VR adaptation, but one of the defining VR horror experiences.

The Lasting Impact

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted did more than scare players—it proved the franchise’s staying power. It bridged the gap between long-time fans and VR newcomers, it advanced the overarching lore, and it demonstrated how VR can breathe new life into existing properties.

It also pushed horror gaming in a new direction. While many VR horror titles lean on atmosphere and exploration, Help Wanted embraced structured minigames and bite-sized challenges. This made it uniquely replayable while still being deeply unsettling.

Perhaps most importantly, it set the stage for future FNaF projects. The introduction of Glitchtrap, the expansion of VR into the series’ lore, and the blending of digital horror with physical immersion all opened doors for what came next.

Final Verdict

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted is more than just a VR port—it’s a milestone for both the franchise and the medium. By combining remastered classics with new VR-specific gameplay, it captures everything that made the series a hit while amplifying the terror to new heights.

It’s not for everyone. The scares are relentless, the tension is suffocating, and many players will find themselves ripping off the headset after just a few minutes. But for those who brave it, Help Wanted delivers one of the most unforgettable horror experiences VR has to offer.

In the end, that’s what Five Nights at Freddy’s has always promised: fear you can’t escape, dread you can’t ignore, and monsters that feel all too real. VR simply makes that promise more terrifying than ever.