Review — Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic

We sit down and review Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic. The lore and backstory continue to get uncovered. Here is our review of half of Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic

This horror universe has so much going on, and we finally get to learn a bit more of one of the horrors we have seen before in Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic. The next title we have on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC from Steel Wool Studios. All so we can further the IP more, answer a few more questions, while leaving so many more asked. It is a solid way to run a story for longevity, but does it have the oomph to keep it at its heights? That is what we have set out to figure out, as well as all of the secrets we can for the Mimic in our review. That or at least cover the gameplay and if it is a solid horror game to give a shot at, or if this is only going to be one for the diehard Five Nights At Freddy’s fans out there. Let us take a bite out of it all now.

Story

After another long shift, our protagonist, Arnold, is called in for one more job for Fazbear Entertainment. It sounds simple enough. Head out to Murray’s Costume Manor and collect some lost data that Edwin Murray was working on for the company. It is a massive factory and entertainment complex, so Arnold is going to need a bit of help and some hardware. Along with some solid breaking and entering skills to sneak about the place and not be spotted by the animatronics that seem to have come to life. Not just in a way that they normally would come to life, but all driven by something many would now call the Mimic. Can Arnold get one last job done and make it out, or will he run for his life? That is for us all to help him out with now…

Hated

If there is one thing that the Five Nights At Freddy’s games have been known for, it is the over-the-top animatronics and fights we have to go through in them. Secret Of The Mimic is no different, with the caveat that not all of them are made equally. This, sadly, leaves some of the fights and challenges more in the annoying and frustration side of things, I am looking at you White Tiger and Rocktopus… These two feeling like they should be much more of a threat in the game, just below the Mimic, but falling flat and leaving the rest to feel like glorified chase sequences more than anything. Sure, that might fit in well for a stealth game, but one of these we are given a gun, and the other is built up the whole game to be a massive thing. Only to have both executed so sloppily with the no-hand-holding aspect of the game. Neither to the point of wanting to do better and make it through, but almost to the point of putting the game down and never touching it again. I am all for making things difficult, but make them fun too. Both hard shifts from the rest of the game, and that is where they fell flat.

On the topic of not holding hands out there in Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic, another thing that just did not make sense in both gameplay and the world we were in, was the HUD and map design in the game. Unless you are in specific places in the game, you do not have access to the map nor a list of things you have in your inventory. That part was so frustrating when you have to keep on running back to the security rooms or areas to peek at the map and try to memorize it. That is in the real world. In the game world, Arnold is holding a device that has all of the technology to allow for it. It just made little to no sense. Then add in the fact that we only have access to cameras when they are not needed and the lack of being able to look around well while hiding, I just took more to the run and hope for the best approach most of the time. Another weird shift for Secret Of The Mimic to take after finding a good stride in many of the other games that offer up the 3D space for us to run about in. It is not like it would have been that hard to implement, nor would it have broken the difficulty of the game.

Last up on my hated list for Secret Of The Mimic has to come down to how some of the controls and actions taken in the game played out. I am all for immersion in my video games, do not get me wrong, but needing to not only press an action button to insert an item and then move the sticks in the correct way to have it play out, well, that seemed a bit of overkill. If things were not already tense enough with needing to wait for things in the game world to register, adding in this extra point of failure did not add anything to the game. It also seemed to only get harder to deal with as the game progressed, too. Like when we get to areas where we need to input buttons on a keypad. You literally need to line things up on the screen perfectly, then press the button, and have memorized the presses needed up to that point, too. It did not add much tension into Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic, as I am sure was the point, but more of a frustration and not wanting to have to deal with it. I skipped on many of the little collectibles just for that reason, when it could have been an easier option they have gone with in the past to do the same.

Loved

That was a lot of hate for Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic, but there was a whole lot to love. In fact, I will list it first as I did above; all of the other “boss fights” we had in the game were top notch. These all led to a fast chase sequence where we needed to figure out puzzles, pull levers, and just keep moving. All so we can get to a final place and watch as the animatronic is put down for good. While they could be tricky, they never left me wanting to quit the game. Even the final one with the Mimic itself, while it was a bit longer than expected, it all flowed so well. Almost as if Steel Wool Studios had hit their stride in the game, but someone else opted to come in and change the others above. If all of the “boss fights” in the game were handled in a chasing way, I think we would have had one fewer thing to hate about the game. At least on my end of things that would have been the case. Even the other options of hiding worked out well for some of the bosses, as you will see in the gameplay of it all that we have below all of the text here.

Now I am going to move on to the puzzles in Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic. None of them were too difficult to figure out, which sounds like it could be a slam. That is not the case, as they still had some challenges to them, but none as convoluted as we have seen in their other titles in the IP or even the lore of the game. Did they take a keen eye and search for the answers? Sure. Did any of them require hours and days of searching the internet for an obscure quote somewhere? Never. That is how it should be in these kinds of games. All to keep you engaged while also sprinkling in enough to keep the lore hounds busy with all of the hidden means of why something was colored a certain way. I was here for a horror game that had a lot of fun puzzles mixed in. That is what I was able to get and enjoy the whole time in Secret Of The Mimic. I am also certain I did not solve all of the puzzles and still made it out to the end. Most games do not always allow for that, but it is a nice change when they do. Another solid win for this one here if I do say so.

Lastly, in terms of the world and environment of Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic, they hit it out of the park. Not only did the setting feel lived in and filled with things that seemed to make sense for the world, but it does feel like there was little sense of “video game logic” to explain how things linked together. When looking at the map, even when you crashed through ceilings or walls, it felt like it would have happened naturally had we been wandering through a real place. Not many games do that, and with one in the Five Nights At Freddy’s universe, it would feel like an easy cut to have Secret Of The Mimi ignore that. Maybe it is because the fans of the IP will map out everything to make sense of it all, or the team has figured out how to craft levels and environments so well at this point. Even when there was no map to use, most paths were easy to follow once you found where they started. I loved that, and it never felt linear at that. Another hard thing to pull off in video games, and glad I was able to experience it all in this way.

Overview

So, at the end of the day, does Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic live up to the IP and is it something that a casual fan of it all can enjoy? It does have a few weird inconsistent things that happen with the “bosses” and the lack of a HUD is a bit rough to deal with. Thankfully, the game does not lean too hard on the lore to drive the gameplay forward and is leeched in just enough for the lore hounds to enjoy and offer an engaging story for those just passively following along. If there were an option to remove some of the weird “immersion” mechanics, this would be an insanely solid stealth horror game. So, yeah, it does feel like it holds up for the casual user if they can work past that. Those who are out to learn the Secret Of The Mimic are already going to ignore some of the gameplay flaws, as it does expand the world and lore just as they would want. As well as giving some of the good jump scares and tension-filled settings that the IP has been known to dig into after it hit popularity a while ago. Give it a shot even if you have little knowledge of Five Nights At Freddy’s. You do not need a PHD in the IP to enjoy the ride here.

I give Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic 28 Presents on the Present scale.

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic — Hades Plays The Full Game [PS5]

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret Of The Mimic was developed and published by Steel Wool Studios for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 13^th, 2025. A PlayStation copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.