The game's overall atmosphere was praised for emphasizing the fear and suspense of an approaching threat rather than the arrival of the threat itself executed frequently in other horror-oriented games. However, the gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's was criticized for becoming repetitive once a player masters it, as there is "not much more to expect beyond managing battery life and careful timing of slamming doors shut, so those with steely willpower won't find anything else past the atmosphere of it all."