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Adding new elements to established games can increase the challenge, flip the perspective, or even create functionally new game experiences. It can also be used to troll people with horrifying concepts, whether that be terrifying reimaginings of classic cartoon characters or grim game modes that are purposefully done in bad taste. Compared to almost everything that’s come before it, though, Five Nights at Epstien’s might be one of the most horrifying. While other mods have been more overtly racist, sexist, and violent, the underlying reality connected to that game makes it especially grim to consider.
Five Nights At Epstein’s, Explained
Five Nights at Epstein’s is one of the darkest fan games ever made and speaks to just how unsettling the current political and societal landscape really is. Originating on itch.io earlier this year, Five Nights at Epstein’s is effectively a reskin of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s. However, instead of players taking on the role of a security guard in a haunted pizzeria beset by gruesome versions of anthropomorphic mascot characters, Five Nights at Epstein’s relocates the action to a house and tasks the player with keeping an eye on the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and other people referenced in the government investigation into the notorious sex trafficker’s operations. This includes Donald Trump, who reflects the multitude of references to the United States President in the investigation.
The original version of the game, which was developed by an online user going by EvanProductions, was active on itch.io for about a month before the developer pulled the game from access. By then, duplicates and clones of the game had been saved elsewhere, leading to more widespread access to the game that has increasingly been picked up by news reporting agencies around the world. The game initially broke out amid the scandal involving the United States government’s apparent reluctance to publish its full findings, which has increasingly galvanized the public and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. While much of the reporting on the game has focused on parent and educator reactions to the game — as well as the inherent trivialization of a horrifying real-world story by gamifying a sexual predator hunting down people — it’s worth noting where this game lands in the history of purposefully provocative video games.
Online Games Have Been Horrifying People For Decades
The internet has always been a great resource for spreading information and showcasing personal creations. That also means it’s almost perfectly designed to share truly messed-up material. The ability to create an air of anonymity only adds to that ability, with plenty of users on countless websites spreading grim photography and videos of war atrocities, acts of violence, and worse. If the internet is to remain open and available to everyone, then that is one of the realities that comes with it. That’s especially true for game creators, with there being a long history of horrifying fan creations.
Players have modded Half-Life 2 with racial caricatures, brought the Teletubbies ot the world of Resident Evil Village, and slaughtered children in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The flash game era was especially notorious for this, with plenty of games that went far beyond the line of typically socially acceptable material to put out games that recreated terrorist attacks or mass shootings. For certain players and game makers, the act of offending people is the entire point. It’s central to the general concept of trolling and has been focused on in certain games that push far beyond common decency out of a desire to shock the player.
Five Nights at Epstein’s is just the latest example of that trend, which has been going on for decades. It’s not even the only game online to do something similar. However, this might also be quietly one of the most horrifying mods ever, simply because of the context of the situation and the way the game turns the very concept into something of a dark joke. The contents of the Epstein Files that have been released to the public include some genuinely horrifying accusations. Five Nights at Epstien’s doesn’t ever try to engage with the reality of the situation, and instead casts the titular criminal as a horror game sprite. The inclusion of Trump feels specifically like an attempt to rile people up and reference the many (at the time of writing, unproven) accusations about him in the files. The game as a whole undermines the haunting reality that everyone mentioned in the files was a real person, accused of heinous actions, and seemingly has members of the government working to keep those accusations from reaching the public.
There’s always been and likely always will be a dark edge in people that wants to offend. It’s a natural impulse for young people espeically, who find themselves lashing out at the limitations that previously kept the darker corners of the world out of their purview and embracing dark things for the sake of it. The ongoing nature of the controversy surrounding the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, including the bravery of the victims who have come out in public to keep the issue in the public consciousness, gives Five Nights at Epstein’s a darker element than any other game mod that I can think of.
