Just and old-fashioned game of hide and seek

Those Nights at Rachels 1 is a free late-night survival game, inspired by Five Nights at Freddys and its ilk. In it, you survive the potentially-fatal attacks of cutesy animatronics come to life as a security guard working graveyard shift at the titular Rachels. You don’t fight back against them, though: rather, you use the establishment’s security features against them, run, and hide.

Late night shifts can be a real killer

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of power to a run-down place like Rachels, and you need to save as much of the generator’s power as you can. So while you have a flashlight to see where you’re going, and a camera to see what the animatronics are doing elsewhere, both consume a battery that has to be at least above 1% by the time you clock out.

Fortunately, the flashlight has its own battery life, which is good news for you, because due to its power-hungry nature, Rachels is dark by default. You’ll want to flick your flashlight on to see where you’re going, and flick it off to avoid animatronics finding you while you hide. And of course, there’s multiple animatronics. Each behaves differently: one might run away when it’s hit with the flashlight, while another might eviscerate you!

Move around, but don’t stray too far

Frankly, Those Nights at Rachels 1 is uniquely suited to those who’ve played Five Nights at Freddys or similar titles. As a matter of fact, the game is a tribute to another cancelled game in this vein. You’ll be stalked by toys turned into deadly robots, and have to survive night after night through the witching hour to win the game. There’s a nervous ex-guard giving you an overview of your job as their replacement, and chilling truths to uncover about the animatronics and Rachels itself. Still, though. It’d be odd to say that the game is entirely without innovation. In its predecessors, you were entirely confined to your room, with blast doors keeping your would-be killers out, but draining a battery that must remain powered – lest the doors emergency open, leaving you in the dark and helpless.

Meanwhile, in Rachels, you can roam around a little, and knowing when to do this (and when not to!) is one of the key skills you must learn to survive your job. The same sort of gameplay is present, but moving isn’t just tacked on: opening and closing the doors is done between rooms and is used to cut off routes the animatronics have to your *current* location, and you can also hide in each room, with variable effectiveness.

A worthy tribute

Overall, Those Nights at Rachels 1 builds on the sort of game you’d expect it to be with a key new feature: the map. Without that, it might not be worth considering unless you’re a die-hard fan of animatronic evasion. But because it lets you move around (which many Five Nights players wished they could do), and because it’s free to try, it might just earn its spot in your Games folder!