Finding Frankie Review – DISCOUNT FNAF?

Ever since Five Nights at Freddy’s soared in popularity, the amount of mascot horror games being greenlit has been too damn high. Finding Frankie has followed a similar route, but it stood out to me in one, very specific way—parkour.

Playgrounds of Doom

Long story short: our silent protag has been invited to a seemingly innocuous gameshow set in a kid-friendly palace about running, jumping, grinding, swinging and sliding from one obstacle to the next. Albeit, things hit the fan lightning fast and all of our rival contestants are quickly plonked off the board by a disturbing-looking animatronic called Frankie who’s still out for more blood, ladies and gentlemen. Better get those legs workin’.

Now in terms of parkour, we’re not climbing 100-story buildings here. However, it does take a bit of getting used to, especially when you’re jumping towards hanging bars or trying to slide through gaps that seem like you’d fit, yet you just simply crash and burn instead. Couple this with a few intense chase sequences that can be quite challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing—AKA sliding at every possible moment—and Frankie will definitely find you first, that’s for sure. Occasionally, before he even starts chasing you. Although, that was a one-off encounter. I’ll cut it some slack.

At any rate, the parkour itself is pretty well-tuned—most of the time. Being packed with enough distinct set pieces that make the game’s roughly 2-hour length for first-timers, worth a playthrough or two. Speedrunners will have a field day with this one, with an in-built timer, online leaderboards and a near-constant 60FPS frame rate on PS5. That said, I don’t think you can actually turn the timer off on Sony’s console. So I’d imagine this could be a little distracting for those who wanna go at their own pace, but I digress.

Pumping the Brakes

Apart from the odd texture here or there, when it comes to the horror and atmosphere, Finding Frankie is surprisingly good! Particularly in the first half of the game where the tension and intrigue are at their highest, while the music really gets those palms sweating, mum’s spaghetti.

The second half of Finding Frankie eases off a little too much for my liking, often stopping to explain parts of the mystery as you backtrack through stairwells and corridors with little to no action. Yet at the end of the day, it still ends up feeling severely underdeveloped.

You can just tell the devs were sequel-baiting hard here, but this title seriously needed more to it. Some sound design elements came across as a little weak at points as well, though they didn’t detract much from the overall experience.

Decision

Putting a fresh spin on the mascot horror genre with fairly solid parkour mechanics and intense chase sequences, Finding Frankie makes its short, 2-hour runtime feel pretty punchy and replayable—especially for speedrunners. While the first half delivers a strong atmosphere and tension, the second half noticeably loses steam with slower, exposition-based segments and an undercooked ending that’s clearly trying to set up a sequel. Still, with the price it’s going for, you can definitely do much worse.

By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PlayStation 5

Good

Finding Frankie features fluid parkour mechanics, heart-pounding chase sequences and a gripping, suspenseful opening. While the latter half stumbles with slower pacing and diminishing tension, its short length and strong speedrunning appeal help it stick the landing—even if it’s an uneven experience overall.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Perp Games. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.