As this is sort of a follow-up on my Granny 1 & 2 reviews, I'll preface this review by saying that I've written this after completing all 3 Granny games on extreme, and that I've been evaluating these games off of their strategic gameplay rather than their horror. My reviews are also based on playing on the games' highest difficulties available (except Granny 3, where I toggled Slendrina off for my extreme completion after I started losing my mind).
There are three factors I think are key for fair & fun strategic gameplay:
1. Agency - The existence of player choice(s) and a gameplay dynamic to learn that is fun amidst the other two factors.
2. Mastery - The existence of reasonable skill floors and ceilings, priority for skill over luck within the game's design. Clear & well designed mechanics that make it easy for players to reflect on their mistakes.
3. Tool Providence - The existence of mechanics that enable the player to enact their agency satisfyingly, reliably and in creative, discoverable ways.
With my criteria out of the way, here's my breakdown of Granny 3 (of which I believe improves on some things Granny 2 broke from Granny 1's core, but not enough to salvage itself):
Agency:
The map design seen in Granny 2 has been improved upon in some ways, technically reducing the open spaces within the house with a central staircase that allows the player to hear the grandparents somewhat easier and spy on them from lower floors. Additionally, many of the separate rooms have doors again, allowing the player to hide behind them and listen out for the grandparents' positions. While the hiding spots of Granny 1 return with some restraint for how lenient they are, the shortcuts and interconnected design among parts of the house and other areas is still lacking, like they were in Granny 2, reducing player choices.
This means most of the problematic elements involved with Grandpa's existence, even if he now attacks from range, still persist. Luring is essentially a gamble in some instances, with certain areas like the ground floor kitchen or second floor dining room region reducing player choice by making one route out of the area clearly favourable to the other. Not to mention, when you combine these two parts of the map in a vacuum and route all of the options to leave the area, they all lead to the exact same place- the bottom of the staircase. If Grandpa just happens to be there, no single route is reliable, highlighting the issue with Grandpa being paired with a map design that is lacking shortcuts and ways to manipulate him as you can with Granny.
The game still inadvertently encourages a dynamic of weapon usage over cat-and-mouse stealth, since the weapons are the player's only means to ensure Grandpa is accounted for when navigating the house, bringing the biggest detriment that ruins the strategic gameplay in Granny 2 to Granny 3 as well. Grandpa once again has only two lures the player can use, being the ticketing robot and the teddy. While these are certainly much more useful and consistent than Granny 2's options, they do little to fix what Grandpa fundamentally breaks within the game loop and how it reduces the player's influence over the game's threats.
One area that Granny 3 improves is that there's now skill in needing to aim the slingshot weapon for headshots to knock out the grandparents. Paired with the map design's verticality and Grandpa's ranged attacks, it works to make the weapon-reliance dynamic a lot more investing, even if it is still a downgrade from the core game loop of Granny 1.
Mastery:
Granny works in Granny 1 because she's a predictable threat, so even if Granny 1 is the easiest game of the trilogy, it always remains fair and fun because she's a threat you can manipulate and learn. Grandpa in Granny 2 isn't, and that is no different here in Granny 3. As such, like I said for Granny 2, mastery flies out of the window for this game because any decision you make that doesn't account for Grandpa is a luck-based decision, not skill. And as stated earlier, the only true method to account for Grandpa is using a weapon because of the lacking map design and player influence allowed over Grandpa. Without the weapon, getting caught by Grandpa often isn't the player's fault.
In Granny 3's case, whether intentional design or not, an exception exists in that hiding behind an opened door prevents both grandparents from getting you. So if Grandpa is luckily at a distance from you when he spots you on the stairs, you can actually get behind an open door quickly and he can't get you (sometimes, I got caught once behind the basement door, so even this isn't reliable). It's so unintuitive however, that I'm not giving the game points for it. It also goes on to promote tedious waiting like Granny 2 does. I'd argue that the patience required when waiting to try and determine where the grandparents are is worsened in this entry, since the map is too large, and in some areas, you can't get close enough to where your exit is safely to actually try and listen out for the grandparents and their proximities.
I've ceased to mention it until now, but Granny 3 introduces a lockpick, and alongside the hiding spots and central staircase allowing the player to spy, it really tries to move away from the weapon reliance dynamic in favour of stealth, but the map is so tediously big to move back and forth within and Grandpa is still such an intrusive nuisance that it fails to make the dynamic reliable for the player to adhere to. Once again, the result is that weapon reliance is the only skill-based dynamic and it is inadvertently encouraged.
Again, like Granny 2, once the weapon is obtained, the game then becomes too easy and the only mastery falls down to improving your aim, memorising the item pre-sets and optimising your run.
Granny's bear traps also have weird hitboxes this time around, so while they're now competent threats again, they're also buggy and just unfair in some areas. I saw one floating on a staircase and twice I was trapped through a wall. I can't explain this in the slightest.
Tool Providence:
Similarly to what I said for my Granny 2 review, the sole mechanic that enables the player's strategy is the sound mechanic. Grandpa's existence ruins this, as I've reiterated a plethora of times across these reviews now. Point summarised; Granny 1 makes luring part of its dynamic whilst the weapons aren't necessary against Granny herself. Granny 2 reverses this to make luring somewhat pointless and weapons become the necessity. Granny 3 doesn't change this.
Also, Slendrina. If you're running from a threat, she's basically an unfair direction reverser. Imagine playing a platformer like Geometry Dash and a level had intentional lag spikes to test your skill. That's what Slendrina is. It's annoying and abysmal game design. ♥♥♥♥ Slendrina.
My Conclusion?
The takeaway from this game is (still) that added complexity and artificial difficulty doesn't make a game more fun or well designed. Granny 2 failed to evolve the core game loop and then Granny 3 proceeded to do the bare minimum to try and fix it. And once again, you can't toggle Grandpa off while playing extreme mode. As such, he has continued to be the bringer of my suffering and this review has become a glorified copy of my Granny 2 review since this entry buckles under that game's same issues.
This is easily the hardest game of the trilogy, since even if it becomes easier with the weapon, you still have to gather randomly spawning ammo for it, and the early game before you have it is difficult. However, like Granny 2, the difficulty is not the core problem. The problem is that the games in this series are seemingly losing the core game loop that makes Granny 1 work. Grandpa's return affirms this, since he fundamentally takes strategy out of what is, at its heart, a strategy game. Hopefully he dies of old age in Granny 4.
I wanted to like this game, but I just can't.
