This article originally ran under a different banner/website in November of 2018 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! It does not excite me to be in front of all of you today. I am aware that my opinion I am presenting will not be popular. I truly wish I enjoyed this game more. I had high hopes for Bendy and the Ink Machine, but alas, my expectations weren’t met. Some of you will strongly disagree with me. Some of you will say I demand too much. Some of you say I will never be satisfied. All these statements are probably true, but please hear me out. I see so much potential in Bendy and the Ink Machine only for it to be thrown away with lacking gameplay. I know many of you will be ready to throw rotten fruit at me, but save your tomatoes until you hear why I didn’t enjoy the famed Bendy and the Ink Machine.
Now for starters, I will not say everything in Bendy and the Ink Machine is awful. Quite the contrary. The story revolving around an art studio expanding so rapidly to the point where fusing their creation to a demon is the only way to save the company is very genius. You play as Henry, a former employee returning after thirty years after your former partner asks you to come to the old workshop as he something to show you. You get the sense of a tragedy that spiraled out of control as you travel deeper and deeper into the ruined studio.
Many people have come to know Bendy and the Ink Machine through its unique art style. One would assume the 1920 cartoon art style would detract from the horror element behind Bendy and the Ink Machine, but I believe it only helps create an unsettling atmosphere I crave. I recall entering a room that looked down on a recording studio. The studio was filled with cutouts of the game’s mascot, Bendy. I entered the studio to find the same cutout missing from the studio. I looked up to see those cutouts staring down at me. While there was no evidence of anyone moving them, I can’t deny the fear rippling down my spine. Many moments throughout Bendy and the Ink Machine had me frozen in fear, I feel as though those moments had only occurred due to the strong story and captivating art design.
The gameplay, unfortunately, does not complement the artwork or story. The gameplay can be divided up into three elements: puzzles, combat, and stealth. The puzzles were the strongest of the three. Many of the puzzles consisted of finding valves to drain ink blocking the way or, retrieve ink blobs to use in a special machine to craft items you need. I was never bothered by these puzzles as they fit with the game’s story. I especially liked the crafting blobs of ink into various pipe shapes to drain ink-blocking my path. Unfortunately, not every chapter was equipped with good puzzles. I am sure many of you heard of the famed Chapter 3 fetch quests. Your supposed ally Alice Angel keeps sending you on repetitive fetch quests. Go get five gears, go get five valve cores, go get three ink blobs. It is nauseating and uninspired. My memories of these puzzles will always be tainted with the thought of me rolling my eyes at another Alice fetch quest.
Now combat in horror games is always a delicate balance. Make the player too powerful, and your monster becomes unthreatening; too weak, and your player’s frustration grows. Usually, these games find the right balance by making the character not as skilled in combat as John Wick or Jason Bourne. Leon Kennedy, from Resident Evil 4, is a great example. Sure, he has good aim, but he has to stop and plant his feet before taking a shot. With an enemy barreling down on you while stuck in place, a flight or fight kicks in as you gauge whether to move or shoot. While Henry is able to pick up and use weapons, he is not the best with them, only having a basic swing in his arsenal. While this swing is perfectly effective in dealing with one or two enemies like the Bertrum Piedmont or Brute Boris boss fights, any swarm of three or more enemies leads to a quick and frustrating death. Numerous chapters throw you into these situations where you try to fight multiple enemies, die, and respawn. Repeat the process over and over again. While there is no punishment for dying over and over, it greatly devalues the terrifying nature of the enemies and just makes them more of a nuisance than a threat.
The enemies continue to be a nuisance when you are forced to sneak around them in an Outlast style. Every so often you’re thrown into a maze, forced to find certain objects while avoiding enemies like the Butcher Gang or the Projectionist. These minions will slowly shamble around the maze and more often than not, I found myself keeping a few footsteps behind them. If one was to ever spot me, I could always duck into an Outlast style locker the game has hanging around. From time to time, the game’s main antagonist, Bendy, can decide to materialize himself in the same room you were occupying and you can also use these lockers to hide. While a good idea on paper, you can have a minion or Bendy chasing hot on your heels, but the second you get into a locker, the minion willfully forgets you and wander off. They could be so close they could stain your clothes with ink, but the second your in the locker, you’re like a kid at school in the “safe zone” during a game of tag. If I ever tried to pull that trick in Outlast, your pursuer would yank you out the locker and force you to do the stealth properly. It just rings hollow when your main antagonist sees you enter the locker and can’t do anything about it. Bendy and the Ink Machine’s lack of teeth completely undermines the atmosphere the story and artwork worked hard to create.
Overall the gameplay is very inconsistent. While each part has its own issue, I think all the issues stem from Bendy and the Ink Machine being an episodic title. Each chapter always seems to be drastically steering away from the criticism the last chapter received. They followed up Chapter 2 by making Chapter 3 longer with repetitive fetch quests. They responded to the repetitive fetch quest by adding more boss fights and frustrating stealth sections in Chapter 4. Finally, they added more frustrating combat in Chapter 5. Now some might think that the dev team wasn’t looking at feedback and made those corrections on their own accord, but the radios in the game say otherwise. Throughout chapter 2 to 5, you can find some radios playing piano versions of fan-made songs by DA Games, Random Encounters, JT Music and Lauren Synger. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy those songs, but there is something pretentious about using fan-made songs about your game in your game. It’s like you know the fan will lose their mind when they hear those songs. It also says to me, the dev team is almost too close with the fanbase, and with that in mind, I can’t help but feel they made changes to gameplay to please the fans. Leading to inconsistent focus from chapter to chapter.
Now, I know this game has its fanbase and probably won’t be as critical of the title as I am. That is perfectly fine. Trust me, when I say I can see all the great things this game is trying to do. I will always remember playing pool with an eyeball in Chapter 2 or the Bertrum Piedmont boss fight in Chapter 4, but the fact Bendy and the Ink Machine can’t keep the same note makes me unable to enjoy the title as much as others have. That saddens me cause I do see the potential this game had. I can tell you right now, the devs behind this game are on my list of development teams to watch out for. I truly believe if they were able to produce a full title over an episodic one, it could truly be a masterpiece. If a non-episodic game can come from the success of Bendy and the Ink Machine, it will all be worth it in my mind, and I will be certainly first in line to purchase it.