play station official magazine

095

REVIEW

INFO
FORMATPS4
ETAOUT NOW
PUBROOSTER TEETH
GAMES, JOEY DREW
STUDIOS INC.
DEVJOEY DREW
STUDIOS INC.

BENDY AND THE

INK MACHINE

Driving you round the bendy for all the wrong reasons

B

uried beneath Bendy And The Ink

Machine’s pomposity are touches

of malevolence so effective, they’re

breathtaking. When it’s not trying

to dazzle you with contrived jump scares

or its offensively unsubtle environmental

storytelling, you can almost see what Bendy

could’ve been. And that’s the scariest thing

here, really; not the game itself, but what was

lost somewhere in the development process.

I take no pleasure in writing that, by the way;

to all intents and purposes, Bendy encompasses

much of what we’re looking for in contemporary

horror, and that’s possibly why its missteps are

so irksome. As stunning as its score and visuals

are (although that jaundice-toned veneer will

grate on you, too, no doubt), Bendy And The Ink

Machine is a veritable masterclass in how not to

design a horror game. Clumsy combat, mindless

fetch quests, derivative environments, and a flat,

emotionally-tetherless cast cannot be obscured

by story alone, no matter how intriguing that

premise is. It’s staggering how such a brilliant

concept can be so sullied by a lack of variety, a

lack of substance, and a lack of ambition.

You play as Henry, a mild-mannered animator

called back to his old studio 30 years after

leaving, although the whys and hows are left

unsaid. He notes that the place has knocked

down walls in the years since

he’s left, but his desk –

inexplicably secreted in the

corner of a corridor – remains

untouched. And so begins your

adventure, scurrying through

the rooms and walkways of Joey

Drew’s Studios.

IT’S AN INKER

Well, I say scurry, but Henry

doesn’t really do that, even

when there are ink-based

denizens trawling in his

wake. To be honest, a mute

protagonist would be preferable

to Henry’s dull critique, and his

gobsmacking lack of empathy

means it’s difficult to build any

meaningful relationship with

other characters given he can’t

even muster a sympathetic

shoulder-pat. And while there

have been attempts to lace

lore through your exploration,

everything else seems hellbent

on bleeding enjoyment from

the experience. The stupid,

forgettable enemies. The

truncated runtime. The

unimaginative puzzles and

backtracking. On their own

these things are forgivable,

but piled together, you start

to realise how much is wrong

with Bendy... and not just the

inky demons trying to kill you.

It’s not the lack of combat

that’s the issue; there’s a lot to

be said for horror games that

quietly layer on that soft, subtle

fear, building tension and

atmosphere through masterful

manipulation and corner-of-

your-eye tricks. Bendy doesn’t

pull this off either, though. The

game is tripping over itself

to show you how clever and

spooky it is, often inadvertently

broadcasting many of its major

story beats, puzzle solutions,

and jump scares in advance.

INKREDIBLE SCENES @_vixx

VERDICT

There are worse ways

to waste £20... but

there are hundreds of

better ways, too.

Bendy And The Ink Machine

could’ve been a devilish

perversion of Epic Mickey 2.

Instead, all it does it provide

proof that style is no substitute

for substance. Vikki Blake