Bendy and the Ink Machine Review (RareOrangeBear)
This is another one of those games where I REALLY wished Steam allowed a "neutral" option for reviews. This is not a bad game by any stretch, but there are enough gripes that prevent me from fully recommending it to others. To start with the negatives: the game itself is rather short, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but the length just doesn't justify the $20 price tag, especially when there is not much replayability. Granted, there ARE new things you can uncover by replaying, but they are minimal and don't impact the overall game in a significant way. Regarding gameplay itself, there were areas where it became a walking simulator and the tension was almost nonexistent. I could count on one hand the amount of times I actually felt genuinely scared. My final gripe with this game is the voice acting for Henry (the protagonist), which was flat-out AWFUL. He delivers almost every line with the same boring monotone as if he really is just going through another day at the office. I understand he's not a professional voice actor, but was that really the best he could do?? I later found out he was voiced by the game's main developer, but maybe he should have given the role to someone with actual voice acting talent. When the protagonist doesn't sound the least bit scared, why should the player?
To address the positives, the most obvious one is the art style, which makes one feel like they're playing through an old cartoon. As someone who's also a big fan of "Cuphead", I enjoyed that aspect. The voice acting (save for the protagonist of course) was good. There was also a good balance of humor and horror. While the overall game was not especially scary, when it actually does get intense, that is where it really shines. The story itself was clever, if not overly-vague in some parts.
Overall, I did enjoy a good bit of this game, so why don't I recommend it? The price doesn't justify what you get, the game suffers from a lack of polish, there are way better horror games you could play, and despite the cool art and concept, the end result left me feeling underwhelmed. I would however recommend this game IF you can get it on sale, which I luckily did.