Henry Stein, a retired traditional animator, receives a strange note from a friend, Joey Drew, inviting him back to his old workplace. Henry finds the place abandoned and discovers a mysterious ink machine creating all sorts of abominations. Bendy and the Ink Machine is a video game that builds a story around an animation company of the 1920s - 1940s style (obviously similar to Walt Disney with their works such as Mikey Mouse) however, it has taken a dark turn with the creations coming to life and apparent ritual partaking, with the help from the titular ink machine. This video game is a phenomenal original story that has a very stylised appearance, which never fails to captivate me. Walking around an abandoned animation studio that, in itself, looks like an animation is a simply visually stunning spectacle. Henry's outer monologue as he walks around the empty studio offers much intrigue as to the past of the workplace and how much it has changed since he left to its now eerily quiet state. All the small details of a bigger picture slowly come to fruition as we, the players, and Henry, are gradually dragged into the truly horrifying prospect of this nightmarish reality. I have been such a big fan of Bendy from the start of its early development and release as a single chapter that would later, with the overwhelming support of players, become a fully finished 5 part-chapter adventure. I was drawn into this world thanks to the many videos of gamers playing it back on February 10th of 2017, most particularly by the content creator, DAGames, whose hilarious playthroughs brought it to my attention during my school years. His work, alongside many other content creators, brought the game into recognition among the gaming community and would give it the chance to flourish and grow, developing more chapters and updating previous ones in terms of quality and scope. All of this love from fans was implimated into the game from fan art, music on the radios (including DAGames own song on the game: Build Our Machine) and giving them characters to voice on recordings scattered around the game. The level of appreciation for the people who made it popular was awesome and proved how amazing this fanbase and the creators were. Each chapter sees our protagonist, Henry, be dragged deeper down into the studio, where he comes face to face with some of the cartoonish characters now alive as an ink terror, which seems to have consumed or changed some of the real people who worked there. Characters such as Alice Angel, Boris the Wolf and The Butcher Gang all take on form in this dreary place with multiple versions showing up with some displaying characteristics or showing knowledge of being another person. Some characters take on their human attributes in this world like Sammy, the musician for the Bendy animations who becomes a worshiper of the demon or the Projectionist who receives a projector for a head roaming the inky depths or lastly, Bertrum the amusement park designer who becomes a deadly monstrous octopus ride. Whilst, the most fearsome of them all is Bendy himself, the ink demon. Appearing through each chapter, he shows up when you least expect it. Your only chance of escape is to hide, which is reminiscent of another single-player survival game: Alien Isolation (Video Game 2014). The studio constantly expands with each chapter, taking us to new areas from the Animation Department, Music Department, the Bendy Land Theme Park Storage to the Heavenly Toys Room. There are many locations to get lost, hide or fight for survival. Overall, I loved playing this Disney gone wrong-themed game, mainly thanks to it playing a huge part in my younger years as I became so invested in this rich world and story. With its constant sense of mystery at play, I was left second-guessing and questioning everything throughout right up to the end, which in itself, offers many more questions. I would most definitely recommend checking out this cult game with the impressive amount of detail-filled into every waking moment in all aspects. Also, check out the sequel title in Bendy and the Dark Revival (Video Game 2022).
Platforms: Android, IOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
Developers: Kindly Beast, TheMeatly Games, Joey Drew Studios Inc.
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