NOCLIP Pocket E68 - Jim Jammed - Bendy and the Ink Machine

If you make it out, don't ever return, because the podcast will
find you. Welcome back to the podcast! We’re trucking through
Halloween, and today we’re talking about Bendy and the Ink Machine.
Bendy is a horror adventure game that was released episodically,
and it’s one of those titles that just isn’t satisfied with walking
simulator mechanics. This game includes more typical object
interaction and puzzle solving as well as combat, boss fights and
even a few minigames thrown in. Does all this extra interaction add
to the game? At times, it can, but overall the game lacks focus. It
has some good things going for it, though. The game has a stellar
concept, with the “Ink Machine,” probably the most overshadowed
part of a title ever, being a real physical thing in the game, the
implications of which are both bizarre and very cool. The art style
and theme reflecting generations old cartoons also shows promise,
especially in the context of a horror game, corrupting something of
childhood innocence, though this concept has been done before.
Still, the actual act of playing the game teeters between tedious
and disappointingly unfrightening, which holds back a lot of the
good ideas this title has. We’re going to be talking about how
adding an abundance of mechanics can harm a game holistically, the
importance of designing levels and quests in a way that hides their
mundane nature from the player, and we have a senior moment and
call back to a YouTube channel that hasn’t been relevant in years.
Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game we had on
our minds for a while, probably due to some level of internet
word-of-mouth that made it seem like a cool one, but it ultimately
let us down a bit. Did you try taking this on for a Halloween
present or past, and did you end up feeling similarly? Were you
able to dive into the backstory and extract something more valuable
than what’s on display in the base game? Let us know in the
comments or over on Discord! Next time, for the final episode of
the Halloween season, we’re going to be talking about World of
Horror, a manga-inspired throwback game wrapped into a rougelike,
which is scary on at least a few levels, so we hope you’ll join us
for that.