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.