Bendy and The Ink Machine Chapter 4 Review
It's been a hot minute, but I figured since I reviewed the last chapter, I should provide my view of the next one. Spoilers ahead, obviously, since it's a relatively new release.
Initially, I wasn't going to check it out because of how disappointing Chapter 3 was, but out of curiosity, I took a look. I will start out by saying that Chapter 4 is much better than Chapter 3. It wasn't a sellout, and it wasn't a fetch quest. The first half of the chapter was a lot of the same, but the second half, starting with the first "boss fight" was pretty cool. I also thought the little...should we call it an "ink machine"...was pretty cool. There were only four options to craft, but the concept is nice. It wasn't used very much, and I think that's a shame because it would've been a neat trial and error type of thing.
One thing to note is the length. I still think it's a bit short for the price, but this was a more substantial addition gameplay-wise. Chapter 3 was longer just for the sake of padding it to be "worth the money". This one was actually pretty engaging toward the end.
The only other gameplay critique I have is there's still quite a bit of hand-holding. Interactions with objects are linear, so there's only one way to do it. It's okay to have a linear path, but it feels more like follow the leader than free roam or actual gameplay. I just think it's a little silly to have a lever only move after you've put everything into place. You can pull a lever and have it do nothing in the outside world. (A bit nitpicky, I admit, but it does take the immersion out of it for me.)
I did notice a few throwbacks to Amnesia: The Dark Descent's Justine DLC, which intentional or not, caught me by surprise. (The Projector head in the flooded ink area where you have to throw the lever and it finds out where you are is like the final area. Boris's new look during the boss fight looks like the enemies.)
There are a few issues I have with the story and setting. We'll start with my biggest point of confusion.
Why in the heck is there a whole amusement park underground? At this point, we were fairly deep underground. I can understand needing a warehouse to store them, but we were going down, right? If they were going to put this park topside, how were they going to get it out there? It seems like it would be more trouble to build a prototype, dismantle it, and somehow cart it to the surface.
Another issue I have with all of these carnival game "keys" is how it sort of made up an excuse for the game mechanic at the last second. It did make more sense when thinking about it in connection with how incompetent the staff were portrayed in one of the earlier notes, but it's been quite a long time since the earlier chapters. On the surface, it just seemed like BS to me, but new players should be starting for the beginning. It's more of a personal thing.
I also think the haunted house ride was a bit of a let-down considering Bendy originally had a horror game frame. I was expecting good spooks layered on top of cheesy haunted house effects, not Alice making death puns as cardboard ghosts pop out. If you have the means to layer genuine creep on top of cheese, go for it.
The story additions in the audio logs weren't much. A new character was introduced and subsequently thrown away. We see evidence of Joey being a jerk. Whatsherface who thinks she's an angel whines about how she was supposed to be a star and how she deserves better. It feels like overall there are a lot of ideas in this game, but they don't really connect. They all exist in the same universe, but they're loosely tied together. A bit of consistency with setting, character ties, and plot could clear that up, I think.
Alice's personality didn't have many improvements. She's still hollow and lame as a villain, more-so during the speech in the haunted house. I ended up rolling my eyes and saying "not this again" out loud.
It felt like a slap in the face at first to be unable to save Boris after spending the whole chapter trying to get to him. Funnily enough, I was surprised to hear Henry show concern about Boris when throughout Chapter 3 he didn't seem to be too concerned with Boris's presence. I liked that.
The redeemable portion for me was the end when what I'm supposing is the "Real" Alice backstabbed "Cheesy Villain" Alice. Plus, Boris is there. I'm actually intrigued as to what the heck is happening with that.
Also, why did slow, goopy Bendy save Henry from the Projector head? I'm really confused about that. I'd like more clarification about the multiples of each character wandering around, especially these new appearances at the very end of the chapter.
That's about it. I'm glad that there are improvements in this chapter, and I'll definitely check out Chapter 5 whenever it releases. I won't mind it taking so long if the quality increases in the next chapter like it did this time. Maybe all the devs needed was more time, and they were setting themselves on too strict a schedule.
Initially, I wasn't going to check it out because of how disappointing Chapter 3 was, but out of curiosity, I took a look. I will start out by saying that Chapter 4 is much better than Chapter 3. It wasn't a sellout, and it wasn't a fetch quest. The first half of the chapter was a lot of the same, but the second half, starting with the first "boss fight" was pretty cool. I also thought the little...should we call it an "ink machine"...was pretty cool. There were only four options to craft, but the concept is nice. It wasn't used very much, and I think that's a shame because it would've been a neat trial and error type of thing.
One thing to note is the length. I still think it's a bit short for the price, but this was a more substantial addition gameplay-wise. Chapter 3 was longer just for the sake of padding it to be "worth the money". This one was actually pretty engaging toward the end.
The only other gameplay critique I have is there's still quite a bit of hand-holding. Interactions with objects are linear, so there's only one way to do it. It's okay to have a linear path, but it feels more like follow the leader than free roam or actual gameplay. I just think it's a little silly to have a lever only move after you've put everything into place. You can pull a lever and have it do nothing in the outside world. (A bit nitpicky, I admit, but it does take the immersion out of it for me.)
I did notice a few throwbacks to Amnesia: The Dark Descent's Justine DLC, which intentional or not, caught me by surprise. (The Projector head in the flooded ink area where you have to throw the lever and it finds out where you are is like the final area. Boris's new look during the boss fight looks like the enemies.)
There are a few issues I have with the story and setting. We'll start with my biggest point of confusion.
Why in the heck is there a whole amusement park underground? At this point, we were fairly deep underground. I can understand needing a warehouse to store them, but we were going down, right? If they were going to put this park topside, how were they going to get it out there? It seems like it would be more trouble to build a prototype, dismantle it, and somehow cart it to the surface.
Another issue I have with all of these carnival game "keys" is how it sort of made up an excuse for the game mechanic at the last second. It did make more sense when thinking about it in connection with how incompetent the staff were portrayed in one of the earlier notes, but it's been quite a long time since the earlier chapters. On the surface, it just seemed like BS to me, but new players should be starting for the beginning. It's more of a personal thing.
I also think the haunted house ride was a bit of a let-down considering Bendy originally had a horror game frame. I was expecting good spooks layered on top of cheesy haunted house effects, not Alice making death puns as cardboard ghosts pop out. If you have the means to layer genuine creep on top of cheese, go for it.
The story additions in the audio logs weren't much. A new character was introduced and subsequently thrown away. We see evidence of Joey being a jerk. Whatsherface who thinks she's an angel whines about how she was supposed to be a star and how she deserves better. It feels like overall there are a lot of ideas in this game, but they don't really connect. They all exist in the same universe, but they're loosely tied together. A bit of consistency with setting, character ties, and plot could clear that up, I think.
Alice's personality didn't have many improvements. She's still hollow and lame as a villain, more-so during the speech in the haunted house. I ended up rolling my eyes and saying "not this again" out loud.
It felt like a slap in the face at first to be unable to save Boris after spending the whole chapter trying to get to him. Funnily enough, I was surprised to hear Henry show concern about Boris when throughout Chapter 3 he didn't seem to be too concerned with Boris's presence. I liked that.
The redeemable portion for me was the end when what I'm supposing is the "Real" Alice backstabbed "Cheesy Villain" Alice. Plus, Boris is there. I'm actually intrigued as to what the heck is happening with that.
Also, why did slow, goopy Bendy save Henry from the Projector head? I'm really confused about that. I'd like more clarification about the multiples of each character wandering around, especially these new appearances at the very end of the chapter.
That's about it. I'm glad that there are improvements in this chapter, and I'll definitely check out Chapter 5 whenever it releases. I won't mind it taking so long if the quality increases in the next chapter like it did this time. Maybe all the devs needed was more time, and they were setting themselves on too strict a schedule.
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