Despite its weaknesses, Bendy and the Dark Revival remains a worthy sequel to Bendy and the Ink Machine, and is a contender that can likely stand up to some of 2022's best horror games. Better still, at $29.99 USD, the game is very fairly priced. Sure to appeal to new and returning players alike, Bendy and the Dark Revival is a compelling, well-crafted game that's worth playing for horror fans.
Joey Drew Studios has created a memorable nightmare world of maniacal ‘toons and the dark side of creativity. While its combat and mechanics don’t reach the same level as its setting and narrative, Bendy and the Dark Revival is a must-play for fans of the first game, and an effective introduction to a singular franchise for everyone else.
Bendy and the Dark Revival drowns in its own basic black and white design for survival horror, but manages to amaze players with a more confident sequel to a unique nightmarish satire on all things Disney.
Bendy and the Dark Revival is trying its best to seems impressive and broad, but boring enemies, annoying stalker-type monster and bad stealth segments really drag the whole experience down, turning this project into a game tailored more for the fans of the original rather than a new audience.
The game was good, it had more mysteries than the prequel, but it was less scary. Although there are moments of full tension and the game tried to improve its gameplay. I still think that BATDR wasn’t just at the same high
Dark Revival had lackluster development (including firings, change of plot's concept, trial with another company and other things) which greatly affected the end results and how much time it took to deliver it.
If you'll look into everything that has happened, lack of marketing and how it has ended, it's the best possible end result.
1) Pacing: prologue+ ch 1-2 go flawlessly for what bendy always was. Starting from the middle of ch 3 it suffers with noteciable lack of time/funding to do things they've wanted but it's not the worst example of this I've ever saw. "City built on broken dreams" and GENT building can feel as bare bones experience but it does has it's own good moments.
2) Plot: it's your average plot, nothing much can be said. It tries to be more obvious and linear than Batim and mostly achieves it even if it stumbles at places.
3) Character writing: Dark Revival forces itself to be different from Ink Machine and picks characters it favourites to use them through the story.
It reminds me of the way Bioshock (it's main inspiration) handles it: you have protagonist, allies, villain and antagonist , meanwhile others are boss battles or are minor cameos.
On the plus side, main characters got more attention they needed. The ink demon is *finally* present in his own game instead of being side character like in the first game.
4) Protagonist issue: when we're talking about lack of time, playable characters should be brought to attention too. Dark Revival tried to fix Ink Machine's problem with one note protagonist Henry was. How successful it is, depends only on you.
Batim's narrative tries to be protagonist focused but it usually forgets *who* you're playing as and side characters get more attention. Henry mostly makes comments about collecting objects or using them, which is not enough to get full grasp on him as a person.
Batdr's narrative tries to be protagonist focused too and does it a bit better.
Audrey is not "blank slate" character Henry was tried to be passed as before 2018. She has a lot of shallow moments in writing but if you've played in the first game you'll know why it's still a big difference; possibly Audrey's voice actress' performance and interest toward character is the main reason for why it can be passed as better.
5) Art direction: Dark Revival changes Ink Machine's "sketchy" look toward more complex one (with different colours,more detailed assets/models and lighting). How good or bad it is depends only on who you'd ask.
6) Gameplay: it continues being identical to batim in most aspects but combat became a bit more lackluster. BATDR wanted to include magic into its combat (in similar way to Bioshock or Dishonored) but it was cut from the game really late. In final game, it took more stealthy approach/included Metroidvania aspects.
If you think that Bendy and the dark revival was cheesy/cringe or badly written, you aren't closely familiar with this series or you're looking for something it never was.
If you're looking for a game with stronger atmosphere Bioshock 1 or 2 will do you well. If you want more developed stealth and magic system you can look into Dishonored 1 or 2.
These two were main inspirations behind this installment, which is not a bad thing. But if you wanted BATDR to be spiritual successor to Bioshock or Dishonored, of course you'll be greatly disappointed; outside of Bendy team struggling through 2019-2021 it has never tried to be "more" than it is. Dark Revival prefers to continue being niche and creates characters/fanservise that will be liked by fans only.
Overwhelmingly underwhelming. The sensitivity is straight up broken for me and takes a good 3 scrolls across the mousepad to turn around, the story I feel wasn't very good and neither was the world design. it's just all fetch quests but I happened to like a lot of them, i just wish this game kept the chapter one after the other format because it would allow the devs to learn from it as well as it to stay more popular.
SummaryBendy and the Dark Revival is an upcoming first-person survival horror video game and the much anticipated sequel to Bendy and the Ink Machine.
Play as Audrey as she explores the depths of a curiously creepy animation studio that's gone completely mad. Combat ink-tainted enemies, solve puzzles, and evade the ever-lurking Ink Demon whil...