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charlinecarter · 1 year

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//BE CAREFUL, THERE WILL BE A LOT OF SPOILERS IN MY REVIEW. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON’T READ IT//

Well. I'm not going to lie, I was looking forward to the release of BATDR : I woke up this morning at 7am, played the game for 11 hours in order to finish it the same day. And boy, oh boy. I have a lot to say. In order not to get lost, I've divided my review in several parts concerning differents parts of the game because in my opinion there are as many perfectly well done parts as BIG failures :')

Here we go !

To be quite honest : The graphics of BATDR are breathtaking. The cartoon style is, as usual, perfectly mastered, and the multitude of details and textures make the Bendy's universe ultra solid and constant. HOWEVER. In my opinion, we see less the "black and white" aspect of the universe because of the new use of bluish and greenish tones in the game, which sometimes gives the impression that the game is in color and not in a sepia world (I’m not talking about the end and the beginning of the game of course), which I find is a bit of a shame :/

NEVERTHELESS. The lighting is breathtaking. I was blown away during the whole game-

Beautiful, as always. Even better, since it seems like there is an orchestra behind some of the songs sometimes, because of how professional they sound ! Maybe a little disappointed by the music of the credits? Or maybe it's just because I'm obsessed with Drawn to the Darkness-

Perfect.

PUZZLES

This is where I was disappointed : some puzzles are very simple to understand and to do (like the puzzle proposed (imposed ?) by Malice or Betty's request) while some puzzles are literally incomprehensible : many puzzles are not explained or explicited so I spent half of the game pressing buttons or pushing levers without knowing what they were doing :/ There are also a lot of puzzles that are very slow and boring which cuts the hype very quickly.

THE APPEARANCES OF THE INK DEMON

This is a TOTAL FAILURE to me: if in the previous game you were afraid to cross the path of the Ink Demon, in BATDR, the screamers are more about reflex and speed than fear: first, the game feels obliged to explain to the player that he has to hide, which is quite annoying. Then you don't even see the ink demon, you just get a cheap black and white screen and a loud gurgling noise. In short, very disappointed.

The game is really more frightening than the first one, without any doubt! :') The screamers work pretty well and the overall atmosphere makes you pee yourself continuously during the 11 hours of gameplay. What I find less efficient is the screamers of Carley (I don't remember her name but she's basically the fourth member of the butcher gang) and in general of the members of the butcher gang (who appear from the lockers) which are totally UNNECESSARY : It's scary the first time, surprising the second time and then you just get tired of it.

Absolutely beautiful, the artist's artstyle is incredible! I just think that the music did not do justice to the beauty of the drawings.

Let's go to the most important part in my opinion :

Joey McFucking Drew

Wow. Just wow. I didn't particularly like Joey before BATDR but in this game, I LOVED what they did with his character: His cartoonish ghost design is awesome, he's just gorgeous. His reveal is perfectly executed in my opinion and you almost feel sorry for the bum as he monologues with Audrey. The reveal of his grave was also very good apart from Joey walking through the walls because well, yeah, ok, we get it, he's a ghost 💀 no need to make him walk through the walls lmao. His little hideout is great especially since we see that it's modeled after his apartment seen in BATIM! In short : I loved it.

Henry Stein

Henry's design is great : the way he appears in the game is in my opinion the best introduction the devs could have created to introduce this iconic character. In short, excellent 👌🏻

Audrey Drew

I was initially very afraid of the character of Audrey: I was afraid that she would be yet another character created to have the girl quota in a video game and that therefore she would have no personality...If only I had known- Audrey is in the game endearing, strong, brave but also jaded and outraged by the absurdity of the world before her eyes, which makes her even more relatable. If Henry in BATIM was (let's be honest) flabby and subservient, Audrey is dynamic, which really makes us want to see her get out of the cycle unscathed. She also has a design that I find simple but classy and elegant.

Malice

To be honest, Malice is a character I deeply hate simply because I think the devs butchered her in BATIM: I thought she had a lot of potential, completely wasted by the cliché of the heartless evil psychopath made throughout chapter 3 and 4. In BATDR I really thought that this cliché was back in the annoying dinner scene in which Malice is as usual machiavellian for no reasons. HOWEVER. I was very interested by what happened next : when Malice shoots at Audrey, I saw for the first time weakness and fear in her. When Allison finally kills Malice (a second time lol) by stabbing her in the heart, I found their dialogue really touching, showing (FINALLY) that Malice is not fundamentally evil: She's just misunderstood and completely gone. The note that Audrey finds in which Susie explains that beauty is the only thing that manages to make someone live from the look of others really touched me and almost made me sad about Malice's death. So I can say that thanks to batdr, Malice has gone up in my estimation.

Allison

Allison is, as usual, a character that I find horribly endearing: Her facial expressions are wonderful, unlike in BATIM where they were less pronounced. Her role of guardian angel is super well done, especially since it is not too pushy: She doesn't stick to Audrey during the entire game, bless. Her relationship with Susie is great, her little note to Malice made me soft I confess-

Tom

I love Tom and I really thought until the very end that he was not going to appear in the game lmao. His appearance is however, according to me, anecdotal and even bland since it is absolutely USELESS (it was only made to please the fans (me)) I didn’t like his redesign that much, I find it less "polished", more wobbly. And his robot arm is less badass in my opinion. But good point: he has one less strap which makes me VERY VERY happy 👍🏻

Porter

Useless. I found this character to be utterly absurd: He serves no purpose other than to give Audrey his power before disappearing in the most cringe-worthy way. His micro appearance during the final fight made me laugh anyway.

Betty

I found this character really interesting but once again, not developed enough : the idea that Betty's face didn't suit Wilson was very nice, but the fact that we don't learn more about her makes it frustrating. We would like to know what she looks like under her mask, how many other Bettys were conceived before the current one, what is really her relationship with Wilson, etc... I find her design brilliant as well as her voice and her odd walk, so I'm more frustrated than anything else because of her undeveloped character.

Wilson

A very good vilain in my opinion : I really like the fact that during the whole game we ask ourselves "is Wilson really evil?" And I think that, as soon as the viewer thinks that, the villain is successfully made. When the villains are evil and excessively vile (*cough* Malice *cough*) the viewer is less affected by his or her dirty tricks and low blows. Wilson, on the other hand, continually juggles the role of dictator and parental figure for Audrey, which makes the final battle with Wilson all the more confusing (we're still not sure if Wilson really meant us harm or not). What I can criticize about this character is his voice and appearance, which I find more comical and grotesque than scary.

Nathan Arch

His voice is beautiful, that's all I have to say.

Bendy

Adorable but useless. I think his design is terribly well done, I simp like crap every time he appears on my screen. I'm also very happy that the devs didn't give him a voice: I think it keeps some mystery about this enigmatic character. But otherwise, I find that he served absolutely no purpose in the plot. He also didn't bring anything to the lore. Why is he there? We don't know. To whom belonged the soul that was used to create him? We don't know. His relationship with the other inhabitants of the cycle? No idea. In short, a little disappointed by the very weak depth of the character.

Ink demon

I loved this character, very well done to me. I'm just disappointed that he has a voice: I think that, with his absolutely nightmarish appearance, it would have been even creepier if he didn't speak and only smiled. I think that with speech, we know too much about what he thinks, his personality, his opinions, etc...

Sammy Lawrence

My God. What have they done to my baby? We'll talk about the positive things first because there are so many negative things to point out, I'd rather start with the nice things: His design in the game is beautiful, very detailed, gorgeous 👌🏻 His appearance in his cell was also downright awesome: the fact that Sammy is so depressed that he doesn't even put his mask on anymore or doesn't even play the banjo properly made his appearance (too late in the game for my taste) very touching. The memos he wrote were also pretty well done. But then the ending. My god. When Sammy finally shows up after 10 hours of gameplay to say only 3 poor sentences that we can't even grasp before falling pathetically from the balcony, Meatly, Mike mood, WHAT THE FUCK? Why did you have to massacre this character like that ??? Joey Drew Studios still had the audacity to sell BATDR merchandise of Sammy even though this asshole is ABSENT the whole game. What a disappointment. In a game where the political context is so complex and tense between Wilson and the Ink Demon, I expected more from our favorite composer and prophet.

Audrey is a Drew

Absolutely brilliant. It blew my mind, me, who was convinced that Audrey was a Stein. The relationship between Audrey and Joey is adorable, very well developed and really touching in my opinion. Really, I loved this plot twist.

Wilson is an Arch

I found this plot not very convincing because Nathan was not developed enough during the game. Therefore I didn't really have time to get attached to the character and to be surprised by the revelation of the father-son relationship between him and Wilson. Therefore, very random.

All the inhabitants of the BATIM cycle have been captured and imprisoned/ Fight between the Keepers and the Cyclebreakers

Absolutely brilliant, it's worthy of a very very good scenario from a BATIM AU! Fanfiction Written on AO3: Henry's reveal in his cell left me breathless. Seeing all these old characters (Sammy, Henry, Bertrum, Norman (rip my boy)) really touched me and I thought the reveal was handled perfectly.

The ending leaves me with mixed feelings: I think it's too easy that Audrey manages to beat Wilson, beat the Ink Demon, break the cycle and control what happens in the cartoon world from the real world in only 10 minutes while Henry didn't manage to do any of that in 1 whole game. The fight in which Audrey and the ink demon are merged together is really ridiculous, we don't even know where to look: at Henry who is immobile in a corner? Allison who shoots everyone? Tom who rides a giant blob? Porter who appears for a micro second ? the horde of searchers who beat the shit out of the ink demon ? Audrey and the ink demon cutting each other off ? Sammy falling from the balcony ? I really laughed at this scene because I found it so off compared to the rest of the game. I find the ending to be too much of a “happy end”, in my opinion. And then Audrey who gets her legs ripped off but doesn't seem to care? I was really confused about that ending-

Anyway I liked BATDR except for the violence they did to Sammy by throwing him off the balcony.

Feel free to tell me your opinion on BATDR or to contradict what I’ve just said before: this is only my opinion after all ;) Thank you for reading me <3

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #wilson batdr #audrey batdr #Allison batdr #batim alice angel #Tom batdr #Sammy batdr #sammy batim #batim malice angel #spoiler #batdr spoilers #good luck for reading me #I’m confused about this game #please let me know if you liked it or not

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