Battlefield V may be the biggest release for this week in terms of brand and general awareness of the series, but I’d like to call your attention to a smaller game, Bendy and the Ink Machine.
Horror wrapped up in a deceiving package of being adorable seems to be all the rage these days, thanks to Five Nights at Freddy’s. Bendy and the Ink Machine appears to fall into these footsteps, but instead of featuring animatronic animals (that quite honestly, scare most normal people) it stars a cartoon character, Bendy. Bendy looks to be from the 1940s, in terms of art style, coloring, etc. In fact, Bendy’s entire world is set in a 1940s-esque landscape.
See what I mean in the trailer below.
The cartoon style and antique coloring almost lull the player into a false sense of security. It’s about a cartoon character, so how scary could it be? I admit I’m a complete wuss when it comes to horror, but the trailer above gave me a couple of jump-scares.
Because of the antique style, it gives off a BioShock vibe as well. It doesn’t help that the ink monsters remind me a lot of the splicers with how they move. I’m sure there’s less blood and less—how do I phrase this—disturbing plot twists as BioShock, however. But there appears to be that environmental horror element that BioShock is so well known for. Sometimes, it’s those subtle horror elements that make the game scary instead of straight-up torture porn, ala the Saw movies.
The horror season is somewhat officially over as we’re now in Thanksgiving and holiday mode, but I’m sure you can squeeze in some Bendy time in between Thanksgiving courses. Some of the jump-scares may also get your heart rate going, which will burn calories, thus giving you an excuse for one more slice of pie.
The game originally released in an episodic format on Steam, but the console packaging includes all four episodes, including the fifth finale episode. It will release for PlayStation 4 on November 20, 2018.
