Bendy And The Ink Machine is a first-person survival horror game where the character, Henry Stein, goes back to his previous workplace, Joey Drew Studios, to discover the twisted nightmares that have arisen since he left. The game is rated T for Teen (13+ due to violence, horror, and mild use of language), which is currently nine years old, fitting the genres of indie game, puzzle, survival horror, fighting game, action-adventure game, and strategy video game.
BATIM (Shortened acronym) has beautiful visuals, making the design of the game seem more like an older creation than it is, with a more cartoony look to the entire place and the characters by adding rough lines to make everyone and things look unique and sketchy instead of perfect. Some of the more important characters met through playing through the story are Joey Drew (The creator of the studio and the cartoons), Sammy Lawrence (The insane music director who worships Ink Bendy and believes he will free them), Boris the Wolf (Previous employee, Buddy, made into one of the cartoon characters), Tom (A gent worker who became a copy of Boris), Alice Angel/Twisted Alice (Susie Campbell, the voice of Alice Angel who ended up becoming her but in a not-so perfect/twisted way), Allison (Allison Pendle, the “perfected” version of Alice Angel), and Bendy/The Ink Demon (The main cartoon character made live into an inky beast/demon), all of the character having their own unique traits and perks that remain special to them and them only.
Throughout the game, Henry battles inky creatures called “Searchers” and “Lost Ones,” who are previous workers from Joey Drew Studios who have been left for so long that they have basically forgotten who they are or why they even existed. One of the most difficult enemies, and possibly the most annoying, is Ink Bendy, who will pop up with hardly any warning at any time. Whether doing Alice’s tasks she asks us to complete, or just wandering the studio to get used to the layout of the maze-like area, he will appear, with parts of the wall turning inky and him emerging from anywhere, the wall, behind Henry, anywhere.
If the person reading this likes to follow a chronological order to playing games with sequels or prequels, look no further, for the timeline of the BATIM games is well laid out by the developers. The order of the games goes Boris And The Dark Survival/Lone Wolf (BATDS/LW), Bendy And The Ink Machine (BATIM, this one), Bendy And The Dark Revival (BATDR, set a few years after BATIM), and Bendy: The Cage (Soon to release game set during the events of BATDR, perceived to be in the perspective of Sammy Lawrence but revealed to be in Henry’s POV). Though for a person who enjoys story flow/recommended play orders more than chronological order, here is the given order: BATIM, BATDS/LW, BATDR, B: TC.
For more information on the games as a whole, visit the official website, https://joeydrewstudios.com/archive (Scroll down on the web to look for the games).
