When battling the ink demons that rise from spilled ink on the floors, there have been many times where I have had the cursor right over the enemy, and even though Henry swings the weapon, it’s as if the enemy isn’t even there. That’s it.įurther to that, the combat mechanics can be particularly clunky – to the point where it becomes frustrating. Finally, the left bumper will make Henry sprint, albeit not very fast. Hitting the A button will make Henry jump, but there aren’t a lot of instances in Bendy and the Ink Machine where jumping is necessary. The right trigger will cause Henry to attack enemies if he has a weapon, or throw empty cans to distract and sneak around them in certain situations. Pressing the X button will interact with items – picking up a collectible or puzzle item, selecting a weapon to carry, or playing an audio log. To use the weapons, you’ll need to master the very simple, yet often clunky and frustrating control scheme Bendy and the Ink Machine offers. Finally, the most interesting way to acquire a weapon is when you have to collect gobs of ink and take them to what is essentially a crafting station, where you can turn them into a weapon or various other items you need for a specific puzzle.
Sometimes you will find them in the world and pick them up, while there are also moments where you will be given a specific weapon by a character you’re doing a mission for. Speaking of weapons, they range from a syringe or two different kinds of pipe, up to more traditional weapons like an axe or even a tommy gun in one scenario, and these weapons can be obtained in a few different ways. You’ll encounter enemies ranging from the Lost Ones to the standard Ink Demons, but unless you have a weapon handy, you’re defenseless against any enemy. Other enemies can be fought with varied levels of success (you can’t kill The Projectionist either, but he doesn’t kill you with one hit). You’ll know if Bendy is close because the walls and floors will become covered in what resembles an ink-like shadow. There’s no way to fight him – if he touches Henry, it is immediate death. When Bendy appears, you have to run away and try to hide. The primary antagonist in the game is Bendy himself, who is an incredibly evil looking creature that only slightly resembles the Bendy drawings you come across in Chapter 1. In one case, where Henry has to play instruments in a certain order to open a door, the instruments that have to be played and the order you play them in will change every time you run through the game.Īs you advance, you’ll encounter numerous enemies that you’ll have to either defeat, or avoid, to stay alive. Some even require listening to audio logs that can be found in each chapter in order to get a clue that proves to be vital so you can advance. As you progress through the chapters however, things become more difficult and definitely more horror driven.
Early in the game, the puzzles are meant to also help teach you the mechanics of the game and how to explore the world, so you’ll find more simple fetch quest types of puzzles in Chapter 1.
Puzzles in Bendy and the Ink Machine are varied and, in some cases, really inventive.