Avendo giocato Bendy and the Ink Machine nel lontano 2018, non potevo non giocare Bendy and the Dark Revival. Mi aspettavo qualcosa di carino e le mie aspettative sono state più che soddisfatte. BatDR è tutto ciò che BatIM non è riuscito ad essere.
La storia è più curata e vari buchi di trama sono stati tappati, inoltre ci sono molti piccoli elementi che solo un giocatore del primo gioco può cogliere ed ammetto che alcuni di questi mi hanno davvero toccato il cuore. Lo stile artistico è bello ed unico come al solito, ma ovviamente la grafica è migliorata molto ed in particolare l'inchiostro è reso benissimo. Il gameplay è molto meno macchinoso e ci sono varie nuove funzioni, tra le quali il viaggio rapido che permette di rivisitare l'intera mappa di gioco: a differenza del suo predecessore, BatDR permette di tornare perfino nell'area iniziale del gioco, il che è un vero piacere per gli esploratori e i collezionisti più accaniti.
Platinare questo gioco è stato molto più appagante e fattibile, anche perché dei bug ci sono ma di certo non sono invadenti tanto quanto quelli che ho incontrato in BatIM, niente che un rapido "chiudi e riapri" non possa risolvere. L'unica pecca, che a me personalmente dà fastidio dato che sono una cacciatrice di trofei, è che gli achievement non poppano in-game ma solo nel momento in cui viene chiuso il gioco. Nel complesso, un bel 8/10!

"I'm tellin' ya, if I see one bad review on this game - I'm outta here!" - Wally Franks

It's been a long wait for this game to finally be in our hands, but after the surprise announcement of it coming out after a long period of silence, Bendy and the Dark Revival is a drastic improvement on its predecessor in almost every regard, even if it does have a few stumbling blocks along the way. No story spoilers here.

Dark Revival oozes atmosphere with its presentation, being a substantial upgrade compared to Ink Machine and even compared to its own trailers in the years since announcement. The environments are expansive and much more unique with minimal re-use of assets besides interactive objects, while retaining the series' art style of sepia-toned hand-drawn environments, something made more impressive when there are very few loading screens intruding on your progress.

There's been noticeable upgrades to the quality of the in-game models and animation too, something which really helps when using characters who primarily emote through their movements rather than talk, like Bendy. And on the sound front, the voice cast gives solid performances in their respective roles, with the foley and sound design of the game as a whole being a well-realised mixture of realistic and exaggerated depending on the situation.

In terms of gameplay, there's a much bigger emphasis on the "survival" aspect of the horror, something I felt was lacking in Ink Machine and is a welcome change. With the new additions of resource management for both health and upgrade items, you need to be thorough in searching for supplies and I'm still certain I missed some elements when exploring because there's just a lot to see. The added focus on looking around helps to make the studio feel more like a real place with distinct sections for different purposes, something that was difficult to judge with the previous game.

Despite this, there are some slight nitpicks I have. Dark Revival's combat isn't nearly as clunky as it used to be when it comes to connecting hits and being able to react, but there are still some moments where it is difficult to judge the distance and direction of where you're being attacked from when surrounded by groups. The conditions for dying are also weirdly binary. While being killed in combat instantly respawns you with no progress lost, the Ink Demon's sudden appearances that can lead to a real Game Over screen can be incredibly frustrating.

There was many a time when he would suddenly appear when I was in the middle of an area with no hiding places to easily reach, sometimes in vents which I'm certain isn't intentional. This would guarantee a death and a reload that often felt unjustified. While Dark Revival isn't a very difficult game, almost every death I had was due to the way the Ink Demon was designed. I feel his previous incarnation, a wandering enemy with an instant death if he caught you, would've been much more manageable to handle.

The story of Dark Revival is similar to the gameplay conditions. It is much better than the previous entry, but still faulted in some ways which mark it down a bit. A lot of long-standing questions within the franchise do get some sort of concrete answer, helping to re-contextualise a lot about Ink Machine and address things that weren't well explained back then. I also felt additions such as the "normal" Bendy were very welcome, to the point the main driving force I had was to encounter him again, along with the return of a lot of old favourites in new roles to Audrey that help emphasise the nature of the world being a "Cycle". A lot of these parts of the game had me smiling a fair bit.

However, just like the previous game, Dark Revival also introduces scenes and ideas that are presented in a way that feels almost purposefully vague, as if the game is trying not to give any sort of proper closure or explanation to deliberately stir conversation and speculation on some of its details. This is made worse by still having key information, some of it very important, regulated to audio logs that players can sometimes miss among the environment (hence my playtime, due to trying to seek them all out on a second playthrough). The Bendy world is indeed mysterious, and there is some room to theorise, but there are some major concepts across both games now that still don't have a definitive answer to provide even from a theorising standpoint. I'm grateful for the answers we do get, but sometimes it feels like a puzzle that's missing some of the pieces on purpose.

However, in the grand scheme of the overall game, I greatly enjoyed returning to the Bendy world after so long and it's clear that the development team have learned and improved a lot from what they learned creating Ink Machine. The experience feels more cohesive switching away from an episodic formula, it feels grander in scope with much better presentation in visuals and sound, and a lot of previous criticisms have been to addressed to some degree to make the game a general improvement. While I have my problems with some aspects in regards to particular design choices and storytelling, these don't detract from the experience enough for me not to recommend it. Long terms fans will be most pleased after such a long wait.

Confronto con il prequel vedo un grande miglioramento su tutti gli aspetti. Il prequel di per se' era veramente bello, ma questo sequel lo supera di gran lunga. Giocare questo sequel mi ricorda molto Bioshock sotto vari punti di vista, che per non fare spoiler non elenchero'. Personalmente penso che questo sia uno dei pochi titoli dove il sequel batte il prequel in quanto bellezza. Lo consiglio per chi e' alla ricerca di una trama e ambientazione alla Bioshock.

This game is a million times better than the first game. I've gotten spooked infinitely more times than BATIM. I feel like the developers have come a long way and learned a lot over the years. It's time to set them free, so play your role.

i had very low expectations.
I was pleasantly surprised. Very reminiscent of Bioshock

great game :D

Overall, I enjoyed Bendy and the Dark Revival, however

Pros:
- Excellent graphics and style
- Beautiful sound design
- Puzzles were tricky, but not too difficult
- Pacing of the game was great
- Great story telling

Cons:
- Short, its so short. To a point where i'd say the $30 price point is too much. I think $20 would be more fair. (i definitely did have dinner and go to sleep, forgetting to close the game while doing so.. putting about 12 extra hours on my playtime)
- The combat is very repetitive, I was hoping for more upgrades on the pipe.
- Blip ability functions were buggy from time to time

Overall:
If you're not pinching pennies on the dollar, BATDR is a fun game. Whereas I think the first Bendy was more revolutionary in the horror genre, maybe I was just expecting more out of the developers due to the time taken to make BATDR as well as it being a sequel. I do still overall recommend the game - but only for those who are okay with a shorter experience and mostly want to play for the story telling and rich atmosphere.

E' ben fatto, con ottime animazioni e pare essere anche abbastanza semplice ed intuitivo nei vari enigmi. La storia prende abbastanza.

This is better than the original for me. 4 years of waiting, 100% worth it. 9/10