Bendy and the Dark Revival

By all accounts, animation shouldn’t be this terrifying.

And yet Bendy and the Dark Revival picks up the ink-splattered baton from its viral predecessor and sprints deeper into the gnarled guts of Joey Drew Studios, a place where nostalgia curdles, rubber hose limbs twitch in the dark, and the very ink that birthed Bendy wants to swallow you whole. You play as Audrey, an animator turned unwilling protagonist, dragged into a warped sketchbook world teeming with gooey monstrosities, reanimated regrets, and a truth that pulses beneath every black puddle.

Unlike the original, Dark Revival doesn’t just drip with style, it floods you with it. Its sepia-toned corridors and glistening, melted walls are pure haunted cartoon-core, complemented by a soundscape that sloshes and screams in equal measure. Audrey’s semi-inked form, half-woman, half-Hell’s concept art, earns her supernatural powers, letting you solve puzzles, sneak past horrors, or just bash them into cartoon confetti with an upgraded pipe. Movement feels slicker, combat smarter, and the whole thing’s more of a full-course nightmare than the haunted-house teaser of the first game.

Of course, the Ink Demon still lurks. You’ll know he’s coming before you see him, his voice a gargled growl, like a jazz singer drowning mid-note. His appearances are randomized, sometimes terrifying, sometimes just there, and while that drip-feed of fear loses pressure over time, it’s hard not to flinch when the music dies and the lights flicker.

What Dark Revival gets absolutely right is mood. Its rhythm of dread, discovery, and soft, squishy footsteps makes for a surprisingly meditative horror loop. But it stumbles when it tries to say too much. Plot points unravel without payoff, and side characters fade into the background just as you start to care. It’s a little messy, like a half-sketched storyboard, but there’s charm in the chaos.

Even so, for an indie horror game dripping with ambition (and, well, ink), Bendy and the Dark Revival pulls off a stylish, spooky sequel that builds on its foundation in nearly every way. It’s creepy, clever, and exactly the kind of Saturday morning cartoon that ends with a panic attack.