It took me nearly three years to finish this game, and honestly, I don't know what to rate this so I'm going to convince myself of a score as I write this.

First things first: I love the aesthetic. I love the art style, the color pallet, the dreadful ink filling the corners of the screen, and every beautiful classic cartoon design they managed to stuff into here and warp into a lively 3D Model. If there was any draw I had to play this game, it was all in the art style.

Now the story... well I'm torn. The actual plot of the game is pretty fun, but trying to understand the greater lore is a headache-inducing mess. The amount of rewrites and complete inconsistency makes learning the story and characters nearly impossible.

So that leaves the gameplay, which is extremely varied. Between the long stretches of stress-inducing hallways with unexpected heart-attacks I mean Jump-scares, you have puzzles that are usually pretty tedious, entertaining character moments, and mostly fun boss battles. So... the gameplay is mixed. The horror is pretty fun, and the jump-scares are a not as cheap and unwarranted as you might expect. The first two chapters have the best horror atmosphere, whereas the third and fourth chapters have the best gameplay. Chapter five is the worst of both worlds, choosing the "let's just get this over with" approach and not trying particularly hard with the puzzles, horror, or boss fight.

So in the end, have I decided if Bendy and the Ink Machine is good or bad? Nope. It's really mid. 5/10.