Draft:Bendy and the Dark Revival

Bendy and the Dark Revival is a first-person survival horror video game developed by Joey Drew Studios Inc. it is the third installment of the Bendy franchise and sequel to Bendy and the Ink Machine. The game was released on November 15, 2022 for Windows and in March 1, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One to mixed reviews from critics.

Gameplay
Bendy and the Dark Revival is a survival horror game played from a first-person perspective. Players control Audrey, an animator who must navigate the world of Joey Drew Studios while avoiding creatures, occasionally solving puzzles along the way. Differing from its predecessor, Dark Revival gives the player multiple different methods to deal with hazards; the player may engage enemies in direct combat with Audrey's Gent Pipe, but the player must now find items to replenish health instead of automatically regenerating it; alternatively, they can use stealth to travel through areas without being detected. Should Audrey lose all her health, she will respawn at the nearest Linker pipe, similar to BioShock 's Vita-Chambers. Over the course of the game, the player acquires three different powers; Banish, allowing stealth takedowns that restore health; Flow, a short front facing teleport; and Fast Travel, enabling the player to travel between connected Linker pipes.

The player can find schematics and Thick Ink canisters to upgrade their pipe and stats respectively. The upgradeable stats include health, stamina, and cooldown for the Flow ability. Upgrades for the pipe enable charging it at certain stations to unlock doors and temporarily strengthen it against enemies. Players must find materials to purchase upgrades at upgrade stations, which can also be used to acquire access cards that can unlock certain safes. The player can also find a currency, Slugs, which can be used at vending machines to acquire health refilling consumables.

Occasionally throughout the game, the player may be attacked by Ink Bendy, the previous game's antagonist. When this occurs, the player is alerted and is given ten seconds to hide. Should the player fail to do this, they will be attacked by Ink Bendy and instantly killed; instant death can also take place during some of the game's boss fights. If this happens, the player does not respawn at a Linker pipe, but instead must load a save.

Dark Revival is also more open in its structure than Ink Machine. The game world is now interconnected instead of chapter based, with the chapter system serving as markers for the players progression in the story; players can use items and abilities acquired later in the game to reach previously inaccessible areas.

Chapter 1: Drawn to Darkness
In the year 1973, Audrey is an animator at Archgate Pictures finishing her long day of work. Going to get coffee, she encounters Wilson, Archgate's janitor, and is coerced by him into reactivating the Ink Machine, enabling him to pull both of them into the ink, but not before he relays instructions for Audrey to find him.

Awakening in the Cycle, the setting of the first game, Audrey hears Wilson speak over a loudspeaker as he, claiming to have protected the Cycle's inhabitants from Ink Bendy for 211 days, commands the realms populace to deliver her to him. She quickly encounters Allison, another inhabitant of the studio, and proceeds forward, during which she finds a weapon and the Banish power. Shortly after discovering that the path to the exit elevators is blocked by a hole in the floor, she encounters a creature that resembles Bendy, however he is shortly after scared off after Audrey's powers accidentally activate. Continuing, she finds her path is obstructed by a man who refuses to let her through unless she retrieves some of his drawings in Animation Alley.

While heading to Animation Alley, Audrey hears Ink Bendy's voice, and is attacked by him shortly after, though she manages to escape and reach Animation Alley.

Chapter 2: The Demon's Domain
Audrey retrieves the drawings in Animation Alley and proceeds and, if the player chooses to do so, releases Carly, the fourth member of the Butcher Gang. On her way, she finds Porter, a friendly Lost One, who grants her the Flow power, allowing her to cross the gap to the exit elevators. However, the gate to the elevators closes, forcing Audrey to take a detour through Artists Rest, in which she is attacked by the Ink Demon again as Wilson, over the loudspeaker, refutes rumours that the Ink Demon has returned. Audrey manages to eventually get out of Artists Rest.

Promotion and release
Bendy and the Dark Revival was announced on April 14, 2019. However, Mike Mood stated on February 13, 2019, that it would not serve as Bendy and the Ink Machine 2. A gameplay trailer was released on June 24, 2019, announcing the game's release for Fall 2019. However, in December 2019, a new trailer was released to say that the game was being delayed and will release sometime in 2020. Another trailer was released on June 1, 2020, revealing that the game would be released in its entirety with all five chapters included, unlike the first game which was released episodically. The trailer also suggested the game would come out in the latter half of 2020. However, on November 30, 2020, the developers announced that the game would be releasing in 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The developers also cited that the game will be ten times bigger than the original game and that they didn't want to rush the game. However, the game was delayed yet again without even being announced, but the developers said on October 31, 2021, that the game is almost done. On October 31, 2022, it was announced that a trailer for the game would release the next day. The trailer was released on November 1, 2022, confirming the release date of November 15, 2022.

Reception
On review aggregator Metacritic, Bendy and the Dark Revival recieved "mixed or average" reviews based on four reviews, in addition to two mixed reviews for the Xbox One version and two more for the Xbox Series X/S version. Critics praised the visuals and narrative, though criticism was directed towards its gameplay and mechanics, particularly its combat.

Writing for the Guilfordian, writer Bree Lavine said she was eagerly about the game and was refreshing YouTube every hour to look for videos surrounding the game on release day. The game was nominated for the Outstanding Visual Style category in the 2022 Steam Awards, though lost out to the PC port of Spider-Man: Miles Morales.