Boris and the Dark Survival is a arcade spin-off title to the Bendy and the Ink Machine horror-themed puzzle/adventure games. As of writing this review, the game is only $4 on Steam, and I had purchased it bundled with the other main game titles, dropping the price down even further. On the balance of price to gameplay experience, Boris and the Dark Survival certainly has the advantage, as it is fun and functional. That said, I found the game to be rather plain, with little in the way of real challenge or novel gameplay. At it's price, however, it is hard to place too much hard criticism. That said, I'll try to be honest and complete with my thoughts. The primary gameplay of 'BDS' is quite simple. You are Boris, and Boris is trapped in the labyrinthian halls of Joey Drew's nightmarish studio. To survive, you need to scavenge the twisting, shifting architecture while avoiding the inky stalking terror of Bendy and the other dangerous denizens of the studio. Each level is randomly generated, spiralling out from the central elevator room, which remains more or less the same level to level. You must collect a set number of items scattered randomly through out the map before returning to the elevator. Each level has at least one patrolling enemy, usually Bendy, you will chase you if you are spotted. Your normal movement speed is too slow to outrun them, so you sprint, which drains you hunger bar. To avoid capture you must work quickly and stay out of sight. If you are spotted you need to run, draining your hunger bar, or hide, by taking shelter in one of the 'Alice Angel Booths' which return to reprise their gameplay role from the first Bendy title. The game is top-down, not first person, so you can see if any enemy is close. However, if an enemy spots you from down a long out-of-sight hallway, a musical cue will ensure you know you are now being chased. If you run out of hunger you can replenish it with a hearty spoonful of Bendy endorsed Bacon Soup, from one of the scattered vending machines. If you run into a dead end, you are pretty much hooped, unless you can manage a quick juke of your pursuer. Hiding is ideal, since the pursuer will run up to the booth, stop, and then stalk else where. Wait a few short seconds and then return to sneaking and scavenging. Apart from your required items for scavenging, you'll also be able to check various other containers, like lockers, toilets, and the chest cavities of other 'Boris' ink creatures that have been strapped up and dissected. In these you'll sometimes find another item, such as a key, candle, audio tape, or scrap of paper, which can be used back at Boris's hideout. Collect all these 'extra' items and you'll unlock new kinds of levels with different pursuers, like Alice Angel, the Projectionist, and the Butcher Gang. That is pretty much the entirety of BDS, and where my main criticisms begin. Again, for it's price, I can't help but feel that these may be overly critical, but truth be told I see them more as ideas that I feel would make the game better. For starters, there is no real consequence to being caught. Sure you'll 'lose' the level, but you seem to hold on to critical items, like Paper Scraps and audio tapes. So really you don't even need to collect them and beat the level. Just search lockers and Boris bodies for the meta-items. I think this could be improved simply by making it so you have to finish each level to keep these collectables. Second, the placement and presence of collectibles is, like the levels layout, randomly generated. This means a level could have a valuable scrap, or not. I feel like, despite the random level placement being key, some changes could be made to improve and reliability of collectable finding. If we wanted to keep the random level generation, we could instead have each collectable associated with a particular kind of pursuer, and each subsequent collectable might require an increase in difficulty to find, with the player selecting which collectable to look for and difficulty to find it. As it stands, getting all the collectables is not so much a challenge as it is an exercise in persistence and time. Keep playing, keep looking in lockers and such, and caught or not, you'll get everything. That might be heartening if you don't care for the challenge, but it drained some of the fun for me. Overall, Boris and the Dark Survival isn't bad or broken, which compared to some many other titles is a solid foundation. I just wish it had more substance. If you are a fan of Bendy and the Ink Machine, and like it's world and characters, I think the 4 dollars, is probably more than reasonable, so long as you understand this game will show you everything it really has in the first hour, and be beaten an hour or two after that. I won't give this game a thumbs down, because it really doesn't deserve that. Making a functional game and learning how to make an essentially infinite amount of levels using random generation are real milestones for any game maker, and that is commendable. I just which that the ink ran a little deeper.
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