Developer: Eldelic Games
Publisher: Eldelic Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Inky Blinky Bob – Review
Fighting evil monsters is all too common in video games these days. But what if you could fight evil monsters in a hot air balloon? A totally different take on survival horror, Inky Blinky Bob puts you in an aerostat, armed with a proper machine gun, and has you fight a giant octopus-like monster. This review will cover Eldeclic Games’ debut survival-horror and see if different can be good.
Story
The story begins rather abruptly, with the player crashing their airplane and being rescued by Ralph, your contractor. Ralp is a rugged guy with really cool shades and an even cooler hot air balloon. You are a detective who got hired to fix a biotech corporation’s big mistakes. The big mistakes include a giant flying mutated octopus, dubbed ‘Bob’, as well as other issues that occur on the few surrounding islands. Your main goal, however, is to power up three different Tesla towers in order to get access to Quantum Corp’s underground facility.
Once you get the hang of flying the air balloon, you’re sent off to gather cores needed to power the mentioned Tesla Towers. You’ll need three per tower, and they are spread around the various islands around the facility. Luckily, the map has all possible side-quests marked out for the player already, so finding these is just a matter of time. Of course, you’ll meet both friends and foes alike, as you’ll soon find out there’s more to worry about than just Bob.
Aside from tiny bits of extra lore sprinkled in the aforementioned quests, there isn’t much to go off in Inky Blinky Bob. There’s no real rhyme or reason as to how we got involved in the first place, and despite the interesting things happening around us, we never touch more than the surface level of these events. It isn’t a shame as the game makes up for this in other aspects, but it could have been more and would’ve made an even greater game than it already is.
Graphics
Set in a first-person POV, Inky Blinky Bob is a gorgeous yet disgusting 3D game. We find ourselves in an outdoor setting on islands that are covered in trees, roads, and an everlasting night sky. The game did a really great job at setting up the scenery and mood by making the main colors in the game look very dark and grey. Characters look oily and dirty, like they haven’t had a bath in weeks, and buildings seem so worn out that they might collapse on you any minute. At first, Inky Blinky Bob does really well to get the player in the right mood for this game, like there’s almost little to no hope for this area we find ourselves in.
Sadly, where we feel the game takes a bit of a downfall is in the monster design. Though ‘Bob’ looks great and is animated disgustingly well, other enemies you face aren’t. The player quickly finds other failed experiments on the islands, serving as roaming threats when exploring the islands. These enemies look rather dull and generic, perhaps even uninspired. They’re basically nude, pale-skinned humans, and some have scary faces. Less is often more, but the lack of design was a bit off-putting here.
Not all is bad, however, as the map design is great. When roaming the islands, players will find plenty of variation so as not to be simply wandering around an eternal forest, and see plenty of different textures and lighting that are such a pleasure to the eye. Despite all the gross depictions, Inky Blinky Bob is a beautiful game.
Sound
The soundtrack in this game feels almost like that of a genuine horror movie if we’re honest. Though silence can often be scarier than thrilling background music, Inky Blinky Bob knows when to play what music to enhance or emphasize the game’s current happenings. Whenever the player enters a different area, a variety of songs will play in the background, befitting of that area. This makes the exploration aspect all the more engaging and doesn’t make you tire of hearing the same thing over and over again. When fighting enemies, another song will play, once again in theme with the enemy you are facing. Every part of this game simply has its own theme, and it works out so well. It is almost a shame that the soundtrack isn’t available separately.
Gameplay
In essence, Inky Blinky Bob is a first-person survival horror game. Inky Blinky Bob is all about exploring, finding resources to stay alive, and clearing one goal to move to the next. What sets this game apart from others is the hot air balloon, dubbed The Flying Machine.
By exploring islands, the player will find scraps, cogs, and cloth to upgrade the hot air balloon and its attached machine gun. There are in total four different stats to maintain: Armor, speed, damage, and health. Upgrading these things isn’t made difficult, as there are only three upgrades per stat, and one resource allocated per mentioned stat. This makes it easy to keep track of what you’ll need, and there’s no need to prioritize one thing over the other. Aside from that, the balloon is mainly used as transport, or to fight off ‘Bob’ when he feels like showing up and attacking you, so don’t expect an entire steampunk-esque adventure.
As mentioned earlier, quests have been marked on the player’s map already and are sorted into two different types: regular quests and weapon quests. The latter gives the player a chance to equip themselves with a weapon to fight off other enemies roaming the islands. These often go paired with fighting a mini-boss and exploring new areas.
The latter is where the game somehow falls flat. Exploring is part of the main gimmick, given that you use your hot air balloon to cross islands and then roam around from one quest to another. The islands are rather large and well-designed with nature, structures, and all the like. Unfortunately, that’s all there is. We found ourselves exploring areas to look for scraps, only to find absolutely nothing but trees. Once you stray from the main path, meant to lead you to a quest, you’ll find absolutely nothing. There are no hidden cottages, enemies, or treasures to reward you for going the extra mile. The developers could’ve done so much more, perhaps even increased the playtime or replayability, but we are simply meant to go from point A to B, and onto the next. Another point we found ourselves struggling with was some points in the map designs. At a certain point in the game, the player can go through abandoned houses to find items, but you will soon find out that you are playing as a very tall man, given that the lamps attached to the ceiling will block your movement. You genuinely are required to go around, or even crouch under these lamps, to get ahead. We wouldn’t pay much attention to this initially, but when you’re being chased by a pair of mobs, this can lead to frustrating moments. We also found a particular flaw, as one mob specifically spawned halfway through the ceiling, being eternally stuck and invulnerable to our attacks.
Fortunately, though, the areas you are meant to explore bring various treasures and scraps. Once you’ve dealt with the roaming mobs, the player can freely explore, gathering all the resources they can find to upgrade The Flying Machine. Some areas will seal themselves off one way or another after completing the local quest, though, so exploring is very much recommended.
Conclusion
Putting a unique spin on the survival-horror genre, Inky Blinky Bob is a pretty neat open-world game. If you are looking for a simple, yet beautiful horror game that doesn’t take too much grinding, isn’t narrative-heavy, or simply wish to fight grotesque monsters, you will have an absolute blast with this one. Though it is far from perfect and has some minor flaws, the gameplay works well enough to enjoy yourself for a couple of hours. Given the game’s current price of €14,79, we find this a fair price for what you end up receiving.
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