Bendy: Lone Wolf Review - A great Remake in a Puzzling Package

There’s a weird sense of déjà vu that comes with playing Bendy: Lone Wolf. It’s like returning to a childhood home to find that your parents have knocked down a few walls and finally fixed the leaky faucet. Everything is better, more functional, but it’s still fundamentally the same place. This isn’t so much a new game as it is a reimagining, a definitive edition, a do-over of 2020’s Boris and the Dark Survival. And while it is, without question, a vastly superior experience, it’s also one of the more puzzling releases I’ve seen in a while.

This Time, the Wolf Has a Bite

Let’s start with the good, because there’s a hell of a lot of it. Lone Wolf takes the bare-bones concept of the original game and actually fleshes it out into something substantial. What was once a simple, repetitive loop of "collect things, don't die" now has layers, tension, and a genuine sense of purpose.

Finally, a Real Threat

The first thing I noticed is that the atmosphere has been cranked up to eleven. The halls of Joey Drew Studios feel genuinely menacing now. The Ink Demon is no longer a mildly inconvenient cartoon blob; he's a proper, pulse-pounding threat. Hearing the thudding of his inky heart while you're scrambling to find the last collectible is a genuinely tense experience. They've made him faster, more aggressive, and the result is that the core cat-and-mouse game is infinitely more engaging and terrifying.

More Than Just a Walking Simulator

They’ve also added a proper combat system. Yes, you can finally fight back against the lesser ink creatures that pop up. The system itself is nothing to write home about - it’s a simple affair of timing attacks and blocks tied to your stamina meter - but its very existence is a game-changer. It breaks up the monotony and adds a layer of action to what was previously a passive experience. The addition of new enemies, traps, and actual boss fights makes each run feel far more dynamic than the original ever did. It feels less like a tech demo and more like a complete, satisfying game.

The Phantom of the Price Tag

But for all the improvements, we need to talk about the release strategy, because it's a bit of a head-scratcher. It’s the kind of thing that has fueled a lot of the debate around this game, and it’s a conversation worth having.

A Remake in Sequel's Clothing

This is not a new game. Let’s just get that out on the table. It’s a remake. A very, very good remake, but a remake nonetheless. The core story, the setting, the fundamental objective—it’s all the same as Boris and the Dark Survival. The confusion comes from it being marketed and priced like a brand-new, standalone title. Seeing a price tag under €20 for what is essentially a massively expanded version of a game that originally cost a few bucks is bound to raise some eyebrows. It's an odd choice, and one that understandably made some people feel like they were being sold the same game twice.

The Silver Lining

Here's the crucial counterpoint, though: the developers did right by their original fans. If you owned Boris and the Dark Survival, you got Lone Wolf for free. End of story. That’s a respectable, pro-consumer move that a lot of bigger studios wouldn't even consider. It reframes the whole situation. Making it a fantastic freebie for veterans and a new, more complete entry point for newcomers. For someone who has never played the original, getting this much content for under €20 is actually a pretty solid deal altough personally I would have preferred to see the price at around €15.

The Verdict

Bendy: Lone Wolf is a fantastic game wrapped in a confusing business decision. It is, hands down, the best version of this experience and the game Boris and the Dark Survival should have been all along. The improved atmosphere, the added combat, and the wealth of new content make the original feel like unfinished by comparison. While the release strategy is a bit clumsy, it’s hard to stay mad when the game itself is this much of an improvement, especially when the original player base was so well taken care of. If you’re a Bendy fan, it’s an easy recommendation.

Score: 7.6/10 A pretty darn good remake that’s worth the upgrade, especially when it’s free.

Click here if you want to get it for yourself

We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.