Now that I’ve set my foot into VR it’s only best to review some games! And why not completely skip Half-Life: Alyx because I can’t run it and move over to BONEWORKS!
BONEWORKS comes with a big warning at the very start: Expert VR players only.
Now, I had VR for a couple of weeks and never got motion sick. So I expected myself to be fine. I was right, never got motion sick until one part. I’ll talk about that later, it’s mostly my fault.
There will be spoilers for the story by the way! Not that it actually matters, the story isn’t important.
In BONEWORKS you play as Arthur Ford, and you are tasked with resetting the Clock Tower to end a lockdown in the virtual world made by Monogon, where Ford works. Ford caused the lockdown by plugging in a USB in the server that (presumably) screwed everything up.
Now, the story is a bit weird and has a lot of gaps. But Ford eventually arrives at the Clock Tower, resets the Gravity Core that powers the clock. It explodes and sends Ford into the Voidway. The Voidway is the source that allows users to connect their minds to the virtual world. Then Ford fights himself or something, climbs a ladder and stuff.
At that time, Monogon finds out what Ford did, break in his room and kill him. The virtual Ford lives on.
Or, something like that. The story is really confusing and I left out some pretty major parts, but this is the best I could do.
But the story is honestly one of the least important parts, the combat is.
Yeah this game comes with a ton of weapons, mostly melee and also a few guns that vary in attachments.
Reloading a gun in VR is something I didn’t know I needed until I played BONEWORKS, and it’s one of the most satisfying things to do. Aiming is something I oddly enjoy, because I have to close one of my eyes to do it better?
Melee is also really cool, from storming a Nullbody with a knife, throwing a brick at a zombie or holding the king like a baby and beating the absolute shit out of him. There are so many options to do when in a fight that every encounter feels really fun and unique. There is not much variety in enemies, but that’s not really needed.
A slowdown feature exists, where you press a button and the game slows down like SUPERHOT. I honestly never used this in the campaign, I enjoyed the fast and dodgy fights. It is cool that if you move slower while slowed down, your movement becomes better.
There are some puzzles spread around the game, I had some struggle with most of them. But after seeing the solution I always felt like a fucking dumbass for not figuring it out. There is however a certain puzzle near the end of the game that is incredibly frustrating and I’ve seen everyone struggle with it.
Grabbing things and breaking them was never really a struggle, the physics are extremely good. Climbing can be a bit hard at the beginning but you get used to it.
Sometimes grabbing items from your back can be a bit of a struggle, long swords and guns can get stuck on your back, so you kinda have to do some awkward movement.
There’s a ton of collectibles for use in sandbox, and I didn’t get them because I downloaded a 100% save file.
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re the kind of person to go out of their way to collect everything. Huge respect. But I can’t be bothered, I just want to have fun in sandbox.
Sandbox is where BONEWORKS shines best, it’s like Gmod in many ways. I can’t really review the sandbox, because my experience isn’t the same as yours. But with the addition of community made mods, it’s extremely fun to mess around.
Arena mode is also really fun, you can choose your weapons before you go in and there’s some fun challenges and trials the game offers. It’s constant fighting, the handgun course is pretty cool, haven’t really played the zombie survival or Hover Junkers yet. But there’s a ton of additional content and more keeps being added. The game has way more content than it may seem.
The soundtrack, ooooooh boy the soundtrack. I don’t think there’s a single track I dislike. Every single track is perfect for the moment and it’s so extremely good, it has become one of my favourite soundtracks of all time.
It’s similair to Half-Life, actually…
The entire game is similar to Half-Life with its pacing, there are small arenas that are filled with enemies and props to use to your advantage. There are some breaks here and there with puzzles lying around. This game is basically another Half-Life game.
Also there are headcrabs so yeah I think I made my point.
The game runs pretty well for the most part, I don’t have the best setup but there was mostly no lag.
Except on the Tower level.
Now hear me out, the entire game you’re almost always in a pretty enclosed space. There are some levels that are a bit open but are mostly empty and not really laggy. But the Tower level is almost at the end of the game and is a massive open space with hundreds of props and a ton of enemies. When I walked in this area my frames crawled to a halt. I had to set my resolution to an abysmal quality in SteamVR, had to set every setting to the lowest and had to look down for the majority of the level. I had to stop halfway because I got nauseous, couldn’t go in VR for like 2 days after that.
Again, mostly my part because I don’t have the best PC. Just find it odd that the game builds up on small arenas and then just throws this at you.
Is BONEWORKS a Tech Demo?
Yes and no.
BONEWORKS as standalone is not a tech demo, it has a full campaign and multiple extra modes. It’s a complete game.
BUT, the BONEWORKS engine is nowhere near it’s peak. But seeing how Stress Level Zero is using the engine for more, BONEWORKS is purely an entrance to future games coming. And it looks like there are multiple.
Project 4 is looking to be the next game in the Monogon Universe. Really hoping it gets extended more and more, as Duck Season and BONEWORKS share the same universe.
I guess I’m gonna have to draw a conclusion.
BONEWORKS is a must have for VR players, yes it had its problems in the past. All of that has been fixed, so give it a try if you haven’t.
It’s not scared to try new stuff and is so incredibly unique, it’s almost the perfect VR game.
The story is odd, but doing a bit of research outside the game helps you understand it. And yes, I did do research unlike a certain big “review” site that complained about the possibility of motion sickness in this game. Because yes, this game will give you motion sickness if you’re not experienced or only play Beat Saber. There’s no teleport movement because you can’t play with that, that’s not possible. This isn’t a downside, it’s how the game’s supposed to be played. Also you’re gonna have to climb a 100 meter ladder at the end of the game.
I’ve decided to not number games I review. I don’t really enjoy putting a whole experience in a singular number, so that’s why I leave a conclusion instead and leave it at that. Opinions are different, and my experience will never be the same as yours. I enjoyed the ending, some people didn’t. That’s all fine, but leaving a number will mean I will always bias towards that number. And changing it later can be confusing unless I rewrite everything.
I will be updating this review and all the others in the future if more stuff gets added.
Tried some new things this time around, hope this style of reviewing works.
Thanks for reading.
I’m not scared to give games like this more credit than a triple A studio, I don’t give a game that has been overhyped for 8 years and horribly failed on everything it promised a high score. I don’t plagiarize or steal reviews from others. I’m not a company with hundreds of reviewers that all have their opinion making every score inconsistent. I update my reviews, and you said you would too if a game receives significant updates. So where’s the updated review for BONEWORKS? Or are you going to keep a year old outdated review that will turn people away as soon as they see it? Why are you so IGNorant?
Sources:
http://www.stresslevelzero.com/
https://youtu.be/RCB_mfGmh9w?t=4563
boneworks.fandom.com
Swift Reviews 