I really liked Boneworks, I do not love Bonelab

[RoeTaKa]

I'm kinda frustrated with this game, but I'm not the kind to leave a negative review if it's good enough to not have a thumbs down. There's a few reasons for this I'll get into but I thought it would be better to just make a discussion here.

So Boneworks is this magical VR experience in my history with VR. It's one of those games where I thought "damn, this is actually pretty cool" and I feel like the developers had made such a strong first title that surely they'll come into their own with future titles. Not everything about it gelled with everyone, I kinda liked the ammo system for replay value and I have 40 hours in the game, so I enjoyed coming back to it. I always wanted to explore the levels and there was a cool sense of mystery that worked with the level design enough to keep you interested in its campaign. I remember the physics were cool but sometimes were annoying and distracting, climbing onto ledges was kinda cool but didn't always work. The melee, although worked with the physics, was not as satisfying as it sounds, but the gunplay was excellent. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in VR.

Then we have Bonelab, and I feel like I've forgotten it already (I'll be getting into spoilers here). From my perspective, Bonelab is DLC content with a future of modding for £30/$40. The thing is, and maybe it's my own fault for thinking this, but I was expecting a sequel to Boneworks. The story here kind of presents that and once you get past the hub area you start to think that's going to happen. And then what you get is a series of uninteresting and bland levels that feel like a series of demos (especially when you unlock Avatars).

Once you get the avatars you feel for a moment that there's something happening here and the potential for level design starts to get very interesting...and it never happens, I think the Tower was the only one to be a bit ambitious but did not feel like a last level experience.

Take the running level with the fast female avatar, it doesn't feel like a level that demonstrates what that character would do and it's just really odd to me. All the level design can be summed up by the crane in the hub area, which just makes you think "Why am I doing this, this literally adds nothing". The Moon level is...it's just a map that serves no real purpose, I remember thinking to myself "Is this how you get past the 2 hour mark so you don't refund the game?". The kart level...there was no challenge or anything special about it, you're just tasked to race round an empty track for 3 laps and then move on. And everyone is annoyed by the Pillar lol.

As a Boneworks player, yeah the physics do feel a little odd at times. I will say that climbing ledges does feel a little easier which is nice, but there were several times the physics just straight up frustrated me. Sometimes my character would just fling across the room or wouldn't move where I wanted them to. The shotguns are really awesome but for some reason when you're two handing weapons in this game it doesn't really want to aim the way you want them to. I remember the assault rifles feeling pretty badass in Boneworks.

Another thing that really disappointed me (and what makes this feel like DLC the most) is that there isn't really anything that new in the game. And what I mean by that is that most of the weapons are the same, pretty much all the enemies are the same, there's just a lot that feels the same carried over from Boneworks. Considering the different Avatars you could be, you can imagine some cool enemies you could go against where maybe you have to get creative with your Avatar selection or just pick the right one - that doesn't happen.

Ok so everything I've said sounds negative and bad. But what if you've never played Boneworks? What if this is your first experience with this engine and perhaps you're a Quest user as well? In that respect, Bonelab is an average campaign with a lot of Sandbox content to enjoy, and if you can accept it for that then you can easily have a ton of fun in it. And yes, there's a ton of mod potential to come and that is actually pretty exciting. I can imagine people feeling like most levels are pretty fun if they've never played Boneworks.

There's no excuse to defend the modding to justify the purchase though. Nobody knows who will make what and when, but the when is definitely not soon. So your value of Bonelab might be coming in the future and maybe that's the best time to buy it, when it's on sale or some amazing mods are being launched. I know that modding is kind of in the narrative of Bonelab though but I just don't think it works for Boneworks players wanting to dive into a deeper and richer campaign.

The music is sick though and carries the game at times, several bangers and they just make you feel awesome. It's thanks to the composer that the mine cart level was somewhat enjoyable. The soundtrack is what I remember the most coming away from this game.

There's definitely some mixed opinions of this game but reviews seem to be fairly positive. I wonder if I'm a victim of my own hype but I hope the Bonelabs experience is one that grows on me over time. I'll jump into some of the Sandbox content but I don't think I ever want to go in the campaign levels again.

[The Beard]

Similar to how I feel. I didn't play boneworks but I enjoyed this to an extent even though it did fill me with disappointment. By the time you get all the avatars, you get like 1 decently long level, 1 short level and then I was thinking "okay, so the game is finally gonna open up?" then the credits hit and I thought it was a fake-out. Nope, the game is done. They made a big point of different avatars being unique but the levels don't really feel like they took this into account, there's only a couple of super specific situations where the avatar switching actually matters.

I'd say to people to hold off on this for a few months and see what the state is in regards for the modding, $40 for quite basic modding (right now) and a short campaign is a bit iffy in my opinion.

[Deerby]

I dont think a lot of people in this game have the idea of a value proposition. If the game were 20 bucks i dont think nearly half of the people complaining would still be. And peoples criticisms are mostly under the premice that they WANT to like this game, but have enough respect for themselves as consumers to not think its a fair deal. Considering boneworks already had a lot of sandbox content, and a more fully functional and active third party modding scene, theres very little value in bonelabs for people who were already experiencing boneworks to its fullest.

[RoeTaKa]

Originally posted by Deerby:

I dont think a lot of people in this game have the idea of a value proposition. If the game were 20 bucks i dont think nearly half of the people complaining would still be. And peoples criticisms are mostly under the premice that they WANT to like this game, but have enough respect for themselves as consumers to not think its a fair deal. Considering boneworks already had a lot of sandbox content, and a more fully functional and active third party modding scene, theres very little value in bonelabs for people who were already experiencing boneworks to its fullest.

If people who own Boneworks got a discount for Bonelab then maybe they would be happier with their purchases. No matter the price though the points I made would still hold true for me.

I can't imagine the work it took to do everything for Quest and get it running as well as it does, but I would imagine if the Quest wasn't the leading headset for VR in the market then maybe fans of Boneworks would have gotten the sequel they hoped for.

In the gameplay reveal video on the Node channel Brandon said "People saw Boneworks, they're like "We like Boneworks". We took that money and we built Bonelab". And I know as VR devs you can't ignore the Quest space, the Quest market, that's how you're gonna make your money now and pay your employees etc. But it does feel like the majority of dev time was spent getting Bonelab running on Quest and then there was less time to spend on a Boneworks sequel.

Did Bonelabs meet my expectations? No, but I think a lot of people are having a good time with it. Maybe the Deckard will be announced and we'll see a shift in the VR market once again, and then we'll have better hardware to develop and work with.

[Steel]

The reason I gave it a thumb down is entirely down to that relatively big chunk of the campaign where they throw one crap "level" after the other (magma bridge thing > the empty moon map > the empty kart map > the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pillar climb level).
That was what pushed me over the edge since the campaign is already so short.

If they shipped robust and fully featured mod tools with the game so the "it's built for mods" excuse could even be mildly entertained, then that'd also stop me from giving a negative review.

But alas, it just sucks right now in every way.

[galunga]

I so wish I was wrong when I said "I'll just finish the story real quick" literally half a minute before the ending.

[FireFox]

Literally everyone who has complained about the Moonbase hasn't figured out it's mechanic. You're supposed to use the Spawn Gun there to Spawn in a Gun and a bunch of ammo and use the Gun to propel yourself through the low gravity faster.

[FireFox]

Originally posted by FireFox:

Literally everyone who has complained about the Moonbase hasn't figured out it's mechanic. You're supposed to use the Spawn Gun there to Spawn in a Gun and a bunch of ammo and use the Gun to propel yourself through the low gravity faster.

The Pillar climb level is also trivial, you shoot all the void birds on the lower levels to stop them from hitting you, once you get to a Jump pad you will automatically switch to Tall.

There is literally no excuse to fail at that level unless you're not experimenting with mechanics.

[Der-Kleine]

Originally posted by FireFox:

Literally everyone who has complained about the Moonbase hasn't figured out it's mechanic. You're supposed to use the Spawn Gun there to Spawn in a Gun and a bunch of ammo and use the Gun to propel yourself through the low gravity faster.

So wouldn't it have been a better idea to introduce this method of movement by having the level start with a fire fight where you unmistakably get to see how your guns propel you around? Heck, wouldn't a level about low-gravity fights have just been a better idea to begin with?

[JackieTheDemon]

The entire game is a convoluted mess.

[MrWubzy]

Originally posted by Der-Kleine:

Originally posted by FireFox:

Literally everyone who has complained about the Moonbase hasn't figured out it's mechanic. You're supposed to use the Spawn Gun there to Spawn in a Gun and a bunch of ammo and use the Gun to propel yourself through the low gravity faster.

So wouldn't it have been a better idea to introduce this method of movement by having the level start with a fire fight where you unmistakably get to see how your guns propel you around? Heck, wouldn't a level about low-gravity fights have just been a better idea to begin with?

I haven't gotten to the level yet, but I agree with this. When a level or mission has a new mechanic, it's a good idea to introduce the player to it either naturally (with gameplay) or with text somehow. Not saying that the level is bad, I haven't played it yet, but this is a great way to introduce players to new ways to play.

[Atsuko]

This was my experience up till now. Coming from a person who liked boneworks.

start of the campaign...
Fun, good introduction, good action /shooting sequence to get started. Nice elevator crash scene. (Skipped all the item balls because lord knows i haven't seen an instruction anywhere that tells you to rip them apart with your hands)

The hub, I got bored, confused on what to do. Started looking up steam guides to see how to continue campaign.

Went to do the puzzles in quarantine zone, not very entertaining more of like a waste of time.

Then you've got the stages like... The rollercoaster minecart ride. OK... What is this, 2013?
Did they really think a rollercoaster ride is original?

Expected a cool parkour duruing the fast character section. But it's nothing but a ripoff of half life 2's under the bridge sections.

Heavy dude section. A wave defense mission? Say no more...

The cart driving section... Are you for real? drive 3 laps and you can already take that off your boneworks mission list.

Moonbase is just empty nothing to do, go from A/B in the slowest character in the game.. Another waste of time.

Pillar climb... Forcibly changed into the smallest character being unable to advance/climb. Out of player control. Oh yeah, and a loading screen when you die.

The ball puzzles.. Look come on. I know it's a physics based game. But pushing a bunch of balls is not impressive or fun.

I tried playing the arenas but like some said. Copy pasted arena from boneworks,
container yard is boring as hell, zipline map also boring as hell. They don't even look the least impressive in any way of level design. Blank textures everywhere. Creativity must have been through the roof.

Sandbox, didnt even touch it cause i have almost zero stuff unlocked to even have fun in sandbox.

Tac trials,
They are someway entertaining but if all the enemies are in the same places how long till it gets boring. You know the answer yourself.

The parkour is fun the first time through, not a second time.
The timed key grabbing wasnt too amazing either. (also reused map for tac trials)
The rooftop parkour is alright, but how many times can you replay that till you get bored.

Experimental. Look. No. I don't want to play bowling.

I didn't hesitate to spend that 40 bucks, and i won't refund the game. But this game just isn't it in this current state.