So, I’m going to start this review off by saying a few things, first this review will contain major spoilers for the game and second, I really wish I could leave a mixed review, but I choose to leave a positive review because I am very interested in what will come next with this universe that Backbone sets up.











Let’s get into some of the meat and potatoes, first of all is Backbone anything like the prologue that was released in 2019? Yes and no, something I was really bummed out about is that unlike the prologue, Backbone doesn’t have any puzzles or complex sneaking sections outside of the prologue and what felt like a throwaway section in the factory. Now when it comes to the soundtrack and art style, I felt that Backbone majorly out preformed the prologue, I thought the game looked and sounded better than the prologue did.



To talk about the dialogue system in Backbone I found it unique yet slightly restricted. It felt like Backbone does a great job at providing the illusion of choice with a lot of its dialogue systems, this illusion being no matter what you pick you tend to end up exactly where you need to be for the story to progress. I don’t mind this style of dialogue I just found it interesting.



As for characters, Backbone does have a very interesting cast that I found myself enjoying the company of. I thought Howard and Renee are a fantastic duo as well as Howard and Anatoly plus who can forget Howard and Larry? All the character interactions were really good, and I enjoyed watching their character development play out. I wish that the game was longer honestly so that I could see more interactions playout. I did absolutely love the Epilogue section, I thought that and all of Howards one on one’s with Renee were probably some of the best interactions in the game.



As for the story itself, it’s good but a little confusing? I was following along great and was super invested until the end of Act III. It just felt out of character for how I played Howard’s dialogue for him to make it all the way to the Artifact, get told not to touch it, and then instantly touch it and have it become part of him. I guess to its credit the game was taken in a direction I could have never expected and I’m excited to see where it goes, but I felt like it was trying to avoid playing it safe a little too hard. Honestly, I would have been perfectly okay if the Artifact didn’t infect anybody, and it was still contained in that room. There could have been more set up of the tension between Howard, Renee, Bloodworth, and The Apes in Act IIII and maybe consequences for Howard’s meddling and then switch the Epilogue around to be something related to the Artifact that sets up a sequel. Because I think the part that is drawing the most negative feedback to this game is the ending of Act III. Even as Act IIII stands I really enjoyed it, I really like establishing the Under the Bridge section of people, I think it does a great job at deepening the depth of the world. I get killing Anatoly to establish that the Artifact isn’t controllable by Howard and that we should be worried about it doing something horrible during Act IIII, but it never does which threw me off a bit. The suspension of something happening just kind of faded away halfway through Act IIII, I just felt that there was nothing to be worried about until the dinner scene with the guitar playing, that’s where I was at the most vulnerable for something to happen with the Artifact but instead Howard is kidnapped which I felt worked too. This is a little bit more gameplay sided but I really liked how there was no way to undo any choices that you made; it gave a sense of permeance to how you treated people and the choices that you made.



Artistically and musically Backbone is a very easy 10/10, I could have never asked for a prettier game that sounded as wonderful as it did in my entire life. Honestly, I think this is the strongest element of Backbone and frankly part of the reason I was so easily able to play the game and never felt like I had to trudge through it. Really, I could go on all day about how wonderful the soundtrack is and how pretty the game is but frankly I don’t think I could give it justice in words, you just have to go watch and listen for yourself.



Overall, I think the only way I could score this game accurately due to all the ups and downs I felt it had, is a scale of 1-100. I would say that Backbone was a solid 75/100 which for Eggnut, a brand-new studios first project I don’t think is too shabby at all. I enjoyed Backbone, I finished it right before writing this review and honestly, I want to play it again because of how I regret some of the choices I made. I really feel had this game been given some more time to focus on some gameplay elements, stealth sections, and maybe a little more work on laying some more foreshadowing and foundations for transitioning from detective in over their head to alien tumor it would have worked better. It’s not that I didn’t like the idea or concept of the transition, it just felt a little bit forced and slightly confused on what it wanted to be. I wish the Howard and Artifact sections had a bit more dialogue choices for Howard fighting the Artifact and trying to not conform into it. In conclusion, I personally enjoyed playing Backbone and intend to play it again, but I couldn’t blindly recommend it to anybody, I would have to prep them alongside my recommendation. A few simple things like, there is no gameplay outside of the prologue and it takes a weird turn you might not enjoy but stick it through to the end.