Recent reviews by Kermit

This review is going to be fairly long, so to summarise my points quickly and save you time

TL;DR - Bonelab does improve on elements from Boneworks, but sorely lacks content and interaction polish. The future of bonelab feels dependant on its modding scene, and because of that (At Launch) it is not worth your money or time.

I do sincerely hope that I am able to change this review to a positive one in the future, but I worry how much of that will be the result of the efforts of Stress Level Zero, compared to community support.

This review is of the gameplay experience with the following parameters ;

Quest 2
2468x2584 (Per Eye) resolution
120hz

Ryzen 5800x3d
Nvidia RTX 3090


Bonelab is definitely a step up from Boneworks in my opinion, the melee combat in particular is more impactful and natural to the extent that it is noticable.

In addition, performance certainly feels smoother than Boneworks when there are a large number of NPCs and physics entities in a scene


Once you enter the main "Lab" area of the game, you are presented with six areas. What is not really explained to you is that you need to enter each of these areas atleast once in order to unlock parts of a puzzle you must complete in order to begin the campaign and unlock the avatar system.

Completing this puzzle involves going to an unmarked staircase near the avatar dispenser at the rear portion of the lab, and performing a crane "Puzzle" in which you use physical controls to pick up and move orbs at the top of each minigame area. This is a very tedious and downright boring chore to complete in order to access the $40 game you paid for.

Following that - The campaign, once you unlock it, is remarkably short and comprises mostly of "Tech demo" feeling minigames after the third chapter, of which the game only comprises of 13. These chapters centre almost entirely around specific avatars you unlock throughout the game, and each chapter attempts to teach you the boons of each particular avatar.

In reality, as stated, these levels feel like nothing more than a tech demo to show off the avatar tech, which, while its definitely interesting, is not enough to stand as particularly engaging content. If you are like me, you will find the majority of the campaign more of a chore than a "Game", a means to unlock the ability to use your avatar selector at best.


For a game that describes itself as an "Experimental Physics Action Game", it plays more like a "Game containing action and experimental physics".

Handling two handed weapons and objects, as in boneworks, is mildly janky at the best of times. Combine this with enemies that seem content to flop over at every opportunity, and you will find melee combat to be generally unsatisfying and "wobbly".

One handed interactions work well enough, but that is the bare minimum that one could really expect from a VR title.

Then, there is the really ugly part of the physics - Platforming. Yep, this "action" game dances more around being a Platformer than any action game i've ever played, which might not be so bad - as long as the platforming works.

Unfortunately, it doesn't. One of the cardinal rules of most VR experiences I have come to find is that, simply, no generic action should be more difficult to perform within the game than it would be to perform in real life, without a proper, contextual reason. This is not the case in Bonelab, and for a game with a dedicated Parkour minigame, the platforming and locomotion is genuinely one of the worst feeling systems I have ever experienced in several thousand hours of virtual reality gaming.



Bonelab is a $5 App Lab experience wearing the costume of a $40 VR Action Game. Like Boneworks, it does a lot of things, but it does not do any of them particularly well, nor is any of what it does any better in execution than other VR titles that have taken the time to polish what they are good at, rather than trying to do more than it has the means to.

Want solid, Physics based Melee combat? Blade and Sorcery is $19.99

Want Parkour? Stride is $19.99

Want a solid gun-sim? H3VR is $19.99

Want a PVE shooter? Zero Calibre is $24.99

Want a PVP shooter with mod support instead? Contractors is $19.99

Want a driving sim with VR support? Asseto Corsa is $19.99, or try any of the free VRChat worlds with physical driving support that, IMO, exceeds the go-cart offered in Bonelab.

Want pretty much anything/everything Bonelab offers and more packaged into digestible size experiences? VRChat is free, and has thousands of worlds with the same "Tech-Demo" feel, and hundreds of thousands of free, readily downloadable avatars ready to go.




I wanted Bonelab to be everything the community wanted it to be.
You wanted Bonelab to be everything the community wanted it to be.

We all wanted Bonelab to be the "VR Game that defined 2022"

But in its current state, Bonelab is overpriced, underdeveloped and underpopulated with content. I do sincerely hope that SLZ is able to resolve many of the glaring issues that myself and other users have noted, and I already know that the community is ready and willing to volunteer their time and effort into modding in more content to this experience, and possibly even patching some of the holes themselves as we go.

I just wish that it wouldn't rely on the communities volunteered time, effort and resources to make this $40 game worth it.

I had previously rated Medal of Honor : Above and Beyond as a definite no go - I had picked this game up on launch, and the lack of polish, combined with the initial hour or so of gameplay left me so dissatisfied with the game that I immediately refunded it.

I have since gone back into the game after seeing the work that Respawn have been doing to bring it back up to scratch - And I have to say, many of my initial complaints stand, specifically with the first hour of the game, the short set pieces spaced out with loading screens and the same wave of german soldiers every time.


However, one thing showed me the potential that this game has - And that was the first mission in a bomber. This was, in no uncertain terms, one of the best experiences I have had in a VR title to date. And I truly believe that it is in these sequences that AaB shines.

Seeing the involvement of a great many veterans and historians in the production of AaB, I think I can truly say that I would have much preferred a game along the lines of the War Stories from Battlefield I, where we could have been put into the shoes of those veterans that came on to tell their story - Especially with us being the last generation able to hear those stories. Being able to capture that moment of history before it is lost forever would have been a golden oppertunity, atleast, in my opinion.


Nevertheless - Is Above and Beyond worth your money?

Yes and no. At full price? No. If this was 2017-2018, then maybe, as the gameplay loop of this title is more in line with the VR titles of yesteryear, but any title demanding AAA bucks is going to be put up to a AAA looking glass - And this, to me, falls below that mark.


I will keep up with this game as it develops, as I truly want to see this game reach its fullest potential - But as of right now.


Full Price - Stay Away unless you REALLY want a WW2 VR experience, or unless money is no great object to you

-25% - If you are a WW2 buff and a VR enthusiast, go for it

-50% - A very reasonable price without a doubt. If you can pick up AaB for 50% off, you're going to get your moneys worth

-75% - If you have a VR headset and a PC capable of running it, definitely pick it up

Oh Doom Eternal, I want so badly to love you.

(Please note - The following review was written with the "Nightmare" difficulty in mind. Your experience with Doom Eternal may vary depending on the difficulty you wish to play on)

I loved Doom 2016 with a passion, I played it over and over again on Nightmare and loved every painful second of it, deaths were quick, but fair.

I came into Doom Eternal with the same mindset, and was met with a vastly different experience. Where Doom 2016 had polish, fluidity, flow, Eternal has theatrics, cinematics and big pretty set pieces to look at.

Doom 2016 was like an old Toyota pickup truck. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, it was grimey, it was muddy, and when your hands were off of it they'd be several shades darker, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did it work.

Doom Eternal is like a second hand Rolls Royce you bought from a crackhead. The outside is beautiful, and from a distance it looks absolutely stunning, but you open the door and the sea of empty crisp packets, cigarette butts, used needles and dead rats slaps you square in the face.

Doom Eternal does not play well. Its gameplay feels like 5 teams were put into 5 seperate rooms to design 5 different mechanics, without talking to eachother. Then those mechanics were put into the same project by an employee of whom has more cheap wine in their blood than, well, blood.

Don't get me wrong, the game looks stunning, runs buttery smooth, and has some absolutely fantastic set pieces, I cannot fault the effort put into the presentation, but all the gameplay flow of Doom 2016, all of the firm but fair difficulty, all of it is gone. Instead, we have 5-6 wave long fights, annoying as ♥♥♥♥ bosses slapped into those fights with no care in the world, and to top it all off - No comfortable way to regain health or ammo without letting yourself get dogpiled in the time it takes to complete the animation.

Doom 2016 lacked in cinematics somewhat, there was a lot to be desired, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did the gameplay make up for it. Doom Eternal has the opposite problem, with it feeling like all of the effort has been put into the presentation as opposed to the gameplay.


Final Ratings -

Aesthetics (Soundtrack, Graphics, Set pieces) : 666/10

Mick Gordon blows it out of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ park again, the world feels absolutely huge, and the scale is in some instances awe inspiring.

Mechanics (Gameplay features, tactical options, etc) : 4/10

There are only two weapons you will find yourself opening most fights with. The Heavy Cannon or the Shotgun, why? Because these two weapons are your primary means of weakening heavy demons and making running into a fight head on viable. It feels like Doom Eternal was built with the "Play any way you want, as long as it is one of the three ways we've balanced the game around" balance centre in mind.

Gameplay (Flow, fluidity, action) : 3/10

Again, as mentioned in the disclaimed this review was written after a Nightmare playthrough, but, with that in mind, the gameplay does not feel like it has been playtested at all in some aspects, some fights are a cake walk, others are pretty much RNG between you living or dying. It's a big 'ol pie and everyone gets a slice.

Multiplayer : 1/10

Seriously, if I had the same balance the multiplayer did i'd break my neck the first step I took.

The Multiplayer component of Doom Eternal is just... Bad. Servers are bad, it feels like there is basically no hard limit to the quality of connection a player can have, and the Slayer is just flat out broken if you know how to use him.

The Ballista can kill both player demons within seconds of the round starting if your aim is steadier than a parkisons patient on a lot of cocaine, even coordinated demons can't do a thing against a slayer with anything above decent aim and ammo in their ballista.


Overall score - 6.66/10

6 of those points are simply because of Mick Gordons absolutely phenomenal OST. Seriously, I would probably pay half the price of Doom Eternal for that alone.

A great experience so far, hindered by the complete lack of ability to crouch manually. Instead, you have to press a button.

For all of the polish this game has I cannot recommend it purely based on that - It, atleast for me, is totally immersion breaking, and makes looting a pain in the ass instead of a pain in the back.

Edit - 5 hour review.


Saints and Sinner plays like an early access title that has been slapped with a 1.0 release sticker and sent out for sale. The ideas are solid and the concepts are good, but there are so many facets of the game that need fleshing out.



Point 1 - Human AI

Where to begin with this... The enemy human AI is absolutely horrible for a game with such a drive for stealth. If an enemy gets alerted - Congrats, every human AI linked with that enemy now knows exactly where you are. And if they have a gun, they will be able to shoot you perfectly through pixel-sized gaps, or even just flat out stick their arm through a wall and shoot you through it.

The human AI is probably the second biggest problem with Saints and Sinners right now, which is a shame, because the game relies on them to push the story forward.


Point 2 - Gun handling.

The guns in S&S feel like you are holding them with sticks that you are holding with your actual hands. I can say for certain that I have not experienced such unnatural gun behaviour in any VR title before, and, if it wasn't for the aim assist (Yes, this VR title has aim assist) i'd wager that most players would notice it more.

The guns, for taking up 1/3rd of your crafting and being the primary component in fighting human enemies, are horrible.

Point 3 - Roomscale.

And here is the crux of the game - Saints and Sinners is a sitting down VR experience, it was built from the ground up with this in mind. You cannot crouch to pick up an item or open a drawer, instead, you have to press a button to toggle an artifical crouch mode that makes you feel like your chin is getting dusted by the walker guts you just spilled out onto the floor.

Apparently this is a known issue and they are looking into resolving it, but until such a time it remains my biggest complaint with S&S.

Point 4 - Combat and repetition.

"You have to destroy the brain" is a trope in basically every zombie game out there. And S&S has v e r y satisfying combat in that respect, with melee weapons having a satisfying amount of presence when it comes to braining a walker or a human.

However. That's your only combat option. Body damage is only really achievable with firearms, and you can grapple neither human enemies nor walkers for melee takedowns or avoiding attacks with a throw.

Stabbing walkers in the head gets old pretty quickly, and there is 0 creative freedom for taking a fight.



These four points are why I cannot reccomend The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners in its current state. The ideas are solid but the execution lets down the whole project. There are more complete VR experiences out there with much more freedom when it comes to combat.

is good yes

I've played it a bit, it's fun.

Russian Roulette: One Life sells itself as an "Experimental" game with a simple premise - If you die, you die for good.

While the concept is interesting, offering a £2.09 DLC for players that die to continue playing simply feels disingenuous at best. While yes, these scores do not count towards any form of leaderboard, the DLC feels more like the actual purpose of the game than the "Experiment", the game itself feels as if it's nought but an attempt to hook you in with intrigue before slapping EA's three favorite letters in your face to continue the "Experience".

Is Russian Roulette: One Life a bad game? Well, that is a hard question to answer, as it isn't really a "Game" so much as it is an "Experience", one that resembles early Flash games more than a typical game. As such, I would qualify it as less of a game and more of a... thing.

TL;DR : Russian Roulette: One Life is something you can pick up and try out with its small filesize, the game itself feels like nothing more than a reason to shovel its £2 DLC down your throat, with the "Buy DLC" dialogue option being a third of the "Choices" in the game, and the only valid one after your first death. Marketing it as an experiment is like a youtuber pepper spraying a child then calling it a "Social Experiment" as justification, weak and unconvincing.

2/10 - It's an interesting concept, before somebody figures out where the "Marker" is saved (Probably in appdata or the registry, though I haven't cared to check myself) to allow them to play repeatedly. The whole gimmick of RR:OL feels somewhat unoriginal, as better games have explored this in the past, and all without waving a £2 DLC in your face for 1/3rd of the experience.

Black Squad is another F2P CS:GO Clone that tries to do its own thing, and in doing so completely ruins itself.

Black squad *used* to be good, weapons were balanced and nothing was inherently "Pay to Win", hoever, these days are long since gone.

Black Squad has now become the same bland repetitive shooter that every game before it, with the only real "Tactic" being grenade spam. You'll hear a grenade blow up every 1-2 seconds now, when before they were legitimately used tactically.

TL:DR - Black Squad tries to do too much with too little, and as such, just falls short.

Edit - Please read all the way through

I am so, so close to giving this game a positive review, as they are adding in many new features and much more content, however, they are doing this while ignoring the biggest issue plaguing the game right now - Ping Abuse.

Unlike other games, Pubg features no lag compensation, which is a major issue when you can have players with 1,000-2,000ms ping, able to kill you behind walls, teleport around making them almost impossible to hit, and that is only the icing on the cake.

Once measures are taken to rectify this, I will change this to a positive review on the spot, but until then I simply cannot reccomend this game.


Edit - You know what? I'm a man of my word.

As of Update #22 Bluehole has implemented a region lock, which, theoretically, should significantly reduce the amount of ping abusers in the game.

I am leaving the initial review up for posterity more than anything. Please note that this review may still be subject to change depending on future events.

Edit # 2 - Just going to add this, Update #22 failed completely in terms of region locking the game. It now forces *more* people with high ping onto non-native servers, and has ruined the game experience for me.

I'm done with Pubg for some time.

Everything isn't Oki Doki in Doki Doki