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Boneworks review: An absolute VR mess — yet somehow momentous, Ars Technica

Boneworks review: An absolute VR mess — yet somehow momentous, Ars Technica


    

      Time-to-crate: 13 milliseconds –

             

Do you have VR “sea legs”? Then it’s a must-play. Either way, engage with caution.

      

      

For years, an ambitious game calledBoneworkshas hovered in the periphery of the VR enthusiast community, inspiring equal parts drool and confusion. It’s made by a scrappy-yet-experienced VR team (makers of quality fare like******************* Hover Junkersand

Duck Season). It revolves around realistic guns and a complicated physics system — thus immediately looking more ambitious than other “VR gun adventure” games in the wild.

And it so strongly resembledHalf-Lifein its preview teases, both in aesthetics and in physics-filled puzzles, that fans wondered if this was the oft-rumored Half-Life VRgame after all . (It’s not.

Now thatBoneworkshas launched for all PC-VR platforms, does the gaming world finally have an adventure game worthy of an “only in VR” designation? The answer to that question is a resounding “yes” —but that’s not the same as saying it’s a

good

video game.The trouble with “git gud” in VR      

                   

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                      WhenBoneworksenemies get too close and you’re short on weapons and ammo (a rarity, but still), just use your real-life hands to virtually shove them away.                                                                                           

                              

                                                                    

Boneworks******************** ‘Similarities toHalf-LifeDon’t start and end with this headcrab-like creature, which is terrifying to encounter in the middle of combat.                                                        

******************************                                              Stress Level Zero                                  

                               

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                      Though the game doesn’t emphasize its two-handed melee as often as I’d like, the feeling of intentionally slow-swinging a mallet into a foe’s skull is unique to theBoneworks

experience. It’s killer stuff in action.                                                        

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                      Every firearm in this game needs to be manually loaded with a magazine and cocked before you can fire. There’s also no UI to say how many bullets you have; You’ll need to eject and reload guns’ clips manually.                                                        

******************************                                              Stress Level Zero                                  

                  

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                          One-handed weapons like this lead pipe will do in a pinch.                                                        

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                          Why are these helmet-clad soldiers shooting everything they see? And why do they ride spinning balls, like futuristic unicycles? We’re not sure on either count.                                                        

    ******************************                                              Stress Level Zero                                  

                   (***********************************************   

    At its worst,

    Boneworkshad me bellowing in agony. The game, which has you escaping and battling your way out of a mysterious research facility, revolves around a philosophy of “realistic” physics interactions. Everything you see can be touched, pushed, lifted, and manipulated by your hands and body according to their real-life size and weight.

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