Super disappointed with Bonelab so far. Only on quest 2 so never played Boneworks before and it seems to be the most anticipated VR game ever, so I dropped £30 because of the hype and all the reviews, knowing it’s surely gotta be good.

But it’s pretty horrendous, at least the ‘campaign’, which is just a series of wonky minigames. The opening had so much promise!! My jaw dropped when starting the game. And then came the ongoing slog of physics puzzles that don’t work, combat that isn’t intuitive or fun. I don’t understand why everyone gets so hot about the physics. The game goads you into thinking you can play it like the matrix, but any time you try throw an object, sprint at people, the game just shrugs and says ‘physics’ as the brick you threw directly at someones head lazily drops about a half metre to the right. Half of the game is borderline unplayable due to jank, climbing is atrocious and half the time my arms or body are getting stuck in walls or the floor. (Yes, my measurements are set correctly too before you say it.)

My main gripe is that there’s next to no instruction for how to actually play the game, and when there is it vanishes after half a second. Is it really that hard to add a tips section in the pause menu? I’m sorry I missed the tip on how to use slow motion, can I not be punished for the next 7 hours of gameplay left trying to figure it out? Working out puzzles is fun, BASIC CONTROLS isn’t. At all. Speaking of those, ZERO remappable controls in a game that prides itself on it’s user freedom to do whatever, it’s just insane.

I KNOW people will be all ‘well most people have played Boneworks so know how the physics work etcetcetc’ - well I haven’t! And with them being such a big deal launching on the Quest 2, how isn’t there an assumption more people would struggle like me? It’s just wild to me people are going insane over what is essentially Sports Mode with nicer graphics. It’s a long tech demo at best, a full priced game at £30? Ehhhh... OBVIOUSLY I know mod support will likely take this to new heights, but it just isn’t what I was promised from the trailers.