Recent reviews by Lython

play time is deceptive, i've played a lot more offline.

this game is a genuine triumph of game design, both in its puzzles and metafictional depth. cannot recommend it enough, but do not expect anything simple or surface level.

very fun, unique incremental-ish game that will perfectly fill a couple afternoons.

WE GETTING OUT OF THE SLUDGE WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

Rock solid FPS with some of the best exploration, variety, discovery, and consistency you'll find anywhere, not just in VR. Seems like so few games are even trying to capture the core Valve essence/structure like this game and it's predecessor do.

Immensely fun entry to the genre. Easy to pick up, but plenty of depth.

Classic toybox game full of fun interactions. Very formative to me as a strange little child.

EDIT: below is the original review from Oct ‘22. in the six months that have passed, the game has not received updates to address the fundamental core issues. nobody should pay $40 for radio silence and empty promises.

EDIT 2: hey guess what. 1+ year later still nothing besides a nebulous anniversary update confirming that they're still working on this, with the excuse being that they want to avoid false promises by performing basic PR. the community has hacked together a working unofficial SDK to breathe some life into the missing potential, so there's a little more on offer than there was at launch, but this game is still an active failure to me. i understand not wanting to set expectations, but communities require some level of active nurturing to perform on the involved scale needed to realize this thing at max potential, and going dead silent is the exact wrong move.

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I’m giving a “Yes” here because I’m hoping one day I will be able to recommend this title, and I want to support it’s growth in the mean time, but at launch, there is not enough stuff for a $40 price tag on top of the original game.

BONELAB is essentially an updated reworking of the original BONEWORKS. It is almost the exact same game in terms of gameplay, engine, and overall player experience. Nearly all assets are directly recycled. If you go to the sandbox/arena modes, you’ll find the exact same maps from the original game as well. There’s a new campaign, but it’s remarkably brief, and while it introduces some fun new robust gameplay mechanics, it gives you about ten minutes to focus on any of them before moving you along to the next iteration, feeling more like short demos than a fully developed sequel or campaign. Beyond that, the game mainly expands on secondary offerings from the original, arena/sandbox plus some new additions like parkour.

Why is this so content-bare? The story and new mechanics both reinforce the real focus here: mod support. While the original Boneworks was fairly impenetrable to outside modification, this game launched with full mod support and an SDK, and the campaign ends with what’s basically a direct invitation to start modding.

So this should be great! Right? Games like Blade and Sorcery have survived and thrived off the extensive love from their mod communities.

But there’s a really unfortunate twist here: currently at launch, BONELABS modding support extends only to custom sandbox levels (which appear to be a bit broken in implementation - you sometimes can’t install more than one at the same time) and custom player-models for the new model-switching mechanic.

This means that the real meat-and-potatoes of BONEWORKS, the weapons, items, guns, and NPCs/enemies, are unable to be modified at launch. There are implications that support for modding these core game features will eventually be introduced, but with no timeline.

To me, this game should have been marked as an early-access if full modding functionality wasn’t going to be possible at launch. To release a $40 title, centered around user-generated content, with no tools to allow people to expand on the important core content of the game, is extremely misguided.

Do yourself a favor: before buying, check out the game’s officially endorsed modding site and ask yourself if any of the mods look particularly appealing. It’s mostly empty maps quickly imported mainly from Garry’s Mod, useless joke/meme character models that I have zero interest in actually going through the effort of downloading, and NSFW content.

It’s very shiny on the outside, but very hollow too. If they can expedite completing the modding SDK, and then manage to find a dedicated modding community willing to put in the effort of creating new levels, weapons, enemies, etc. then this game MIGHT be worth buying in a year. But a lot needs to go right, and I’ve seen plenty of games make a big push toward mods but never find the willing volunteers. Not every game is gonna be Skyrim or Blade and Sorcery, especially if you DON’T LAUNCH WITH MOD TOOLS FOR A MOD-BASED GAME.

Keep your $40 until you see mods you think you’ll like, or you’re satisfied with playing sandbox modes for a long time.

i couldn't recommend any game that goes out of its way to eliminate accessibility options. why does a party game with no competitive element need anti-cheat of any kind?

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is the only next step that could have come for the original. Thanks, Davey and William.

great simple adaptation of the game that is perfect if you and a friend never get more than an hour to hang out and need something to do while talking lol. wish they'd add more dlc since there's about a billion expansions for the base game. i'd buy way more!