Probably the greatest VR game of all time, bested by none (except for Vertigo 2 sometimes, underrated game) the storytelling and themes are wonderful and the gameplay is top-notch. I can't say all that much because you just have to play it. It ran fine with some lag spikes on my setup, which is 82% AliExpress parts and frankly the computational equivalent of a Camaro. The game does a few excellent things, which I'll rattle off as any review should:
You don't have to grab things fully, really. Only pressing the trigger or applying gentle pressure to in-game objects allows them to slide around in your hands. To emulate the weight of an object, there is a very subtle controller vibration.
The set is wonderful, it's got some stand-out moments (and blatant recreations of Half-Life 2 scenes, not to judge because they were pretty great) and the level design is probably my favorite, like, ever. There is no one way to complete a level, you can stack boxes to get past gates and walls, vault locked fences, trick enemies into opening doors, and even get out of bounds of every level without even glitching. In the main menu no less, you can headbutt the glass on the ceiling of the warehouse you're in by climbing the pipes there and you can just... exit the games boundaries. No glitches, you can just seriously leave. Despite feeling so linear, there really are millions of ways to go about simple puzzles and no two playthroughs will be the same.
You can seriously grab everything and it feels great. Most enemies want to punch you rather than shoot you, get all up in their face! WWE grab some bastard and crack his skull onto a curb. It's one of the first VR games to let you manipulate enemies and once you figure it out you will be an unstoppable force. Those scary-ass gunner enemies are pushovers once you realize you can just grab their guns and force their arms the wrong way. And you'll definitely need to do this to save ammunition, it's relatively scarce throughout the campaign and you absolutely need to use those stores at the "final" boss, not to spoil anything but playing that level in VR will likely cause you to ♥♥♥♥ your pants in astonishment. The sequel, Bonelab, definitely does melee better but literally EVERYTHING else worse. The differences are frankly barely noticeable.
The guns are the best VR has to offer. Not as realistic as H3VR per se, but just realistic enough. In Bonelab, you can press a button on your controller to eject mags, which is a pretty good QOL feature. In Boneworks this is absent, however, guns have physical mag eject buttons on the sides of the grip that you can press down using other magazines, allowing you to do cool ass tactical reloads. Better yet, firearms that don't fully insert magazines and have a bit hanging down (AKs, Assault Rifles, the works) you can unload by just smacking the magazine really hard, causing it to dislodge from the gun and occasionally fly out a bit in a really satisfying manner. The vibration on the guns is wonderful and the sound design conveys that wow, this is a gun. It feels kind of like when you hold a gun in real life, you get this sinking pit in your stomach of "Oh my god, people kill things with this. This is to kill things." They are loud, have wonderful recoil and make landed shots excellent. But the way this is done makes you want to be careful with them, because you could very well ♥♥♥♥ up your aim and shoot yourself with it, killing you instantly. Oh yeah, one of the most important parts, theres slow motion. It feels like FEAR, too, it's good slow-mo.
The game isn't that difficult and is a cut above Half-Life: Alyx while being HALF the price. If you ever watched The Matrix and thought, damn, it would be awesome to be Neo (like probably everyone who watched the movie) this is seriously the game for you. Fling yourself while dual wielding Mac-10's in slow motion and firing into a horde of zombies that can one-shot you while listening to hard experimental techno. Buy Boneworks.
