[quote]This review is provided by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41901794/]The Gilded Maw[/url] - A Dungeon Crawling steam group.[/quote]
[B][U]This review was made while the game was free (before patch 1.0.6 - July 29th). I plan to update it soon, consider it out of date until then.[/u][/b]
[h1][u]Synopsis[/u][/h1]
[i]Burial Stone[/i] is a medieval-fantasy first person grid-&-turn-based RPG that requires a VR headset and motion controllers to play. It contains fantasy violence, some blood, and comically over-sized bones spread throughout the dungeon's levels. It can be rather quiet, leading to an eerie sensation of being alone. There's very little in the way of music, and no story to speak of. During my time, I didn't encounter any game-breaking bugs, but one achievement seems to be bugged (Entered Boss Hall). The weapons might also be unselected in the menu despite being visually equipped, but I didn't notice this having an adverse effect on gameplay. The final screen is also far too long, and could use a skip button, or be shortened.
[h1][u]In and out, quicker than you'd think[/u][/h1]
[u][b]Introduction[/b][/u]
It makes me feel like a monster to not recommend. It's free, so you're not losing anything financially. However, you are devoting your time while playing it as opposed to any numerous other tasks or games you could be playing. If the game had something going for it, a novelty of some kind, I would give it an immediate thumbs up. This is clearly a passion project being soldiered by most likely one person. Which is highly unfortunate, as there is nary a thing I can recall for the hour of playing that warrants a download. It's lacking in a lot of fundamental ways, and what is present is rather cumbersome, and to be honest, not very well implemented.
[b][u]Gameplay[/u][/b]
This game doesn't feel particularly fun to play. Movement in a grid-based game locks you to the board, and this restriction can breed innovative design. In Burial Stone, it simply limits the player with no benefit, other than preventing the player from running into walls or getting stuck against the scenery. The UI doesn't play nice while moving either, which can be annoying when you just want to click on a healing item while on the go.
Combat is clunky and unrewarding, highly RNG based on whether you hit, and how devastating you are. You'll watch in dismay as one of your skills or spells fails to produce any meaningful damage if it hits. When it doesn't, you've wasted mana, and the enemy may have struck you with considerable damage. Which results in you fumbling your next turn to chug a healing item or potion, which can be very rare early on. Almost every enemy is functionally the same, minus some status effects or use of range weaponry, both from singular entities. It's all very bland and straightforward, even the final boss lacks in mechanical depth.
All this leading to the biggest disappointment, the interactivity. VR has its place in gaming, wherein most games are going to be short and provide some level of gameplay immersion inaccessible without the headset. Pulling levers, swinging swords, and physically leaning around corners are all elements that are gimmicky in nature, but are satisfying in their own way. None of this is present in any capacity. You click on skills to make your next attack do that. You click on levers to make them open doors. You click on items in menus to buy, use or equip them (if the game doesn't do that for you sometimes). The game totes that your only source of light is the torch, but it might as well be light emanating from you to begin with, because it's never used in any meaningful manner. It calls into question why it even needed to be a VR game, it would've work about as well not in VR.
All this, yet I can still see the potential here, a lot of ideas that need exploring to flesh out the game into something that could honestly be rather enjoyable and unique. A lot of VR tends to require the player to be constantly active, it's nice when one comes along that plays at the pace of the player's decisions.
[h1][u]Dungeon Crawling Core Value[/u][/h1]
Burial Stone is a dungeon crawler defined by the older, classical descriptive used to identify a type of game from the 80s/90s; a grid-based first person rpg, sometimes referred to as a gridder, or blobber if it contains more than one actively controlled protagonist. The inherit core value of the experience is, in my opinion, a level 2.
"The game contains dungeons and/or dungeon-like environments that serves the purpose of scenery or change of scenery. The environment has little significance, but overall attempts to present a dungeon crawling experience in some way other than purely/entirely cosmetic."
The whole experience is an immersive one to a degree, and can often feel rather eerie in the silence, with only the sounds of your torch breaking up the quiet. However, the lack of interactivity hurts it greatly. It's like a horror house where you get to see the things, but always keep a modest distance from them.
[h1][u]Final Thoughts[/u][/h1]
I didn't want this is come off so negative. In the end, it's free. If you want to give it a shot and have a VR headset, there's nothing really stopping you. It's an hour of your time, and if you feel like it's worth marveling at a passion project, then don't let me stop you. It's a quaint game, and you might enjoy it. Heck, it could be the inspiration you need to start your own project.
