When I looked at Bone: Out from Boneville (OB) last fall, I wrapped up the review with the following:“A lot of the comic’s charm holds up well in this conversion to video game, but there simply isn’t enough gameplay or story depth to satisfy most gamers for $20. Hardcore Bone fans probably won’t care, however, and won’t be disappointed. For everyone else, I recommend waiting until the second chapter comes out, and paying closer to the full price of a normal game for perhaps, what will be overall, a more fulfilling experience.”
For those familiar with the first game or my first review, I will go into background of the game last, using the same text from the first review, simply because the game is considered a continuation of the first game, rather than a sequel.
As the second Bone chapter starts, the story is set around the Great Cow Race (GCR), a race the local town celebrates each year. Grandma Bone is, as usual, the heavy favorite, running against the best of the town’s cows. Phone Bone sees an opportunity to make money, but he and Smiley quickly find themselves in trouble, forced to pay off a debt they have incurred to Lucious Down, the owner of the Barrel Haven. Grandma has just arrived in town with Fone Bone and her granddaughter Thorn after they were attacked in their home one night by Rat Creatures.
The biggest flaws I found with the first chapter were its length and the level of interactivity users had with the game. These have been improved upon dramatically for GCR, and the result is something that feels more like a true adventure game. The town’s carnival area that you explore with Fone feels really fleshed out and there are at least twice as many characters to talk to than in the first game. The number and variety of puzzles has been improved upon as well; I was especially tickled to find a puzzle where you help one of the Bones write a love poem (Awwww!). The difficulty of the puzzles has been ramped up, and I found the game passing the test that many of my favorite adventures games of the past exhibited: I am not a good game player, and I often use tips or walkthroughs to help me to get to the next step when I’ve given up, thinking I can’t see any other way to approach the problem. Any time I was playing a good adventure game, I would read the tip and exclaim, “Oh! Why am I so stupid? I should have had that.” With a bad game, I would instead think, “How was I supposed to pick up on that? Ridiculous!” When I used the GCR’s in-game help system, I would find myself thinking the former, thus finding that the difficulty and logic balance for the game’s puzzles fair.
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On a technical level, the second chapter shares most of the traits established by the first. The visuals are still strong without being technically demanding; the game ran well on my two year old laptop. Aurally, I have no complaints either. I was completely comfortable with the voice acting by the end of the second game, and it is impressive that Telltale has gotten this aspect of the game down so well considering Bone is a low budget indie title.
After playing the first Bone game, I read other players’ impressions, and their thoughts paralleled my own: OB had all the basic components of a winner, but players wanted more of everything for a deeper gameplay experience. With GCR, Telltale has found that formula, which I hope becomes a consistent model for the rest of the Bone games as well as their upcoming Sam & Max games.
For those unfamiliar with the comic or the first chapter, I still recommend getting both chapters in one package. Telltale has lowered the price of a chapter to 12.99, offering both chapters together for 24.99, in effect adding more quality while lowering the price for their product.
Background
Jeff Smith’s Bone comic book epic is a fantasy story for all ages starring the Bone cousins, Phone, Fone, and Smiley, who find themselves lost after being run of out of their native Boneville. Although the Bones themselves look sort of like Snoopy from Peanuts, the stories also involve humans, insects, dragons, and “stupid, stupid, rat creatures”, all of whom can talk to each other. The comic is a great read, how I would describe the comic if recommending it to others is that Bone is “cute, funny, and charming”.
Bone: Out from Boneville (Bone) is an adventure game that retells the events of the first compilation of the comic book series, also titled “Out from Boneville”. Bone uses the normal point and click scheme found in most traditional adventure games.
I love video games. I just don't play too many of them. I grew up always having to learn about games through my (incredibly cheap) subscription to Video Games and Computer Entertainment (10 years later, this magazine is now known as Tips And Tricks). I'd read through each issue several times, remembering all the screenshots and details, but it was rare that I'd actually to get play any of the games featured just because I didn't have the money to do so. Now, I'm lucky enough to work in the industry, at a position that requires me to be a video game expert. Apparently I really did learn something from all that reading back then! I still don't play a lot of games though.
I enjoy virtually all game genres, except for PC war strategy, which I'm sure I just can't handle in terms of sophistication. My true calling in gaming is the PC FPS. It's the only genre where I'm willing to overlook major flaws in a particular game, finish it, and enjoy it anyway.
I also have a fascination with digitized video games (Fox Hunt, Psychic Detective, Angel Devoid), a now-defunct genre. Back when full-motion-video was all the rage, these games were supposed to be the next step in bringing Hollywood to the gamer, but most of the time, these efforts resulted in hilarious (and ridiculous) "interactive" movies that, instead of bringing innovation to the industry, only paved the way for the bad voice acting that the industry still suffers from today.
