So, I think I actually had more fun with this one than Boneworks! In some respects. Upsides: More diverse environments and the avatar segments and puzzles were really cool. I think this one was just more fun to play in general, aside from the kart race and roller coaster ride. Those were nauseating as all HELL. Thank god you could just run right through the race at the very least. The roller coaster was really fun to look it but I did feel pretty queasy by the end of it lol. I also notice more music variety in this one, which I REALLY appreciated! The only things that Boneworks' campaign does better is in length and story. I like where this game went, what with expanding on the Lava Gang and introducing Dead FM into the plot, and the bits with Jimmy were fun also. Had lots of fun! Just be warned if you get VR sickness like me.

Bonelab is a strong VR game. The visuals are arguably better than it's predecessor, Boneworks. The story may not be yet as good, but I love the modding for this game so far. People have gotten very creative already, and I'll definitely revisit when there's more to try out. I absolutely have the heart to still recommend this, though, simply because it's just great fun gameplay wise. If you're a person of story telling, this game isn't quite for you unless you want to dig deep and really see the game at it's core.

Bonelab is a definite step down from Boneworks, which isn't a surprise as it had to also work on the Quest 2 standalone. The campaign is much worse with the only level I revisit being Street Puncher. The improvements to playing in vr are great, with a standout being the ability to switch from standing to sitting on the fly without having to open a menu. Being able to move your hand to your body in real life and seeing your virtual hand make contact with the same part is also very cool. Though there was a downgrade in interactivity, such as not being able to turn the knobs on TVs anymore. This doesn't really kill the game for me, but it's just odd to see less interactivity in a vr game considering the genre. The sandbox is the best part of this game and the modding scene is the only thing keeping this game alive as the devs have decided to go basically radio silent and rarely mention the SDK update. I don't want them to drop the updates for the game or the SDK now, but an explanation would be nice for why updates have stagnated.

I loved Boneworks. It's an incredibly divisive VR title for a good reason and I fully understand those that were deterred by it because it's a game that threw experimental ideas and systems at the wall in a full mostly cohesive experience that most other games in the VR medium couldn't hold a candle to even to this day. The sheer hyper polish and careful meticulously tested systems and world space of Half-Life: Alyx are something that I still adore and appreciate, but it wasn't for the same reasons as the open sandbox and freedoms that Boneworks allowed for, flaws be damned. Those feelings expanded much further as a modding community eventually came to be with Boneworks, with many of my hours spent just fiddling around with custom playermodels to express myself and move around in, guns to fiddle with, levels to just wander around in. Boneworks isn't perfect and was never really made to be, but it's a game that set a groundwork for VR that I was excited at the time to be expanded upon further with more polish.

Bonelab is not that game. It is so far below being that game that it astounds me that no single lesson was learned at all from Boneworks' release, subsequent updates, and what the community had accomplished with their own creations. I have no idea what Stress Level Zero was trying to accomplish with this game at all. It wants to be a bigger sandbox toy than Boneworks ever was, but it lacks the content and polished systems to justify time being spent here. It wants to play more with the physics systems being pushed to their limit, but goes past the line of comfort and polish even Boneworks still set for itself where stuff like drivable cars and a minecart ride are a miserable nightmare to actually sit through. Player expression was highly emphasized before launch by supporting custom player models and giving them unique stats for interesting gameplay experiences, but Bonelab doesn't give you any access to those features until you're finished with the game and those stats devolve into essentially "normal", tiny, too big, and fast. There's no interesting decisions to be made with these character stats.

Oh my god, the campaign too. I have no idea what the fuck happened here. It genuinely feels like Stress Level Zero cobbled together a series of levels within the last months of development and called it a day. Comparing it to Boneworks would be beyond insulting, and even when compared to other VR titles with shorter demo-y feeling campaigns, Bonelab horrifically struggles in being a cohesive experience of any kind even after two patches that only lightly tried to fix things. I still remember launch day for this game when nobody could figure out where the fucking campaign even was. Actually getting through that campaign wasn't any better.

I wrote a Steam review back when the game first came out that made it to the top of the store page because I felt insulted paying $40 for a game that felt so unfinished and baffling, and apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way. At the time I felt like I was lied to after enough hype and promises alongside my good feelings from the previous entry, but now looking back there should've been plenty of warning signs from Stress Level Zero themselves. They spoke so much of mod support to the point of making the game seem like it was designed around it, but then barely spoke of the actual tools that would've been used for creating those mods. A simultaneous PC and Quest release on day one should've been a glaring red warning sign from the get-go when SLZ had stated in the past with Boneworks that their physics simulations and scale were too demanding for mobile hardware; it shows in the final release of Bonelab with how pitiful the campaign levels are.

Maybe I should've been more wary and suspicious when the marketing material that SLZ kept releasing on the Node YouTube channel focused less on new mechanics and levels, but rather looking at one sandbox level and playing around with guns, fully playing up this shitty dudebro attitude by ogling the tits on a maid and ninja avatar built into their game. Because that's really what Boneworks needed. Big jiggling shaking tits.

Back then when Bonelab first launched, I recommended people away from spending $40 on it because of how much of a mess it was, but a part of me still had hope for the future at the time because there were still hints of the game I loved deep somewhere in there, and thought that Stress Level Zero would continue supporting it with more features and content. But that never happened. We got two patches that added some hand holding to parts of the game that clearly weren't play tested in the slightest, and nothing else truly substantial. The modding SDK is such a joke that the few modders that remain still had to resort to using MelonLoader for custom scripting functions just like Boneworks did.

Bonelab disappoints and upsets me because it not only ruined any good will I had towards Stress Level Zero and whatever hope I could have for future projects of theirs, but it also essentially forever split and destroyed a modding community that was very much alive and well for Boneworks up until this game happened. This stupid goddamn game made it harder to recommend Boneworks because part of what I loved so much about it after the campaign was the sandbox and mods, which just simply aren't the same going back to after this game came out. If Stress Level Zero ends up announcing a new game at some point in the future, it's going to be looked at with extremely wary eyes if frankly any at all after this greedy fumble of a mess. Stay far the hell away from this game.