Recent reviews by sushi

This is the first game I would 100% pay over €70 for, and the fact that it's only €9.75 (less than €1 on sale) is amazing. please get this game, beat it, then get your friend to play it with you, beat the co-op, then play the community chambers, you won't regret it

pretty good collection, sadly i didn't finish it because there was a bee in my room

I played this game as a small child on my PS3 and immediately loved it. A couple of years later, I decided to buy it again on PC while it was on sale and play it again. I don't know if it was just rose-tinted glasses, but this is the single worst platformer I've ever played. Aside from the first 2 levels, this game is buggy, unresponsive, and just downright frustrating to play. The only things that carry this game are the music, level design, and graphics, which are basically unchanged from the PS3 version. If you want an actually good platformer for the price, buy Pizza Tower or Rayman Legends instead.

After fully beating the game, I felt that my previous review didn't do the game justice, so I wanna re-evaluate the game's contents once more.

THE GAMEPLAY: With BONELAB being a heavily physics-based VR game, it's definitely unlike anything that has been out on VR, but that has already been established by other reviews. In my experience, the gameplay is very hit-or-miss. Some mechanics and puzzles work beautifully, while others don't work for seemingly no reason, and it takes a lot of negotiation and patience to complete them. It's fun when you don't have to deal with some arbitrary BS the game decides to throw at you from time to time.

THE MUSIC: This game's music is nothing short of awesome. The songs blend perfectly into the action and enhance your performance in the game even further. In short, it's an all-around great OST that achieves everything it tries.

THE GRAPHICS: This game looks good, but that's kinda it. It doesn't have any graphically outstanding pieces to it, but nothing looks bad either. The art direction mostly carries the graphics and the environments.

THE CAMPAIGN: This game is a sandbox game, first and foremost, so the campaign isn't anything to write home about, but it's still pretty good. It's short but sweet. Thematically, it's the most creative campaign I've played, let alone VR. It's a fever dream that keeps getting better and better. So many elements and ideas just fly into your face and clash in these weird ways that shouldn't work but somehow do. Most people say it ends just as things get interesting, but to me it ended perfectly, by teaching and showing you all of the nuances and mechanics it offers, mashing them all together for the final few levels, and then leaving you to make your fun. It's not perfect, sometimes levels can be laid out confusingly, the game doesn't immediately teach you everything properly (FFS I didn't know how to jump during my first few hours) and the beginning of the game is very confusing because you're just plopped down in the BONELAB hub with no indication on where to go. Ironically, this game does horror slightly better than Half-Life: Alyx. The "nullbodies" are very uncanny with their behavior and sounds, making a robotic, passive-aggressive "Hey" when they see you, with regular zombie noises later. The crablets are a more terrifying headcrab, when they jump on your face, a detailed, 3D simulation of some room (which changes depending on where you are in the game) shows up in their mouth. However, all of these enemies are already in BONEWORKS, which has a better and longer campaign, while having slightly worse physics and overall gameplay.

RECOMMENDATION: If you're looking for a great sandbox experience, this is the game for you. However, if you're more into the story, grab BONEWORKS instead. This game isn't worth €40 though, so wait for a Steam sale before getting it.

Fun game, but it desperately needs snap turning

The best part about this game is that it lets you take it seriously as well as the goofiest thing ever conceived. It's so flexible and flawless in its execution and is genuinely loads of fun gameplay-wise. If you have any interest in cooking or food, get this game.

cool game (if you mod it)

I wanted to like this game so bad. In theory it's a dream-come-true: Half-Life 2, one of the best PC shooters ever made, but for VR. However, this game, in my limited experience with it has left me so deeply disappointed, words cannot possibly express it.

First, what this game does right: immersion. Even though HL2 is nearly 2 decade old game, this VR mod, alongside HL2's environments sucked me right in, and it quickly all felt like real life. This mod nails immersion better than any other game I've played, only beaten by Valve's own HL Alyx.

However, somewhere where this game lacks severely in is controls. I use the Vive Wands, and the controls for them have to be the most unintuitive, disfunctional, broken thing I've ever had the displeasure of using. Everything is mapped in these weird ways on the trackpad, and often times won't even register properly. This made the game incredibly frustrating and turned me off immediately. And don't even get me started on the borderline useless camera controls.

Something else that this game really falls short in is the user interface. It's basically the basic old Source interface from HL2, Portal 1 and early TF2 with zero changes to accomodate for VR controls. I don't 100% know how Source mods work, but I don't think it should be that hard to make the menu options, if not bigger, at least more distinct and readable.

Also, if you get motion sick easily, this game is your worst nightmare. Even worse is the fact that movement with Vive Wands is REALLY inconsistent. You move forwards slower than sideways and backwards, sometimes you sprint and sometimes you don't, it's all over the place.

This is not a great mod, but the idea is there, and the immersiveness of the mod proves it. This mod requires A LOT of fixing and reworking to function well, but after that I believe it will be not just more accessible, but also overall a way better experience.

Okay, an actual review.

I received my first headset, the HTC Vive Pro 2 on February 15th, 2023. After plugging everything in, drilling in the base stations, fighting a bit with drivers, I picked up SUPERHOT VR and a couple of freebies, and I ended up playing them until 4AM. It's truly impossible to describe the feeling of jumping into VR for the first time. It's like you're truly *there*. Regular PC games feel almost primitive now. To not just actual hands and more direct control over everything, but also true depth and immersion in games feels so liberating and made me fall in love with PC gaming all over again.

Now, nearly a whole year, 600 hours, 40 games and a whole pair of controllers (I switched to Index knuckles) later, it's like the honeymoon phase never wore off. Looking forward to going into VR after a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ day is what keeps me going sometimes. It's more than an escape for me, it's at this point a whole slew of universes and communities waiting for me to unpack and live in them, until I have to go sleep or do something else. I've met some of the most unlikely people through VR. I've had some of the most fascinating, out of body experiences in VR. I've laughed, screamed, cried, sometimes all in the same sessions in VR.

VR seems like such a niche, overly expensive hobby only suited for nerds, until you actually try it for yourself and dive deeper. For me, and for so many other people, it's beyond just "computer games but in true 3D". It's beyond just "11 quadrillion monitors at the same time". It's being able to experience so many stories and so many pieces of entertainment first-hand, in whatever environment was perfectly envisioned for them. It feels so much more personal and moments stick with you so much more than they ever could through more conventional ways, because you're there. You're in the center of the action, not some schmuck you control with a keyboard and mouse.

It makes me so unbelievably happy that I was able to experience all this through SteamVR and SteamVR native hardware first rather than a Quest or something. No matter how janky it might sometimes be, it's hands-down the BEST way to experience VR. Its feature set now with 2.0 is great, Base Station tracking is superb, and Valve Index controllers may just be my favorite control method for anything ever. They just melt into my hands and become an extension of me. The VP2, as much as it may be controversial to say, is also great, IMO, when you ignore the price tag (ouch).

VR has changed my life. It has changed the way I perceive media and technology, but also more human topics like identity. The experiences I've felt, the people I met, all literally made me a better and more open-minded person. I cannot recommend it enough. I cannot recommend SteamVR enough. If you have the cash to drop on a headset, go for it. Even if it doesn't grab you like it did me, you won't be left disappointed.

Amazing game and a must-have for any VR owner

I would've liked if it was just a little bit longer