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Bone totally reviewed 20 Sep, 2005, 17:44 / 18 comments


OK, so it's more of a ramble, but I had a lot of emotions that needed to come out about the first Bone game. It was given a score though, so I stand firm that it with some goodwill can be called a review. Anyway, read!
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18 Comments

  • MojoMonkey on 15 Aug, 2006, 23:48…
    I've just tried the demo, but i really liked it and now im considering to buy it. And if i do that it will be the first time i actually buys a game over internet. Great game guys!!
  • Gabez on 12 Dec, 2005, 02:18…
    Really really love the game. Great work, Telltale!
  • ThunderPeel2001 on 23 Sep, 2005, 22:11…
    I have to say that I love this game. Yes, it's a little simplistic, but that's actually a large part of its charm. It's wonderful, bright and fun -- and captures the tone of Jeff Smith's brilliant comics absolutely PERFECTLY.

    Also I have to say I disagree about the comments on the voice acting, I found all the voices to be absolutely excellent.
  • ThunderPeel2001 on 23 Sep, 2005, 22:15…
    I should add that if I have any complaint it's the small deviations from the comic. I read it recently and didn't understand why certain things had been swapped around or changed. Mostly it's correct, and the overall atmosphere is outrageously spot-on, but there's the odd weird change.

    Also, while I thought the voice acting was excellent, Smiley Bone is played a lot more simplistically than in the comics and as such some of the humor is missed. For example, in the opening sequence Smiley Bone comments that Phone Bone is the richest man in Boneville *oops!* ex-richest! In the comic this was a sly little dig at Phone Bone, but in the game it seems like he genuinely made a mistake. Not a huge deal, but with a comic so perfectly nuanced as Bone, it's always a shame to see a laugh missed!

    Like I said, I found Out From Boneville (which is based on the first 6 issues of Bone) to be excellent in a very light and fun way. Well done TellTale Games!!
  • Weird Ed on 21 Sep, 2005, 23:23…
    The graphics in Bone is horrendous, I am actually quite shocked! I will probably buy the game anyway to support the Telltale cause, but Christ! if you worked with 3D software for more than a couple of months you would easily be able to create those scenes. Someone needs to get fired.
  • jp-30 on 22 Sep, 2005, 00:48…
    I thought the graphics were lovely overall. By far the worst scene graphically is the opening desert one & the locust chase - which by the sounds of it is all you've experienced ("I will probably buy the game").

    So be assured, the graphics really pick up once you get past the demo section.

    And don't forget they didn't have the luxury of a 700MB CD Rom to pack everything into.
  • Scummbuddy on 21 Sep, 2005, 02:31…
    I've been making a list of things as I've been playing, and I'm not even done yet. SPOILER ALERT
    ----------------
    First the trivial:
    :Dialog topics aren't number-press sensitive.
    :No double-clicking on 'next screen' hotspots to skip ahead to them.
    :no way to click/skip through dialog being spoken

    I don't mind if those aren't really taken care of. But the next bit were ones that hurt the gameplay for me
    --------
    :Dialog trees need some more tuning to flow better. I've had some that if someone were to hear it going through it wouldn't make any sense.
    :Thorn would sometimes not show any emotion, and then when she wasn't the cameras focus she would. I would really want when she's speaking to show more facial movements. She seemed so mannequin-like.
    :Sometimes, especially with Phoney, his mouth is clipped by his shirt, or worse, such as in the opening demo, you can't see his mouth moving or his head bobbing while speaking at times. It made it somewhat hard to realize he was the one speaking.
    :I took a break during the chores scene and when i came back, i went on to phoney, and i couldn't remember what Phoney needed to do for his chores. It would have been easy for him to walk into the woods mumbling about that 'dumb womans' chores to do.
    :sometimes its odd that bone will speak outloud of others instead of to himself.
    :at the dinner table, if you time your yawn right, you can yawn, and the fork will movie itself and stab the turnips by itself like a magic trip.
    :As i've mentioned before, in the demo portion, I can get Phoney to turn his whole head around while trying to look at Fone.
    -----------
    Now don't get me wrong. I'm totally having a blast with this game. The music, the immersion, the story/dialog... its been so great. I've been really happy about the pricing, but like others have said, I do hope some things are changed in the next release. Of course I see this game as a 'tester'/learning experience, and I wish them good luck with Bone, Sam and Max, and whatever else they touch their 'becoming-golden' hands on.
  • Jake on 21 Sep, 2005, 15:38…
    (spacebar skips a line of dialogue)!
  • jp-30 on 21 Sep, 2005, 02:53…
    Report your bugs on the telltale forums (or via email) so they can be addressed.

    Also this new TTG blog bodes well for the future - and for listening to the feedback regarding 'Out From Boneville'...
  • Scummbuddy on 21 Sep, 2005, 03:43…
    I was planning on adding any others I had come up to this list, when I finished the game. I just wanted to get out what I had on my mind, but yes, I planned on adding the whole thing to the Bone forums.
  • telarium on 21 Sep, 2005, 00:18…
    I think 3 out of 5 is a fair assessment. I liked it overall, but the most appropriate word I could use to describe my complaints towards the game would be this:

    Claustrophobic.

    I didn?t like the feeling that I couldn?t really move around and explore the world, but I realize that this is probably impossible due to budget limits and the sheer scope of these episodes. I haven?t read the comics, but I?m hoping the next episode allows us to go to the fair and walk around in wide open spaces, talking to various characters and looking at all the events.

    Best parts about the game: camera movement, Phoney?s voice, the rat creatures, and the music.
  • monkeyboobs on 20 Sep, 2005, 21:50…
    I really enjoyed the game. Can't help, so 5/5 :P
  • jp-30 on 20 Sep, 2005, 19:52…
    The Telltale guys are reading the criticsms (and praise) on their boards (and no doubt elsewhere), and responding that they know where to improve.

    I think that things will only improve as time moves forward with these releases, and from what I've seen there's no need to have any concerns about Sam & Max, which is (I'd imagine) at least a year away.
  • counting_pine on 20 Sep, 2005, 20:59…
    I hope it's at least a year away. I'd much rather they took their time if it meant they'd release a game that I would actually be glad I paid money for.
  • Jake on 20 Sep, 2005, 22:44…
    I don't think they have the luxury of paying for a year of development, plus they want the turnaround to be quick. Would you be more likely to start playing Bone games if there was one 4-6 hour episode with the promise that you'd get to play another 4 hours "next year," or would it be more appealing if you went to their site to see two or three chapters already there on the site, with a promised new episode every few months? I think the latter is pretty much infinitely more appealing.
  • counting_pine on 21 Sep, 2005, 00:10…
    OK, fair point. Given the more episodic nature of Bone, a shorter gap would be better. Just as long as they listen to the criticism and make sure the next episode doesn't have the same problems as the first.

    Sam and Max is a different matter though . I want Sam and Max to be as good as it possibly can be, and hope that Telltale spend as long as they can afford to on it. It's been twelve years since Sam and Max Hit the Road. I'm prepared to wait a few more if it means the sequel will actually be worth waiting for.
  • jab1981 on 20 Sep, 2005, 19:32…
    Wow I hope they do Sam and Max better justice than that.
  • The Tingler on 23 Sep, 2005, 17:37…
    Sam & Max has to be AT LEAST as good (or as interactive) as the original, or it will get slated.

    I enjoyed Bone, but I didn't enjoy calling it a game. Because aside from a few obvious puzzles (mainly down to the fact that there is a very limited amount of things to do in the world), very little to explore (why can't the wood have a lot more in it? Why isn't Mrs. Possum in it? Why is the dinner-table scene at the end so totally devoid of any sort of puzzle?), an irritating minigame that is repeated (although I loved the Ted minigame) and the fact that this isn't four hours of gameplay.

    I played this game searching for everything to do and say, and it can't have taken me more than an hour or two. For $19.99, just under half the price of a full game, I expect a lot more.

    I'd gladly suffer a little bit longer download time if it made the next episode (or Sam & Max) feel more complete, or like a game.