Boneworks

Boneworks revolves around having realistic guns and a complicated physics system. In the game, the player must escape and battle their way out of a virtual city, revolving around realistic physics interactions. All objects in the world can be manipulated by the player according to the object's real-life size and weight.[2][3] Small objects like cups or hammers can be easily picked up one-handed while larger objects like crates or axes take more effort to be picked up.[3]

Weapons in Boneworks require physical movement, with manual weapon reloading and hefty melee action to replicate how much effort the action would take in real life. Players can also pick up small enemies and throw them or bash them into a wall; enemies can be simultaneously grabbed and shot.[2]

Levels in the game have many ways of accomplishing them, such as stacking boxes together or climbing a ledge.[2] The game encourages all ways of completing puzzles, even if it means "cheating" or solving them in an unintended way. There are multiple game modes and maps, including arena modes and sandbox modes. Different maps can be unlocked by finding "modules" to plug into the main menu. Other items can be unlocked by finding "bone boxes" that have unlockables in them, and putting them inside a reclamation area near the end of a level. You can also put guns and melee weapons in the area to use them in arena or sandbox. Multiple variants of guns can be found, including attachments such as sights, grips, and laser attachments.

Boneworks starts in an introductory tour designed as a history of VR interaction. The player plays as Arthur Ford, a security director for a fictional company named Monogon. The story mode of the game has the player traversing a digital city developed by Monogon, called MythOS City. MythOS City is built upon the advanced framework engine Boneworks and is sustained by the artificial intelligence operating system, MythOS. The virtual world is built upon "void energy", an unstable, yet very useful energy, recently discovered by the same company.

The game begins with a cutscene of a infiltrator of Monogon, a rival fictional company called "Gammon" putting a USB drive into the servers of MythOS and causing a terminal lockdown after Ford puts his headset on. Ford then barricades himself in a room, then putting on a VR headset to enter MythOS. Ford then is tasked to reset the system clock to end the lockdown caused by a void breach. Along the way, he fights rogue AI enemies and holographic soldiers. Throughout the game he is contacted by his coworkers through monitors in MythOS, who warn him that Monogon security is trying to enter the room in real life. Ford eventually makes his way to the Time Tower where he repairs the Gravity Core, which destroys the tower and opens a path to the Voidway.

Once inside, Ford wakes up in front of a castle, which is part of a game called Fantasy Land. He finds a king clone of himself ruling over other clones. Ford goes through various trials in the game, until he climbs the castle and fights the king in combat. Ford kills the king and goes under the castle, where he enters the Void. In real life, Monogon agents break down the door and enter the room, but find that Ford is dead, having uploaded his mind into the Void.

Boneworks was shown in a tech demo in 2018,[4] and the game reached a playable, completable state in October 2019,[5] and was released on Steam on December 10, 2019.[6] On February 20, 2020, it was released on the Oculus VR Store, with a temporarily exclusive level.

Boneworks has been compared to Half-Life in its aesthetics and puzzles.[3] The game was praised for having created an "incredible engine for a captivating VR adventure", and has been called "one of the best VR gun-adventure games on the market". Physics manipulation in Boneworks has been described as entering the "uncanny valley". The game has been criticized for its bugs, where the player's limbs can become stuck in game objects, as well as the content not being paced well and a lack of a good plot.[3] It has been described as a "VR physics playground".[10] The game has been described as being "conceived as a combat showcase first and a story-driven epic second – the Narbacular Drop to Valve's Portal.".[2]

On the release day of Boneworks, it reached the top of Steam's top-selling and top 100 player count lists of that day.[11]

The game was nominated for "Best VR/AR Game" at the Game Developers Choice Awards.[12]