I personally have nothing but good things to say about this game. In fact, the only problem I have is that it’s too short, and that just means I’m greedy. I think anyone who wants to be whisked away into a brightly colored land of adventure featuring the time-honored themes of good and evil, friends and foes, and a good dose of real humor will be doing themselves a serious favor by checking out this game.
This episode seems to be lacking quite a bit as far as the storyline and length are concerned. It should supposedly last about three hours, but it seemed even shorter than that to me; much too short, actually.
I started Bone very long after it was created. Got it basically because I loved The Walking Dead from the same developer. Not being a fan of the adventure genre Telltale games is making my mind change. Considering this is such an old game and not incredibly popular, after playing it i wish they would have produced the whole series of Bone. I found it funny, fun and simple. The biggest flaw is how short it is and the very small space for different outcomes. Although now at April 2012 the game goes for $9.99 in steam for both this and the sequel, so the price is ok. Don't expect a huge production, but in my case... it does leave me buying the Jeff Smith graphic novels from amazon wanting to know more about the story... plus a smile. So Telltale, i hope that after your Living Dead... you could consider finishing this saga!
The game follows the comic series almost exactly with a few minor changes, so unless you've read the comics, it's going to be a lot of trial and error. The voice acting in the game is exactly how I pictured them sounding while reading the comics though and I was generally impressed with it.
We're huge fans of the genre, and really buy into the thought of regular episodic content, but we'd demand it at a significantly reduced price and with an approach that actually panders to the long-term fans of this style of game - as opposed to young kids with no patience.
At times, it can become annoying how slowly the Bones move around the screen, but it does add just a little more longevity to this first installment, which clocks in at just several hours long.
I love the Bone graphic novel and I love Telltale Games and adventure games in general. I want to get that out of the way first, because this is painful for me to say:
Bone: Out From Boneville is bad.
Not terrible. Not memorably awful. Just forgettably clunky and mediocre, and a very poor attempt at a faithful adaptation of the graphic novel. The graphics are dated by 2005's standards, let alone 2012's; they evoke early 2003 Gamecube games. The story's delivery is slow, plodding, and padded with dull minigames, without any sort of niceties or ornamentation to the interface; it feels like the game was made on a budget of pocket lint. The animation is stiff, and some of the models just look off (Thorn with a ponytail and a Peter Pan outfit, anyone?). And worst of all, the voice acting is eardrum-gougingly terrible, so much so that it trashes the story and the believability of the characters; I'm not sure if we're looking at bad direction or bad talent here, but the delivery is off on damn near every line, and there's no sense of believability to the whole mess. The only grace I can offer is that the Bone games were some of Telltale's first, with Sam & Max still a year out, so these are the birthing cries of a developer struggling to find its feet after splitting from Lucasarts, but it's still a tragically bad game.
Only suitable for kids who are so young their parents will have to do most of the playing. Even making allowance for that, it is short and feeble. There are a few funny moments, hence the score as high as 1.
SummaryA mysterious foe. An idyllic valley. An unlikely hero. Enter the world of Jeff Smith's Bone and a truly epic adventure will come to life. As the saga begins, three cousins - Fone, Phoney and Smiley Bone - become separated in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and t...