Son and Bone Reviews

Nope. This is not the dino game I was looking for...

So, is this game in development or abandon? It leaves little to be desired as far as UI navigation, and menu system. The idea of the game is great, but the story or narrative is lacking in some respects. The animations and graphics seem excellent.

this game is so much fun. dont know why it is not more popular.

This is a ridiculously janky modern day Turok. Lots of the controls don't work like they are supposed to but once you figure out the controls on your own its dumb fun!

As a fan of dinosaurs and shooters, I thought this game was right up my alley, however there are a few design choices that make the sum of this game's parts not reach the realm of fun. I played the game to completion out of a personal necessity to finish games I start, and when the credits rolled I was surprised to see only a few names filling many of the various roles needed to produce an entire game. With that in mind, I honestly do think this was quite the accomplishment, and I know that son and bone 2 is in development, so I hope that some of the less fun elements of the game get addressed, because there is a foundation that, although it needs some work, can be made into something good. First, the good: - The models are impressive - I love that there are unique execution animations for every enemy - The music is not bad, and in the latter half of the game it's actually pretty good - The environments are also pretty (as for graphics I played on ultra so I can't say what the average experience/ optimization is like) - There is a decent variety of guns, and variants of guns. - Mobility has potential (it's kind of a con too but it's more pro than con), the double jump, double dash, climbing, and grappling can be fun when everything is working correctly The bad: - The animations need some work - The story is pretty weak (although imo this isn't a deal breaker in a game) - The level design leaves a lot to be desired (the first few levels are the longest and also the most generic, and the main path often has you skipping huge chunks of the map???) - The upgrade materials are gotten just from exploration, but you have to travel so far and spend so much time that it ends up not being worth it half way through, basically by the second half I found it was more efficient to just run through the game than fight the enemies and explore the maps completely, which is a shame All these cons are bad, but imo the biggest crime is the actual combat itself; There is no way to quickly change weapons, and every gun is equally effective against every enemy (stronger guns just do more damage), which, especially in a game about dinosaurs, doesn't make sense. Shooting a triceratops or pachycephalosaurus in the head should not be as effective as shooting a stegosaurus or t-rex in the head, and a stegosaurus would never try to head butt you as an attack, and raptors are coordinated pack hunters, etc., etc. I could go on and on about how all the various enemies, which are beautifully modelled, should have specific behaviors that make the ideal approach to taking them out different, but in this game every enemy does the same thing: run towards you and head butt/bite, except for a few enemies that will stand and shoot. Certain weapons should be better at taking out certain enemies, and the grapple mechanic should be utilised much more in combat. Overall I can't recommend this game to the average player, but if you like dinosaurs AND you want to support this small studio AND you like doom shooters, then this might be worth picking up. Personally, I am conflicted, I did not enjoy the game, but I really wanted to. In the end, I actually do look forward to seeing what these devs can do with a sequel, I'm starving for a good sci-fi dinosaur shooter!