Recently there have been some very quirky titles hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace. Indie developers QuimbyRBG have made no exception, and released one of the most original, yet bizarre titles I have ever seen. The easiest way to describe BoneD is as a parkour style platformer… with a skeleton.
Playing as BoneD, your aim is to travel across the dozens of platform levels found in the game, traversing through several different types of environmental hazards to reach the end goal and survive. Chasing you is Dave the Reaper, who believes that BoneD has cheated death, and needs to be killed, though I’m not quite sure how you kill a skeleton.
[nggtags gallery=’BoneD’]
The game introduces itself with a great tutorial, being both informative and comical at the same time. As you pass through the levels, you will have to avoid obstacles such as spikes, and standard platform enemies. You do this by jumping up walls and between gaps. The mechanics of the game lead to some clever platforming puzzles. You can find medals in each level too, allowing you to unlock further areas.
The problem with BoneD is how frustrating it can be. The levels are very challenging, and it can sometimes be hard to judge jumps and distances. Add to this the lack of any checkpoints, and it’s easy to see how annoying the game can get. The graphics look poor, and are just repeated 2D textures. Even for an indie game the menus look cheap, and you feel as though no effort has been taken to provide any kind of polished finish.
BoneD: Dead Men Don’t Jump is not a great game. It doesn’t look or feel fun, and is overly challenging. Though you get a large amount of levels, you simply won’t be entertained long enough to play them all and it really isn’t worth its price tag of 240 :MSPoints:.
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