Bonelab Quest 2 Gameplay is just UNBELIEVABLE!

Bonelab is the follow-up to Boneworks, one of the best physics-focused sandbox VR games, and this time it’s built natively for Quest too. It came out on Quest and PC VR on the day this video went live, for $39.99. I had early access, so this is my Bonelab Quest 2 gameplay overview, with a short look at the PC VR version first. No story or puzzle spoilers. The video wasn’t sponsored.

One warning before you start: the very first scene puts a noose around your neck. It’s intense, and some people will find it upsetting.

The opening and the hub

After that opening you land in a short tutorial level that teaches the basics: your inventory slots, and holding the right joystick down to crouch artificially (push it up to stand again). Then a big elevator drops you into the hub.

The hub is where you pick a mode. There are six:

• Tac Trial
• Arena
• Sandbox
• Parkour
• Experimental
• Mods

You walk up to one of the doors around the hub, click a map, and you’re teleported straight into it.

Yes, there’s a story mode

A lot of people asked whether Bonelab has a story. It does. There’s a big quarantine door in the hub that stays locked until you’ve done several things to open it. I won’t spoil how. I’d already unlocked it, so some of what I show was unlocked through the story.

Avatars and body size

You can enter your real body measurements under Preferences, then Body, then Advanced. The idea is that the game changes how it feels to match you, which is a bit crazy.

The bigger feature is the avatar selector on your arm, which you unlock during the story. Swapping avatars changes how you play. One makes me super strong. One has long legs, so she’s fast. There’s an anime girl, and there’s a very tall one where everything around me looks tiny and cute. It’s funny, but it also matters: with the big hands of the strong avatar, reloading some guns got really hard and I felt slow.

Bonelab Quest 2 gameplay: Arena

I went into the Fantasy Arena first. You spawn the gear you want, and you grab items from a distance by pressing the trigger and grip at the same time. Holding your fist closed to do that is strangely immersive. Some items, like an electric guitar, come from orbs you find and open during the story.

The inventory opens with the right button. You get slots on your shoulders, two on your body and one at your side or back, and you just grab things from your shoulders when you need them.

I picked the survival challenge: stay alive as long as you can while the difficulty goes up each round. What stood out:

• The weapons have real weight, and you can hold them almost anywhere on the gun. That’s really impressive.
• Every weapon has its own reload mechanic. One rifle has a reload so smooth I had to show it twice.
• The enemies that look like VR headsets jump on your head and pull you into a dangerous virtual reality. Boneworks players will recognise them. I hate those things.
• Slow motion is there when you need a breather.

Tac Trial

Tac Trial is a skirmish-style mode. I played the Neon District map on medium. It’s tough. You have to kill 35 enemies to get through the round, and if you’re nearly dead, killing one gives you some health back. I ran out of ammo and died, so watch your ammunition.

How well Bonelab runs on Quest 2

I’m impressed with the Quest version. The optimisation is so good that I almost forgot I was on a Quest. You can see where they cut corners:

• Things in the distance get blurry.
• Textures load in as you walk closer.
• Frames drop in bigger levels.

But for most of my hours it ran very well, and the physics felt awesome even on Quest. That makes it so much fun to explore.

The same problem from Boneworks is back, though. The physics can be a bit too realistic, so the controls get wonky. You can get stuck on something or dragged by an object, and that causes sudden camera movements that are very intense. I have pretty good VR legs by now and still felt my stomach in my throat at times. A short break usually helped, and it never spoiled my fun.

Not a game for the story

I’ve played some of the story mode but haven’t finished it. If you want Bonelab for the story, I wouldn’t recommend it. There isn’t much. Boneworks had the better story mode; this one feels more like a few sandbox levels tied together. I still had fun with it, and the story unlocks a lot of things you can use in the other modes: weapons, cosmetics and plenty of weird stuff.

There’s also a lot I couldn’t fit in the video, like the big experimental puzzles in the campaign modes, which Boneworks fans will recognise.

Is Bonelab worth it?

Bonelab is first and foremost a sandbox game where you bring your own creativity. If you like that genre, that also makes it very replayable. The real value will come later, once the community has had time to make mods, and I’m sure people will make some insane stuff.

Even now, at launch, I think Bonelab is worth the money and a must-have title. Just don’t buy it for the story. You can find it on the Meta Quest store and on Steam.