Gravity Bone – An Experimental Espionage Adventure

When I say espionage adventure, there are a number of things (clichés, really)  that will pop in most people’s minds: slick guys in black tuxedos, beautiful traitor women and phones that look like shoes.

This is where we get off. Although this might be true for the major part of all espionage books, movies and games, it’s an entirely wrong attitude to start playing Gravity Bone with.

Let’s try again, shall we? Rule out the aforementioned things, and put down two new ones – experimental short-film and art.

Gravity Bone

This single player adventure was developed by Brendon Chung, Blendo Games. It’s based on the Quake 2 engine (don’t worry, you won’t need it to play the game) and lasts about 20 minutes.

That’s right. Although the game feels like it’ll go on forever, the end shows up suddenly and the game ends prematurely after just two levels. With the length, we conclude anything remotely negative that can be said about the game.

It’s a first-person game, in which you complete missions by finding objectives within the game. Please note the absence of “shooter” behind first-person; although you’ll encounter armed individuals, you’ll never so much as touch a weapon. Instead, the whole game is devoted to searching and platforming.

The Story

Calling Gravity Bone a first-person game might be aiming too low, or perhaps simply in the wrong direction. It’s impossible to classify it in any of the popular genres, and as such is best defined as an interactive experimental film. Although the gameplay is simple, it is intriguing, and will likely have you seated at the edge of your chair until you have the end forced on you.

For a story-centered game, the substantial lack of cut-scenes and dialogues is nothing less than impressive. Almost every single part of the story is communicated via environment and, most of all, experience.

As a result, you’ll suffer the ride of a lifetime, and will most likely be left without a clue of what has just happened. Similar to a good work of art, this leaves the game open for interpretation.

Because of the length of the game, it’s hard to reveal the story without spoiling it. Because of that, this is about as much depth as I can in to now. Play the game, and make it out for yourself.

The Looks

Although the aforementioned aspect of art refers mostly to the experimental storycrafting, the looks play their part as well.

The characters and environment highly resemble paper craft. By deliberately deploying these low-scale models, Blendo delivers a remarkably smooth game.

Amazingly, while avoiding the current trend of polygon realism, Gravity Bone puts down a functional, but also a very artful and characteristic portrayal.

This game comes highly recommended. Download it now and live the experience.