Who isn’t jumping on the bodycam bandwagon of late? Disorientating, visceral, but basically an FPS with a filter, these games are getting a little predictable regardless of looking decent. Bonefield slips into the latter category of looking decent – more than decent – and it takes it one step above with some pant-filling mechanics.
Set in Bonefield, Montana, you’re a private detective hired to investigate something dodgy in town. Not only are there rumours that there are experiments taking place on humans that are leaving them… unrecognisable, but your clientele are also giving you access to their homes, which they’ve seemingly abandoned and left ‘as is’. Very trusting.
But this isn’t an L.A. Noire-type detective experience, nor is it an FPS despite the obvious handgun. Think of it as a survival horror-like P.T. experience with some really classy visuals underneath that bodycam filter, and with a really, really cool mechanic that will have you shitting bricks.
Leaving your ridiculously sized office/spare bedroom, you take a look at one of those maps that investigators use, y’know, with post-it notes and red string, then head straight into the darkness of a Midwestern home. You can tell that Bonefield is ominous from the get-go, as immediately as you enter the home, you’re told to equip your gun. Yes, P.I.s carry guns and are a subsidiary of crimefighters, but surely we’re going to be going to a library and collating evidence and taking photos on a stakeout? No.
No. In this bodycam shitfest, you’ll be tiptoeing through a reasonably-sized abode, switching all the lights on. After an 80s-like public service announcement video of these ambiguous ‘tormentors’ and backlights, those with an imagination will immediately be overthinking, but it’s in the darkness. A drunken sea-like swagger, you slowly walk through the confines of a family hallway expecting a jumpscare, only to have the most ludicrous of systems to progress: get this key that’s hidden in a crate to open another room, which also has a hidden key. Don’t people hang their keys up in one place?!
This is Bonefield’s curveball because now I’ve let my guard down and am frosty towards gameplay and the stupid placement of keys. Walking down a dark basement stairwell isn’t heightening my like it should, and I’m mumbling about gameplay until a carbon monoxide alarm goes off. Wait a second: no. This is a different type of warning, and I’m not informed that pressing the spacebar will instigate a camera-like flash that will light the area, as now there’s no light switch.
It’s dark, and now I’m spamming the key to see what I’m doing, and have to say that this is a terrifying mechanic and incredibly effective. To be honest, there could have been a lot more downtime until encountering the inevitable Tormentor and having me scare that crap out of myself, but instead, this skinless chimera comes at me from around the corner, and I haven’t a hope in hell to let out a round. And that’s when we return to the corridor once more.
Bonefield is excellent. It’s coming to Early Access and will feature self-contained chapters that will confidently help you line your underwear with a defined brown strike. As I’ve written countless times: horror films, yes – horror games, no. This is the epitome of an excellent horror title, as I can’t light the room up enough. And no, I’m talking about my office, not the actual game. Scary, gutsy stuff. Seek it out once you have the courage.
