Bonelab is the new game from Boneworks developer, Stress Level Zero.
The game was revealed today at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase and looks to be a direct follow-up to 2019’s Boneworks. It will release for Quest 2 and PC VR headsets later this year.
Bonelab is an action-adventure physics game with a brand new story and “two years of innovation and interaction engine progress”, building on the foundation that started with Boneworks.
As confirmed by Stress Level Zero earlier this week, the game won’t have any downgraded physics on Quest 2 — while the GPU of Quest 2 isn’t on par with PC, the CPU is, in the developer’s words, actually “pretty strong”.
The trailer embedded above does feature PC VR footage however, so we’ll have to wait to see what the visuals look like on Quest 2. That being said, the game seems like a logical evolution of the world and mechanics from 2019’s Boneworks. There’s also a tease of a locked box labeled ‘Boneworks’ at the end of the trailer. Could this be a hint that the original game might be playable in Bonelab in some form?
Here’s a summary of what else to expect, taken from the Oculus Blog:
Escaping execution, you’ll find yourself in a mysterious underground lab. Uncover the truth about your reality. Fight, run, and climb as you explore an exquisitely detailed combat simulation where every object reacts exactly the way you’d expect—and as a result, where creativity is just as important as skill. There will also be mod support, so you’ll be able to enhance your experience with new maps, new weapons, and new avatars.
While mods traditionally are only supported on PC VR headsets for cross-platform titles, there’s no indication of that here. Based off the description, it seems likely that Quest 2 users will also be able to install game mods for Bonelabs when it releases later this year. While not the first Quest 2 title to support mods — Blade And Sorcery: Nomad integrated them last year — it would be one of the biggest releases to do so.
Stress Level Zero also recently said there was a “high possibility” that the studio’s future titles would release on PSVR 2. While there was no Bonelab PSVR 2 confirmation today, let’s hope for more news in that regard soon.
