Game Review: Fingerbones (PC)

Fingerbones is a very simple game that tells a very disturbing tale.  

I say "simple" because although the lighting effects in the game are very nice, the game looks like it was made in some type of a Minecraft engine.

Seriously though, look at that scene.  That's gorgeous.  But if you look closer at the ceiling and the table, you can see that the table looks like it's only three exaggerated pixels thick.

As for the game, like the static speaks my name, it is a very short game (this one took me 30 minutes) and told in a POV (point of view) mode.  There is no spoken dialogue and all of the story is told through notes from a diary/journal that are scattered around the handful of rooms that exist.  Fingerbones is basically a point-and-click game told in a 3D space which I can understand would be a turn off to some players, which is fine; no judgements here.  The information needed to solve all of the puzzles is located in the various journal pages (although I wasn't able to find the answer to one of the riddles so I cheated. . .and used GameFAQS. . .I apologize).

The story is what will stick with you after finishing the game.  

There were some story elements that are revealed in the pages that I wasn't sure if I was reading them correctly as I had never experienced anything like this in a video game.  While there might be room for interpretation as to the events surrounding the character that the player controls, I feel that the events are pretty hard to misinterpret.  It made me angry and I appreciated the fact that the game had that kind of an effect on me.  I like when games are able to elicit an emotional response from me that isn't frustration or annoyance directed at the game.

Fingerbones was a fairly powerful and effective story in the form of a video game.  So kudos to Mr. Szymanski for writing this disturbing tale of a life in a post apocalyptic setting, that doesn't make a big deal about it being the apocalypse, which is why I just brought it up now.  And it looks like he's working on another game and has a catalogue of a few games that look to be similar in style that might have to be picked up in the future.

So if you have 74 MB on your hard drive and about 30 minutes to spend (maybe a little less if you're smarter than I), I would recommend Fingerbones.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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