While there's an undeniable fetish for the new in the game world, that shouldn't distract us from real quality. Being a few years old now changes nothing about the fact that Gravity Bones remains, among free games, the top of the list of best games for PC. This brief standalone game drops the player suddenly into what seems to be some kind of exotic espionage scenario.
The game has only a couple levels. Experienced gamers will likely be able to play through in about 20 minutes. Personally, after the third bird, I was stuck for a while myself, but that's just me. The whole thing has a mission orientation and the first level is almost a tutorial for the second more elaborate level. The learning process is nicely integrated into the first level. It comes in a zip file and needs no installation. It requires about 20MB of disk space.
Fine and good, but why do I rave about it so, you might ask. The great fun in this game comes from both its experience-based playing method as well as its strikingly realized aesthetic world. Calling this a first-person game, while accurate, doesn't do justice to its originality. This one is kind of a new genre all of it own: bossa nova noir!
It wouldn't be accurate to deny it having a story, but the sense of story is much more sophisticated than the paint-by-numbers storytelling of so many popular games. As the various tasks are fulfilled a story does take shape, but what is exactly happening is always a bit up in the air. Indeed, in keeping with the distinctive visual style, it wouldn't be unfair to compare this game to a avant garde film: which is to say that the story is subject to considerable interpretation.
Just a few brief moments after starting, the player is injected right into the action. You discover yourself stepping off an elevator amid some sort of Euro-spy scene. Even as the elevator descends (which is kind of funny, down from where exactly are you coming?), you're aware of coming into dressed guests of some black tie cocktail party. The fete is spread out over a series of terraces overlooking breathtaking vistas of a mountain enveloped lake. A cool bossa nova sound track accompanies your meandering through the crowd of squares (inside joke). You're initial mission has already begun.
This first level, really more a test run, is rapidly completed. Then you're coming off a second elevator and things are a little more elaborate and complicated this time, as you have to find your way through back corridors and across catwalks on an ominous and stormy night.
I have almost no criticisms of this elegant and compact great little game. The one thing I didn't like though was the clue cards, invariably telling you to head to a furnace room. I could have totally done without those. And, in fact, I did do without them. I simply ignored them and had a lot more fun finding my way about through exploratory trial and error. At most the cards should be optional, I think. My method was loads more fun.
A special word has to be said about the aesthetics of the game. They're almost worth the price of admission alone (even if the admission wasn't free!) I love that the creator passed over the standard polygon "realism" so run of the mill in today's games and chose instead a bold creative vision. It's both beautiful and fun. There's an element of self-mockery in the whole spy thing, but it never falls into cloying irony, which would have ruined the fun of it for me.
This game is delightful in both it brevity and creativity. It's a real treat that is still our number one choice among free games for the list of best games for PC .
The game has only a couple levels. Experienced gamers will likely be able to play through in about 20 minutes. Personally, after the third bird, I was stuck for a while myself, but that's just me. The whole thing has a mission orientation and the first level is almost a tutorial for the second more elaborate level. The learning process is nicely integrated into the first level. It comes in a zip file and needs no installation. It requires about 20MB of disk space.
Fine and good, but why do I rave about it so, you might ask. The great fun in this game comes from both its experience-based playing method as well as its strikingly realized aesthetic world. Calling this a first-person game, while accurate, doesn't do justice to its originality. This one is kind of a new genre all of it own: bossa nova noir!
It wouldn't be accurate to deny it having a story, but the sense of story is much more sophisticated than the paint-by-numbers storytelling of so many popular games. As the various tasks are fulfilled a story does take shape, but what is exactly happening is always a bit up in the air. Indeed, in keeping with the distinctive visual style, it wouldn't be unfair to compare this game to a avant garde film: which is to say that the story is subject to considerable interpretation.
Just a few brief moments after starting, the player is injected right into the action. You discover yourself stepping off an elevator amid some sort of Euro-spy scene. Even as the elevator descends (which is kind of funny, down from where exactly are you coming?), you're aware of coming into dressed guests of some black tie cocktail party. The fete is spread out over a series of terraces overlooking breathtaking vistas of a mountain enveloped lake. A cool bossa nova sound track accompanies your meandering through the crowd of squares (inside joke). You're initial mission has already begun.
This first level, really more a test run, is rapidly completed. Then you're coming off a second elevator and things are a little more elaborate and complicated this time, as you have to find your way through back corridors and across catwalks on an ominous and stormy night.
I have almost no criticisms of this elegant and compact great little game. The one thing I didn't like though was the clue cards, invariably telling you to head to a furnace room. I could have totally done without those. And, in fact, I did do without them. I simply ignored them and had a lot more fun finding my way about through exploratory trial and error. At most the cards should be optional, I think. My method was loads more fun.
A special word has to be said about the aesthetics of the game. They're almost worth the price of admission alone (even if the admission wasn't free!) I love that the creator passed over the standard polygon "realism" so run of the mill in today's games and chose instead a bold creative vision. It's both beautiful and fun. There's an element of self-mockery in the whole spy thing, but it never falls into cloying irony, which would have ruined the fun of it for me.
This game is delightful in both it brevity and creativity. It's a real treat that is still our number one choice among free games for the list of best games for PC .
About the Author:
If you have the news on the top pay games for PC, you have to check out Mickey Jhonny's picks of the best games for PC. Those interested in the joys of emersive, parallel worlds will love his piece over at Pretty Much Dead Already on the phenomenon of the Walking Dead Fanfiction .
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