Stone

Stone is a weird game by every stretch of the imagination. What’s present isn’t bad — it just could have been a lot better.

I really scanned to find some redeeming qualities in Stone. But every time I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt the game pushed back. No challenge, bland graphics, audio issues, and incredibly short on content. While I admire the developer for chasing their passion project, I feel Stone needs a lot more polish in just about everything to make it a worthwhile purchase. It did remind me how awesome Night of the Living Dead is though, and that’s good.

When I run into games like Stone I'm never quite sure what to think...

Stone is an interesting story of koala PI named Stone. You mush help him to find love of his life - Alex - who went recently missing. The game is short (about 1,5 hrs) and simplistic, dialog is automatic and once in a while we need to choose whether to choose soft or though approach.

STONE arrives at an uncomfortable middle more akin to a pile-up than a tightrope balancing act. The anthropomorphized backdrop feigns a more peculiar and memorable adventure, but the story is mostly lifeless and forgetful. It’s another third-person walking sim that’s not bothered to utilize our protagonist’s skills in any interesting or tangible way. Add on a fifteen-dollar retail price and you’re left considering a few rounds at the pub has more value, and I doubt our marsupial lead would protest to that.

Stone is a game that looks interesting on the surface. Sadly it falls short on delivering just about every step of the way.

STONE is an amorphous title, an elliptical point-to-point simulator, the level zero of interactivity.

STONE isn’t a BAD game, in some ways, it showcases a game unlike many on the market and the fact that it features an LGBT relationship and has some adult themes is interesting. It’s unlike anything I’ve played for a while and its story and characters did intrigue me. But I was left a little disappointed. For two hours of gameplay, it just comes off feeling a little unpolished and lack-luster. It has some cool aspects and is probably a game you could really unpack if you had to write a 1000 word essay on it. But unless you’re the audience these guys intended it for, I might suggest you give this one a miss.

Stone is fun, but flawed. The story is well crafted and reveals itself through a series of twists that keep you engaged throughout. There is no action aside from walking up to different people or items, but the game never drags. As much as I love the story here, the dialogue is strained at times and has glitches that affect the timing. Overall a worthy experience and story to enjoy.

STONE is a quick two-hour dip into the fair dinkum world of Stone, a bloke with a good heart, but needing a right knock on the noggin as he can be a bit of a drongo. A bit more hard yakka could have pushed STONE into something bigger, but it's still a bit of a larrikin and possibly best enjoyed with a cold one or two.