QCF: Full Bore

t’s refreshing to play a game that quite literally drops you into the wild and leaves you to your own devices after a relatively quick intro. The world exists on a 2D plane and you play as this little bore. You can move left, right, fall down, and climb adjacent blocks at 45-degree angles. The little bore can also tunnel through dirt and shove blocks around. As you explore you’ll meet the denizens of this underground world whom offer up subtle clues about the game play and the world they inhabit. To boil it all down you’re going to be collecting diamonds buried in the mine.

Collecting the first few diamonds is pretty straightforward. You might even see a few diamonds that you can’t get just yet invoking this feeling that maybe there are power ups you obtain later on. Soon enough you’re finding yourself working these miniature puzzles in order to collect the diamonds. For instance one room has columns of blocks and dirt. When you demolish a block the dirt above it collapses through. You might not realize it immediately but to get the diamond you have to make the dirt collapse in a way so that you can scale it like stairs. Dig too much or in the wrong spot and you foil your own plans. It’s also the first time you realize that you can screw up. Thankfully, you can step back through your actions to a point where you can progress again or you can simply leave the area and return to reset the puzzle.

Despite the initial impressions, it’s nothing like Metroid or Castlevania in the sense that you’ll be obtaining power-ups to help you advance. You are only ever going to have the bore you start with and your skills with him are limited only by your experience. That diamond you didn’t think you could get at the start of the game, you totally can. You just need to figure how to navigate the environment to get your bore up there and how to work the puzzle of blocks shielding that diamond. While the premise sounds simple the puzzles are definitely not. There’s a variety of blocks that you’ll need to tinker with to understand how they operate. You’ll also need to invest some forethought before you start digging around the cavern. Bad assumptions and lack of foresight will quickly end any hopes you had of collecting the more difficult diamonds.

The entire world map is accessible from the start. You just need to dig around and uncover the hidden doorways. The handy map system will keep track of the interconnecting pathways in case you ever need a reference. Since everything is open, you can easily skip the more difficult puzzles and return to them later once you have a better understanding of the blocks involved. This aspect also helps to fuel the explorative nature of the game.

Visually the developers opted for retro style graphics and quite frankly, it works with the 2D nature of the game play. There’s enough detail to give a clear sense of what you’re looking at and the levels have this decidedly tiled look to them. It’s simple, but also charming in its own way. The little bore also has a few funny animations, which help bring him to life; nothing groundbreaking here, just a well-executed presentation all around.

The one thing that does stick out as a problem is the drill section of the game. It forces the player into a timed exercise where you have to think and act quickly. While I understand that this was most likely done for the sake of variety, it’s a jarring experience compared to the rest of the game, which is pretty laid back. It’s not exactly Battletoads biker level bad, but it is a poignant moment nonetheless.

Overall I really enjoyed my time with Full Bore. It fully embraces the retro graphics trend while it simultaneously bucking traditional game play trends (heavily structured levels, continuous guidance, power ups, etc.); for that it comes out feeling wholly original and well executed. If you’re looking for something that offers up plenty of exploration and block driven puzzles, you can’t go wrong here.