The game get you into the action pretty quickly. One moment you’ll be jumping around in a field just being a boar, the next moment you’ll be plummeting deep underground. You’re given a very limited amount of back story about the character before you bore into the gameplay. You’re a boar that can bore into the earth, that’s about all you need you know toget started. If you’ve played Escape Goat and thought that Full Bore might be similar but with boars instead of goats, you’d be dead wrong. Aside from the fact that you play as an animal and solve puzzles, the comparison pretty much stops there.

Once you start digging around in the world you’ll make your way to a large pig, who turns out to be the foreman of the Full Bore Mining Company. After being accused of stealing gems from them, the foreman puts you to work to pay them restitution for stealing gems. Your task is to bore into the ground  looking for gems. What a bore, or is it?!?!

Full Bore is a big game. There’s a map that you can pull up at any time, which is a godsend because it’s easy to get lost. I’m actually not sure most people would ever be able to finish the game without a map. Apart from the initial button tutorials that display in the beginning of the game, Full Bore is a game that encourages the player to learn and explore at their own pace. During the opening scene of the game you get a glimpse of how deep and expansive the world is, as you put more and more hours into the game you’ll be amazed at the size of the world. Oftentimes you’ll be exploring and find that not only are you lost, but also that you’ve dug your way into a spot that’s impossible to get out of.

The main mechanic in the game is figuring out puzzles by digging, pushing blocks, and triggering sections of the map; when you make a mistake you’ll need to rewind time to try the puzzle again (and again, and again). Figuring out the different puzzles opens up new areas, allows you to get buried gems, and opens up lore and npc dialogue opportunities. It took me a while to really understand that getting to every gem isn’t really required, which is nice because I missed a lot of them.

At it’s core, Full Bore is a game that’s very different compared to traditional puzzle platformers. Instead of needing to reach some arbitrary goal before you can advance or skill-up, Full Bore allows you to just explore anywhere you want. As you make your way deeper into the world you’ll encounter new things and learn how to interact with them. As you master interacting with the world you’ll open new paths that allow you to solve different puzzles, and maybe help you solve some puzzles you skipped over previously. It’s this mechanic that I found to be most unique. You’re never waiting to pick up a new item or level up an ability, you’re only limited in Full Bore by your own understanding of the world around you.

As a gamer that doesn’t play platformers or puzzle games that often, what really appealed to me about Full Bore was the fact that you can skip right over a puzzle if it proves to be too difficult. For players that want to absorb as much lore as possible though, completing the puzzles is the best way to do that. Because of the openness of the world it’s easy to pass by many aspects of the story, but players that do manage to get all of the lore will find it to be a highly intriguing tale that touches on some interesting issues such as animal testing and the dangers of technology.

The thing that stuck out in my mind the most was actually the graphics. Specifically, the amount of life that the artists were able to put into the main characters was pretty incredible. There’s just so much emotion behind the eyes of these boars. Despite the fact that we’re dealing with a game that’s mostly underground, the world is vibrant and colorful, if somewhat on the dark side of the color wheel.

There’s a lot to love about Full Bore. Unique characters, a thought provoking story, and innovative exploration makes the game an addicting experience that was surprisingly different than what I had initially imagined it to be. Solving puzzles and learning how to make your way through the world creates such a rewarding experience for the player. At times some of the puzzles can be insanely hard, but that just makes the rewarding feeling when you figure it out even better.

Dig into the story of Full Bore and pig out on the beautiful art and snappy tunes. Out now on Steam for just $13.49 until May 13! http://store.steampowered.com/app/264060/. If you haven’t done so yet you should also check out Nicole Oquendo’s preview of the game entitled Full Bore: A Preview of a Boaring Game About Boring Boars

Deep underground lies a reminder of Boarkind’s darkest hours. All it takes is one little boar to dig it back up. A block puzzler with an exploratory twist, Full Bore throws the player into an open world of crumbling mines, arcane ruins, and technological wonders with only curiosity to lead the way. Full Bore is packed to the brim with secrets and hidden rooms, because in a world of blocks, puzzles could be anywhere.

Full Bore is the journey of a young boar through the long-buried past. As you figure out how the blocks around you behave, you’ll be able to reach new areas of the world and uncover their mysteries- and their riches. Use your ever-growing knowledge to dig your way though mines, temples, scrapyards, lava tubes, inexplicable lakes and mysterious laboratories, as you piece together the story of a world transfigured.

With over a hundred areas – a third of them hidden – no set path, and secrets everywhere, Full Bore is not just a world to get lost in, but one you can keep coming back to find something new.

Click the headline to check out the launch trailer for Full Bore!

You may remember Nicole Oquendo’s preview of Full Bore entitled Full Bore: A Preview of a Boaring Game About Boring Boars. You should read her article to get the full scoop on what she thought about her early playthrough of the game. If you can’t read (how are you reading this?) you can get your hands on Full Bore next week, May 6th on Steam.

Read on after the break to check out the release trailer for Full Bore.

The game begins by allowing you to choose between two boar adventurers. I settled on Frederick; the deciding factor was his awesome tusks and clueless face, no lie. I started out the game by doing what any sensible boar would do—dig for a minute before I slapping my face repeatedly on rocks and grass. This went on until the grass exploded beneath me, causing a long fall that gave the first clue to the actual game’s size.

Once I regained control of Frederick, the game led me through a simple and painless tutorial to maximize the effectiveness of my boar-ing skills. I ended up in a rocket back to the surface (don’t ask) that led straight into the vault of another large boar, Gullinbursti, which introduced an unexpected story element to the game. I was caught red-hooved, having unknowingly stolen a gem.

This leads to an early twist—you are now a miner for Full Bore Mining Co. This inevitably leads to more boring around the mines full of digging, smashing, and other boar stuff. If you dig too much and find yourself stuck in a location, the game has a fantastic do-over mechanic—you  can either rewind action by action to return to a precise moment in time, or flash back completely to the beginning of an event. This is especially useful in areas where going “full bore” is actually detrimental. In fact, much of my early gameplay was spent rewinding and carefully leaving areas undamaged so that I could use them to get to extra treasure.

Early on you receive a map from another helpful boar, and you’ll definitely need it. I found myself immediately lost due to very progressing too quickly from section to section in the mines without fully exploring. The map, however, provides clear direction as to what exits to take to get back to your destination.  It wasn’t until after I had explored a number of different sections of the mine that the actual scope of the game hit me, even more so than the initial fall. The world of Fill Bore is significantly larger than the game let on at the outset, and worth the time to explore it.

This game isn’t complete just yet, but I had fun playing through what I had and exploring at my own pace. The catchy soundtrack and pixel art style made manipulating blocks and digging around more interesting. I’m excited to play more when we have full access later on.