Bone: The Great Cow Race is a continuation of the episodic adventure series that is a direct translation of Jeff Smith’s popular comic books. I never had the opportunity to play the first episode, Bone: Escape from Boneville, but from what I have read Cow Race is much improved and also costs less.

It’s a lighthearted tale that focuses on three “Bone” characters who are cousins: Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone. Fortunately, for gamers in my situation, Telltale provides a background video on its website so you can get caught up if you decide to begin with The Great Cow Race. It seems that the Bone cousins have been run out of Boneville, which was the result of Phoney Bone’s mischievous behavior, and become separated “in a vast, uncharted desert.” Each of the characters makes their way to a wooded valley where they eventually meet up again in a town called Barrelhaven. The village is currently abuzz because it just so happens that that the annual cow race will be taking place on the day that the Bones arrive. If you are confused on what a cow race could possibly be, it’s just what it sounds like. The carnies have also set up shop in town because the race, and the betting that goes with it, attracts a crowd.

Meanwhile, there are some evil forces at work deep in the forests that are referred to as the rat creatures. These monsters are out to get the Bones, and while they are still the bad guys, there are some funny moments with them.

The real strongpoint of this game is the storyline. You actually get to switch between the three Bone characters so you personally experience what is going on with each of them while making progress with the overall flow of the story. The Bones are very different from each other so you’ll never find yourself getting bored.  In particular:

Fone Bone is very sympathetic and generally quite nice. He has taken a particular interest in a girl named Thorn, who Fone will end up trying to impress in this episode because a young salesman at the honey booth is trying to woo her away, or so it seems.

Smiley Bone is a happy character that probably isn’t the brightest bulb. A perfect comparison of Smiley to someone more familiar would be the legendary TV personality “Gomer Pyle.” Everything about this Bone reminded me of him.

Phoney Bone is a greedy, unmindful guy who always seems to stir up trouble. He stays faithful to his reputation in this episode and comes up with an unscrupulous plan to steal a large amount of money from Barrelhaven’s residents and visitors.

While this episode includes quite a number of other characters I’d have to say that I found Ted, a little green bug, to be the most humorous. I’m not familiar with the comic books so when all of the sudden a little thing hops out of the bushes and starts talking to Fone, I found myself laughing a bit. Other notable characters include Gran’Ma Ben, a tough elderly woman who always competes in the cow race (runs with the cows), and it is obvious that Thorn, a young girl, will have a leading role as the story develops.

The gameplay is just what you’d expect for this type of game and is played in the third-person perspective. You point, click and go. To get new players familiar with the game, Telltale includes tutorial-like bubbles which can be helpful. One minor complaint I have with the gameplay is how long the loading times took to go from one area to another, switching characters, et cetera. The game neither is very graphics intensive, nor is system intensive, so I can’t really see what the hold up is. It was never an overly distracting aspect, but it would be nice if it would load faster. Other than that, everything seemed straightforward and worked well.

An in-game hint system is built in, so if you are ever get stuck or would simply like to cheat a little, the option is there. It’s nice to have this system only a click away and it’s also nice that it doesn’t just flat out tell you what to do--several hints are offered before the exact details are given.

You’ll end up talking with several different characters in-game and the dialog always flows smoothly and makes sense, unlike the previous adventure title I played (Crime Stories). As I stated in the beginning, the storyline is the main focus and because of this, all of the discussions you will have are very important when in comes to progressing through the game.

The graphics in the game are good and have a certain cartoon look to them. I think this is the best way Telltale could have approached the series. All of the characters look just like the ones that appear in the comic books so essentially, you are experiencing the story instead of reading it.

The sound and music in The Great Cow Race are great. The music is very fitting as you travel from one area to the next and the voice acting is well done.

The episode should clock in somewhere around four hours depending on how often you use the hint system. I think people of all ages could really enjoy The Great Cow Race, especially the fans of the comics. The storyline is what really gives it the punch and I could definitely see the entire series being very successful.

Pros:

- Great Story

- Music and Sound

- Gamplay

- Good graphics translation from the comic books

Cons:

- Long load times

- A bit short