Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest

I've always struggled to get into Werewolf: the Apocalypse, but I love this game. I think it's pretty difficult to capture the right vibe for W:tA, to give it the right feel and focus without falling into lore dumps or B-movie kitsch - but Heart of the Forest manages just that. It's a personal horror story steeped in animism, grounded in history, and reflecting on current events. It can get pretty bloody and visceral, too, when it needs to be. And the art direction is amazing: just enough to communicate the mood of a scene and really get your imagination going.

Writing is sloppy and rushed with ill-defined characters. Political bias is present in the writing also which allows the astute reader to predict who the good and bad characters will be based on this bias. Werewolf is a game for humans who are trapped on a planet with soulless corporations and powerless to stop them. It gives us catharsis by proposing the fantasy, 'what if you were powerful enough to do something'. It is a game about action and tearing corrupt CEOs in half with your bare claws. Or at least that is the werewolf I love. What we get here is a narcissistic journey of self discovery which is primarily about the main character herself rather than the earth or protecting it. If you hate action and horror but love listening to a spoiled westerner talk and think about their own feelings for hours on end then you will love this game. If you enjoyed Werewolf the Apocalypse you will most likely hate it.

A very forgettable story filled with leftist politics. Everyone who disagree is viewed as a fascist

An underrated jewel of narrative-focused games. If you like World of Darkness, Adventure Games or CRPG's then don't miss this one.

While this may by first time many of gamers will came into contact with world of darkness games it certainly is an interesting one. While definitely far from the freedom of the table top original it gives you ad least a glimpse (a really small one unfortunately) of what it should look like. But at the same time this is its biggest flaw. It is simple text based game. With linear story and basically one ending (but with many small details that might change depending on your choices). While the mechanics of your statistics are really interesting it ends before they have any real impact on the game. While reaching the end you can almost feel that developers had planned for something longer but the budget did not allowed for more. One of the things that certainly can sway many to play it is the original and slightly disturbing visual side of the game. What we see are not the clear view of the world that our protagonist is visiting (since it is text based game I will refuse to use phrases like “is surrounded”) but rather what she perceives it to be. The more wolf she becomes the more surrealistic the world for “normal” viewers becomes. It definitely is the strongest aspects of the game. One of the scares few unfortunately It’s a nice small game, ideal for one evening, especially if you can buy it on some sale. But do not expect to have a full “world of darkness” experience.