Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest isn’t an easy sell. A horror tinged visual novel set in the World of Darkness tabletop RPG universe, it won’t appeal to everyone – but it’s certainly captivating if you allow it …
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest isn’t an easy sell. A horror tinged visual novel set in the World of Darkness tabletop RPG universe, it won’t appeal to everyone – but it’s certainly captivating if you allow it to sink its claws in.
The story is told from the perspective of Maia Boroditch, a Polish-American woman who’s haunted by visions – so to understand these she travels to her strange ancestral homeland Bialowieza.
Here – accompanied by Anya, Bartek and Daniel – she meets the locals as well as finds out all about a battle between humans and mystical sects who are attempting to protect the local forests.
The writing is of a high standard throughout, and there’s never a moment when a character does or says something to take you out of the story.
There’s a good range of choices you can make too, being asked to choose from up to three options every few paragraphs. You never feel too uninvolved and overwhelmed with realms of text being flung your way.
What helps is the inclusion of some minor RPG mechanics, with the ability to make extra decisions depending on three meters – based around rage, willpower, and health.
These gauges can be depleted depending on the decisions you make, and then refilled if you manage to progress the story along.
Werewolf is not a long game – it’ll only take you two or three hours to complete – but there are five different endings to find depending on the decisions you’ve made.
Sadly this length is an issue, and purely down to how the plot is wrapped up. In a visual novel the writing is all important, so although the build up is slow and suspenseful the final act feels rushed in comparison.
We don’t wish to spoil the plot too much, but suffice to say Werewolf feels like it could have done with a little more time polishing how it wraps things up.
Despite this Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest does far more right than wrong, and a disappointing ending doesn’t ruin the good work of the rest of the game. Those looking for a new visual novel should definitely give this pleasantly dark entry in the genre a try.
