Developed by Different Tales and published by Walkabout, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest is the first-ever title from the tabletop franchise Werewolf: The Apocalypse. In the game, you will find combined mechanics of storytelling and RPG mechanics from both the World of Darkness and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. This delivers a truly unique experience that is not only based on real-world events but is delivered in an extremely good fashion. This is our review of Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest on PC in which we defend the forest of Białowieża as a werewolf.
The story of Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest revolves around a young woman Maia who is having dreams about a strange forest and to uncover the secrets behind it, travels to the Białowieża Forest. This forest has a long-term hidden secret shared between the forest and Maia’s family however some recent logging operations in the forest is now threatening its very existence. Maia arrives just in time when very strong protests are ongoing against the logging operations and try to find her place in the middle of all this while uncovering the secret relationship between the family and the forest itself. The game’s events are actually inspired by real-world events.
These events took place back in 2016-2017 when massive protests broke out in Białowieża Forest a.k.a. the Puszcza in Poland against commercial logging which severely damaged one of the last remaining primal wildernesses in Europe. The protests were so effective that they resulted in a judicial ban against deforestation. This makes the game’s setting even more authentic because deforestation is a major problem in the world these days. The connection of the franchise with a real-world problem is evident as to how you can make the forest react to your own thoughts in the game. If you worry about the forest in the game and choose dialogue options in its favor, the forest will make many tasks much easier for you as well.
The powerful narrative is made even better by the beautiful visual novel art style of the game. Normally, we see the pictures of characters with blurred backgrounds in visual novels however here we see some great art from the game depicting the haunting forest or city life depending on our location in the game. Since the game revolves around werewolves as well, it is normal for some pictures to be gory and scary. The dialogue runs on the left side of the screen and the choices appear within this area as well which leaves the art clearly visible on the right side of the screen. Visual art design is one of my favorite aspects of the game and it really pulls you into the game.
Apart from the beautiful art style of the game, the developers have also paid special attention to the soundtrack of the game as well. The soundtrack plays a major role in putting you in the right mood in the game. If the narrative changes to an intense sequence, the music quickly picks up the pace as well to match the tone of the story and then later dies down into the background if you are simply exploring some areas or chatting around with people. As the backgrounds change the intensity of the game, the same goes for the soundtrack of the game as well. Both of them combine together to deliver a truly immersive experience into the world of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest takes a very unique approach towards character development. While in most RPGs, you increase your stats by leveling up and investing points in your different stats but that it not the case here. Here, instead, you develop Maia’s character by choosing different dialogue choices. Right from the very start of the game, every little dialogue choice will help you develop Maia in different aspects which will shape her personality and allow you to perform different acts in the game. Picking more confronting dialogues will allow you to make here braver while being more observant will allow you to increase your thus giving you access to special lore information between dialogue.
Apart from the character development, you also have to manage three essential resources in the game which heavily influence the story of the game, your dialogue choices, and how your personality develops in the game. These three stats include Rage, Willpower, and Health. All three have their own significance in the game and major decisions in the game will either increase or decrease these three resources which will shape up Maia and her story. Certain actions and dialogue options are only available to you if you have a certain amount of these resources and thus you are required to try and make as many consistent choices you can in the game to attain a particular werewolf status in the game.
As you progress in the main story of the game, you will meet a lot of new people and develop new relationships with them. As you pick your dialogue options with them, your relationships will either be friendly or hostile with them and these choices will further shape how these NPCs react to your presence. Sometimes having some friendlies around you tend to be useful while sometimes you just have to push away some people for your own good. Most of the dialogues in the game have big effects on your story and your relationships so both of these elements are dependent on each other and you have to be very careful with your choices.
While the game may be about werewolves, the narrative is told from the perspective of the monsters which is you in this case. However, you are not a traditional monster and this time around, you are serving the mother earth and trying to protect it from the humans who are trying to destroy its beauty with commercial logging. This puts you in a position where you can be the killer you are destined to be or you can be a pacifist and try to resolve the issue with a more strategic approach. Overall, the narrative of the game is its strongest suit and keeps you glued to the screen to the point that you can even end the game in a single sitting.
The game is pretty sound when it comes to its technical aspect as well. While the game may not be too demanding on the system specs, it still works like a charm. I don’t recall any sort of performance bugs or glitches that could hinder the gameplay in any sort of way. I reviewed this game on an HP Gaming Laptop 15 with a 9th Gen Core i5, 8GB Ram, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 and the game ran flawlessly on my system. It is an extremely stable release and will not bother you with any sort of bugs or glitches in any department. I still have a lot to experiment with within the game and I would love to revisit it again sometime down the road.
Final Verdict:
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest might be a short game but it is an amazing experience and the multitude of endings and approaches to the ending means that it calls for various playthroughs thus making up for the short length of the game. The game has a lot to offer while you are playing it including its beautiful art design, great dialogue, and an amazing delivery of the narrative through its visual novel design. Developing a video game based on a tabletop game is never an easy job but Different Tales has done a splendid job on this title and has tried its best to keep the spirit of the tabletop game alive in its virtual adaptation. If you are a fan of visual novels, Werewolf: The Apocalypse franchise, or simply werewolves, I will highly recommend that you try out this game.
Final Score: 9.0/10
