Białowieża Forest full of bison and… werewolves? – Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest review

krzysztof dzieniszewskiThe initial outline of the plot and the basics of the mechanics used in the game have already been discussed in the older text on the early access version, so here I will summarize them only briefly, as the foundations of the whole have not changed much. We play the role of a predetermined character, Maia Boroditch, an American student with Polish roots, who goes on a trip to Białowieża both because of the desire to get to know her grandfather’s hometown, as well as the feeling of increasingly inexplicable attraction to the ancient forest, manifested, among others, by disturbing dreams.

In a gameplay typical of the visual novel subgenrewe read a lot, watch suggestive images illustrating the story we are learning and make various decisions using the available dialogue options and maps of the area visited. Meanwhile, the system tracks these readings and, based on them, fills our character sheet with such details as the leading character trait, relationships with encountered NPCs or their entire groups, as well as monitors our health, willpower, and anger levels. These factors are reflected both in the descriptions presented to us and in the activities available to us at a given moment. The whole thing is rather simple and intuitive – a brave protagonist with a high level of anger is good at dealing with physical challenges and intimidation, but rather a poor diplomat.

The convergence of places and events is… not accidental

Unlike previous vampire titles, Heart of the Forest is much more firmly anchored to reality. The Białowieża forest is not only a place of action; our heroine appears there at a special moment that each of us should associate at least a little. We are talking about battles fought between the State Forests, local residents, eco-activists and many other parties, the heart of which was the attack of the spruce bark beetle on large stretches of the Białowieża Forest and controversial attempts to combat the pest by cutting it down. Maia is visiting the Polish primate during the next escalation of tensions on this background, and nolens volens will have to choose a side and play a significant role in the events that follow.

The only question is whether this is an advantage of this production? Of course, the game does not try to imitate real events faithfully, so we don’t have to wonder if what we want to do actually happened. Nevertheless, our roleplay is limited for one simple reason – since the protagonist feels an extraordinary, spiritual connection with the forest, she simply will not make certain decisions, even if we would like to push her in this direction. This can be disappointing because many choices only offer apparent non-linearity, asking us not what we are going to do now, but rather how. At the beginning, it can even be confusing, because we can try to focus on building positive relationships with characters or groups with whom the main thread of the plot will not want to bind us and thus waste time.

The same ambitions, the same pitfalls …

By closing my text on the demo version of Heart of the Forest , I expressed the hope that the text Werewolf will try to be something more than previous productions and will be able to avoid at least some of the problems that plagued the Coteries of New York and the complementing Shadows of New York. Unfortunately this did not happen. The creators apparently deliberately repeat the scheme taken from their colleagues from the Draw Distance studio responsible for those titles, offering us almost the same style of play, only with a new plot. If I ignored the nuances of the story entirely and skimmed quickly through the minor discrepancies in mechanics, my gaming experience would be exactly the same as for the Vampires mentioned above.

The story is interesting and addictive, the visuals are at a high level, the sound effects add atmosphere, the game is very enjoyable. At the same time, however, we have here the artificial marking of non-linearities, minor blown mechanics (they sound interesting, but they hardly affect anything) and a game that breaks off when it should begin for good. These two sentences can summarize the essence of Heart of the Forest , Coteries and Shadows, and will still fit perfectly.

Does that make Werewolf a bad game? Oh no! It’s still a great way to spend a few hours in the World of Darkness , which should equally please fans of the table Werewolf: Apocalypse , enthusiasts of visual novels, and fans of the two already mentioned text Vampires . Despite everything, I think that this formula is aging very quickly and for more novelties of this kind signed by the World of Darkness brandI will reach less and less willingly if there are no changes in it. Personally, I keep my fingers crossed for the production kept in this convention, but simply larger. A larger budget and longer production time in the studio, which translates into more variables and more hours of gameplay necessary to complete the title. I would pay for such a treat without whining as for a full-fledged AAA game. And if not, maybe it would work to release the series in episodes, as Telltale or Square Enix have done repeatedly with their Life is Strange ?

Will my wishes come true, we will see over time. As of today, we have a solid, though not revolutionary, Heart of the Forest within our reach , which many should like.