Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest Reviews
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest is a great visual novel with tons of impactful choices, great visuals, and excellent sound design. While it slowly loses steam after the introductory chapters, it's still well worth multiple playthroughs.
There are plenty of solutions, some peaceful, some not…but the ways we choose to grapple with our past and our own potential guide the paths we walk. Horror is often used to strike at the heart of human experiences, and Heart of the Forest does that. The question becomes: what do you do with the power you learned you had all along?
The legendary tabletop RPG returns in the form of a beautiful visual novel designed to emulate the tabletop experience. Based on real-world environments and activism, players are also offered thousands of story branches resulting in five different endings. Heart of the Forest shows what visual novels should aspire to be.
While it isn’t a perfect game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest is a rather unique and clever take on the visual novel genre that combines it with some truly engaging RPG elements. I found myself feeling immensely satisfied with my first playthrough, even if not every path I took ended up being ideal in the end. I found myself already pondering just what decisions I might make differently on a second (or even third one) given how much evolution the title does. That in and of itself is a sign of an enjoyable game to me!
Snappily paced, beautifully written and a visual treat, Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest does apt justice to its sprawling source material and represents a great place for newcomers to the mythos to get started. Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest is the best visual novel to come along in a long time.
This is by far one of the best, if not the best visual novel I have played in my gaming career. Meaningful choices, engaging story, beautiful artwork supported by atmospheric music – it all makes Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest a fantastic game. It is such a shame it is such a short experience, but thanks to its impressive replayability, its shortness does not hurt as much.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Going in with very little knowledge, Werewolf: the Apocalypse unfolded in a way that, while expected in retrospect, took me by surprise and kept me on the edge of my seat.