Werewolf: The Apocalypse -- Heart of the Forest Review: Choose Your Own Rageventure
A well-done and intelligent choose your own text adventure set in the venerable World of Darkness Werewolf RPG universe makes for a satisfying bit of interactive fiction.
Werewolves, as it turns out, are an angry lot. You might have noticed as much from their many appearances in film, television, and other pieces of pop culture. Such an indignant demeanor might be because of how much decent hair products cost for lupine fur or the fact that flighty teenagers keep choosing annoying emo vampires over them. Hard to say, really.
Pros
- Beautiful presentation is nostalgic for fans of the source material
- Well written, with an eye on history, diversity, and real-world issues
- More advanced than standard choose your own adventures thanks to the inclusion of meaningful stats
Cons
- Feels way too pricey for a short text adventure
- Little action or in-depth roleplaying
Heart of the Forest is an intriguing diversion. It's an interesting story with fleshed-out characters, and it makes fascinating use of actual history and modern issues. More importantly, the game uses the source material to excellent effect.
The story is only a few hours long per playthrough, though there are multiple paths to explore. That said, the $15 list price seems a bit steep for a game that would go for a fraction of that upon its inevitable mobile release. Still, for gamers who love text adventures, this is certainly recommendable.
Score: 8/10
