Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest Critic Reviews

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!

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.

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.

All in all, I loved Heart of the Forest. I was frustrated by some of the choice mechanics, but it was never enough to make me stop playing. I wanted to push through to the end every time to see whether or not their stories could be saved. A game that keeps you coming back well after the first playthrough is a precious treat in my eyes, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest had me eating right out of its paws.

Heart of the Forest is the perfect novel with which to settle down with your Nintendo Switch and cosy up on a folklore adventure. It may be steeply set in its tabletop origins, but all these elements work brilliantly in the experimental format.

A good visual novel and introduction to the Werewolf: The Apocalypse universe. It may be far too brief, but its replay value goes a long way towards making up for that shortcoming.

Some pacing issues aside, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest is gripping adventure. It uses the setting of the Werewolf: The Apocalypse tabletop RPG and relatively recent real-world events for a fascinating exploration of environmentalism, activism, and Polish culture, backed by a clever mix of visual novel storytelling, RPG systems, and comic book influence.

The most important aspect of a visual novel is that it has a compelling story, and in that aspect, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest delivers in spades. I just don’t feel like the mechanics in Heart of the Forest justify it being a videogame over a straight up novel. If you’re a fan of the Werewolf: The Apocalypse franchise, then Heart of the Forest should serve as an excellent love letter. Newcomers to the franchise who are visual novel fans will find a driving narrative, but those who like a lot of play in their game best stay away.

Interesting visuals are perfectly complemented by sound design. Too bad that it’s only 4 hours long, with maybe an extra hour or two if you want to try all the alternate paths.

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.

Heart of the Forest is a decent visual novel but not long enough to make much of an impact for the series.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of The Forest offers adventure and visual novels fans a slow buildup of character development, interpersonal relations, and plot, then a really quick finish with an anticlimactic ending that left me wondering, “Was that it?” Its saving grace is that you play through more than once to see where you can take the decisions and how your character will end up.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest is a decent visual novel that starts out strong but loses some of its appeal due to how rushed it all ends up feeling. There's a fantastic premise here with an atmospheric setting, some strong characters and plenty of decisions to be made that feel genuinely important to how your character develops. However, the speed at which it begins to introduce new situations, characters and mechanics in its final chapters before coming to a surprisingly premature end takes some of the shine off what otherwise could have been a properly top-notch effort.

Ultimately, I’m probably expecting a bit much for a three-hour visual novel, based on a pen-and-paper tabletop game, to engage with a subject on a meaningful and nuanced level. The developers have succeeded in doing the Werewolf: The Apocalypse property justice, and the game’s presentation is distinct, interesting, and often brilliant. However, there are so many high quality visual novels that do have the thematic depth and quality, and are written in such a way that they don’t come across as condescending. Heck, there’s another werewolf story that does all of the above on the Nintendo Switch in Raging Loop, but does it better, so there's a direct alternative available. That being said, I’d love for this developer to get another shot at the Werewolf: The Apocalypse property, and for them to handle the writing with that little bit more maturity that would elevate it and make it something special.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Wolf has a lot of promise, starting out very strong but it's ultimately let down by what feels like a very rushed last couple of chapters. The characters, the setting, the atmosphere and the writing are all on point which is what makes this feel like a sadly missed opportunity to make an all time great. Here’s hoping they flesh out the next one.