Werewolf The Apocalypse: HOTF Preview

For those who don’t know Werewolf The Apocalypse is an old school pen and paper RPG with a sprawling in depth world of lore and unique statistics that separated itself from other traditional dice RPGs. I personally have not had the chance to roll dice as the lichen, but I have kept my eyes wide open ever since the announcement of Werewolf the Apocalypse Earthblood which is scheduled for release in February of 2021. In the mean time I was able to dip my fat hairy toes into some of the lore thanks to Walkabout Games with Werewolf the Apocalypse: Heart of the Forest.

Heart of the Forest is a narrative driven text based RPG that seamlessly integrates some of the pen and paper core mechanics to a beautifully visualized novel. I got a chance to playthrough the hour or so long demo and was impressed with the visuals as well as the mood setting audio. I went in with limited knowledge of the franchise and the hope it would live up to the “savage horror” that was touted ahead of time.

Although the game wasn’t as scary or disturbing as I would have liked, the eerie audio and dialogue for sure set an uneasy mood. The demo moved at a pretty steady pace through the hour”ish” time I had and left a ton of room for varying paths in dialogue and where Maia ends spiritually in the conclusion. I got to get some background of the world and the state of humanity vs werewolves and look forward to learning more from both Heart of the Forest and Earthblood when they release Q4 this year and Q1 2021 respectively. My one hope is that they can get some narration for the final release. It would much more engrossing to hear some voice actors delivering lines instead of reading. Either way keep your eye out for more news on Werewolf The Apocalypse: Heart of the Forest.