Lengray
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
Released in 2020

★★★★
5 hours - 21 of 38 achievements
Visual Novel Werewolves

Latest release in the recent World of Darkness series of visual novels, this one is a very good read yet a tad too short and focused.

The writing is really good and your choices affect the story in a flowing manner. The story takes place in a Polish forest which is an excellent settting (the devs are Polish). The scope is limited (5 days and one area) but the outcomes are different enough to replay it a few times (I only did two playthroughs, though). The UI is neat and the art style is beautiful even though the backdrops are evocative rather than accurate. I also really enjoyed the "mood/health" system which makes the main character evolve throughout the story and affects NPCs' reactions and available choices.

The game is short and making the most of it requires at least two playthroughs. Besides, the story is a bit too slow in the beginning and a bit too fast at the end. Finally, while the lore is important in a game like this, the way it's presented felt a bit forced at times.

Arbiter Libera

How would you rank it compared to Coteries of New York? I played that one recently and production values aside I was not exactly impressed. Heart of the Forest demo was way more impressive if only because there was some mechanical background to your actions with a proper character sheet to go along with it.

Lengray

I can’t honestly say which one I prefer as they are both great in some ways but also have weaknesses. Coteries has great NPCs while HotF’s are not easy to grasp. Except for a few, you never see them on screen and I find it hard to picture someone with just descriptions and dialogue lines (or I need a lot of them, like in a novel). However, HotF’s writing is much better and the many choices have a real influence over how the story plays out. Coteries is one good story while HotF is many (short) variants of the same theme.

Arbiter Libera

I forgot to visit the site so sorry for the late response. Thanks for the comparison. I was taken aback by how HotF demo wasn’t really about WEREWOLF SMASH but rather embraced the more spiritual and esoteric sides of the tabletop game.