Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names (2024)

Finished this up, it's pretty alright. It trades Vampire: The Masquerade's laser focus on character and politicking for a heavy emphasis on mystical plot shenanigans, which aren't really to my taste but are admirably well-executed. Practically every mission introduces some wild new concept, from an illegal oil pipeline that's been routed through the spirit world to bypass local environmental law, to a spacesuit-wearing werewolf that can reincarnate himself by infecting the thoughts of his enemies. It's all super weird and deeply memorable, and the main villain's ability to rewrite the game's narration as you're reading it is great fun.

Less successful is the cast, who feel like the barest sketches of people and don't change at all over the course of the (quite long) story. The skill system's a miss as well, with upgrade points so plentiful that your character becomes unstoppably, thoughtlessly good at everything well before the halfway point. The delightful, riotous mess of the setting and larger plot feels kinda undermined by the quippy, generically superheroic path you're forced to chart through it. Still though, it was neat to finally learn about the Werewolf series, and I'm left excited to explore the other dusty corners of the World of Darkness.

I'm totally new to the Werewolf series, but I've been playing the demo for this Choicescript text adventure and mostly enjoying it! It's uneven: the intro takes too long to get going, the scuzzy mallpunk aesthetic is a little goofy, and the whole spirit world aspect is uncomfortably appropriative. But the prose is having fun, and beating up fascists and oil executives feels great.

Vampire: The Masquerade's usual skill system carries over, enabling a wide variety of approaches to most quests. Character creation is even more elaborate than in Vampire, with a sort of "build-your-own" class system that lets you mix and match halves from two separate pools of abilities. There's a fluctuating "rage" resource that boosts your combat but drags down all your social and cognitive skills, there's like a dozen different patron deities you can ally with, three different kinds of EXP you can earn depending on how you're roleplaying, and you've got to hold down a mundane job on top of all of that. It's a lot to take in, but it's drip-fed to the player to keep things from getting overwhelming, and all the complexity helps muddy up the decision-making so there isn't always a clear best choice.

The demo is also maybe the the longest I've ever seen for a story-focused game, with a sprawling prologue and three Mass Effect-style recruitment missions for the initial party members. Definitely one of the better text adventures this year!