Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest

Did You Know?

• The game received mixed reviews; OpenCritic reported 68% of critics recommended it.
• Preview impressions praised its atmosphere, immersive writing, art style, and the weight of player choices.
• Comic Book Resources noted the game's setting outside the United States as a positive departure from typical World of Darkness stories.

Gameplay

The game is a text-based visual novel with tabletop RPG-style mechanics. Players read narration accompanied by audio and illustrations, and move between locations by selecting them on a map. Decisions affect the protagonist's personality, relationships, narrative direction, and available actions. Actions consume two resources: rage, enabling brazen or direct behavior, and willpower, needed for hard choices. Willpower is restored by progressing toward the player's chosen goal. A character sheet tracks personality, health, and mental condition. Choices also assign one of five auspices based on lunar phases, which shape the character's role in Garou society: new moon (stealth and trickery), crescent moon (spirituality), half moon (balance and wise decisions), gibbous moon (storytelling and lore-keeping), and full moon (viciousness and spirit warrior).

Synopsis

Set in Poland within the World of Darkness, the story follows Maia Boroditch, a 24-year-old American of Polish descent who experiences recurring nightmares of a forest, wolves, and blood. She travels to Białowieża to uncover her family history, meeting guide Daniel, student Anya, and local resident Bartek. She explores the Białowieża Forest, one of Europe's last primeval forests, visiting sacred sites including an ancient burial ground, an abandoned wolf den, and a ceremonial place of power.

Development

Heart of the Forest was developed by Different Tales and published by Walkabout Games, designed by Jacek Brzeziński and Artur Ganszyniec, who previously worked on The Witcher. The writing team comprised Ganszyniec, Marta Malinowska, and Joanna Wołyńska-Ganszyniec. Audio direction was by Brzeziński, with ambient tracks by Przemek Moszczyński and melodic tracks by Robert Purzycki; the soundtrack includes the song 'Vaukalak' by Irdorath. Visuals, mixing edited photographs, paintings, and illustrations, were created by Ireneusz Konior, Rafał Kucharczuk, Monika Lipińska, Magdalena Pankiewicz, and Waldemar Zdziebko. Based on White Wolf Publishing's Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the game adapts the tabletop experience with the game acting as gamemaster, designed for both series fans and newcomers. Its themes center on anger, activism, and 'savage resistance' amid climate change and ecological disasters, portrayed through werewolf myths and exploring how rage can achieve results. The Polish setting, based on real locations, was chosen to emphasize the 'world' in World of Darkness and because deforestation in Białowieża suited the adaptation. The game also draws on Polish werewolf legends. Scriptwriting began with creating Maia; the developers intentionally wrote a female protagonist to counter trends of women in horror being damsels in distress or femme fatales, and because most writers on the team were women. Announced in June 2020, it released on October 13, 2020 for Linux, MacOS, and Windows, with a Nintendo Switch version on January 7, 2021, and PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions on February 24, 2021.