Strategic RPGFPSOMGWTFBBQ werewolfery

[JasonPratt]

I watched a video of a couple of the IGN guys playing it.  It seems to be a little tower defense, a little ARPG.  Some interesting skill upgrades.  Plus, during the day, you work as a lumberjack to make money for equipment.

"I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay; I wolve all night and I chop all day!"  ;D

[JasonPratt]

Update: either I was high on allergy medicines, or they've removed the concept that the brothers can turn into werewolves themselves.

That's okay; it still looks awesome. It's still only in beta, so hopefully the resolution problem will be resolved (so to speak).

[Tpek]

Update: either I was high on allergy medicines, or they've removed the concept that the brothers can turn into werewolves themselves.

That's okay; it still looks awesome. It's still only in beta, so hopefully the resolution problem will be resolved (so to speak).

I don't remember seeing that in game at all. though it was mentioned in the game's description and features earlier on.

[JasonPratt]

Update: either I was high on allergy medicines, or they've removed the concept that the brothers can turn into werewolves themselves.

I don't remember seeing that in game at all. though it was mentioned in the game's description and features earlier on.

Thank God someone else remembers that!  ???

Of course, it might still be included late in the game, as a powerup ability of some kind. That would explain why they removed mention of it: it isn't nearly as important to the gameplay mechanics overall and might be a story spoiler.


Anyway, I bought into the open beta last night. Would have downloaded it overnight, but I have trouble sleeping while the cooling fans of The Presence are whirring away across the room; meant to swing by the house at lunch and set up for this afternoon, but forgot. Sigh.

[JasonPratt]

Just played first (tutorial) mission, taking a break before the second (also tutorial). I'm playing Jacques, who isn't a lumberjack but a trapper (his brother, Jos, is the jack.) Basically this means he lacks the supernatural strength and stamina of his brother, so has to rely on longdistance rifle shooting and traps more.

The graphics are scaling up fine on my system, full screen 720 (on a 1080p monitor).

[JasonPratt]

Up to mission #4 or 5 (I forget which--I'm about to start the first mission where I'm responsible for also protecting the nearby sawmill). Enjoying the game immensely. Lots of strategic preplanning to ensure I have the easiest time possible dealing with oncoming enemies, just like any good tower defense -- in the most recent mission no one even got close to me.  ;D (Which is good because Jack isn't a burly lumberjack like Jos.)

Voicework for Jack could be better; he sounds like a modern urban West Coast American. Voicework for Jos is somewhat better -- I forget who exactly the voice actor is, but he's done a lot of this work before, and I recognized his voice immediately. Other acting is more on par with Jos than Jack.

Frantically clicking the right mouse button to speed up loading the rifle while things prowl the darkness sort-of-beyond sight, is hilarious, in a good way.  ;D

Crushing werewolves with boulders == all the win. Especially since the sound design is creepy at night (except when West Coast American Jack yells out G-rated curses to try to scare or get the attention of enemies.  :P ) I know a frakking werewolf is coming up that path, heard the horrible growling. (The large radar-action map is perhaps a little too helpful, showing all enemies all the time; would be nice to have the option to turn that off or tone it down, kind or ruins immersion.) Wait... wait... snip, YIP! ha ha wolftrap, BLAMTHENETWITHMYRIFLENOWWWW!! Squnch. Win.


Annoying artistic/thematic inconsistency: the game starts on the afternoon of Dec 6, with the first action that night. The calendar explicitly says this is the night of the new moon -- and that makes sense, the threats should ramp up as the moon grows to full. But I'm positive the first mission has a great big full moon in the skybox, as well as at least one subsequent mission (even more obviously).


I appreciate that the game's ultimate mission comes on Christmas Eve (Dec 24, a few days after full moon by the way) -- nicely appropriate to the religious theme of the game. That does mean there are only 19 missions, though, and that includes two fairly easy tutorial missions. (The third tutorial mission is a bit tougher, but also still included in that total.) Still, for about $13 that's reasonable I guess. And this is only "volume one" of the "tales".

[Nefaro]

I played the first couple tutorials thus far, but the camera movement is quite annoying.  I dunno if there's a way to turn it off and use the RMB for mouselook?

The auto-camera adjustment moves your view by itself.  Whenever you're moving it will move your view up & down as if you're walking over varied heights - going up an incline it will move up and then back down on it's own.  It hasn't given me motion sickness much just yet, but I could foresee getting a headache after playing a bit.   :'(

The gameplay mechanics seem decent.  The way the wolf packs attack, mixed with the timer countdown and the intimidation factor, is interesting. 

[Gusington]

Thanks for the impressions...despite some of the annoyances it still sounds original and like a must-buy for me.

[JasonPratt]

I haven't seen any way to turn off the mouselook default yet.


Here's a subtle touch: fire adds to my fearfactor total, making my foes more nervous about being near me; consequently setting up bonfires the day before each attack is important. However, my farm has torches scattered at semi-realistic distances in plausible areas (i.e. the brothers only have a few torches they can use every night and they don't have time to go around lighting a bunch right before dark), so I can be trotting across one of my fields away from the house to go check on something, and a torch will be lit at the end of the treeline where the curve into another area of the property happens.

Those torches add small amounts of fire-fear if I'm standing near them. Only two points, which is only enough to add a couple of seconds of delay for enemies (at most!), so it isn't even practically useful. But the designers included the effect anyway, because it would logically be there even if it's too small to be useful. :)


On the other hand, while the professional author was able to come up with in-story explanations for things like how we can know to plan in advance for whatever's coming, I haven't seen any good explanation yet why whichever-brother-wasn't-chosen-to-be-played (Jos in my case) doesn't seem capable of helping defend the main house at least! Jos ought to be able to axe enemies trying to break in! There really ought to be a bit of code added so that the other brother runs outside to chop up attackers when the house is being threatened. He shares hitpoints with the house, the idea being that if he goes down the enemies near the house can just go in the front door and get the girl (who isn't in any position to latch the door and delay them further).

I guess that would make the game a little too easy. But still. It breaks my story-belief somewhat to keep wondering what the hell Jos is doing in there with our sister that's so important!