So the upcoming Werewolf game looks pretty bad.

happyninja42

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I grew up on isometric so I'm fine with it. It saw the little thing about it on the Escapist Indie showcase a few months back and kept tabs on it. Hopefully it lives up to what the devs were talking up about "Choices matter" and such.
Just played the demo. It's a text based, choose your own adventure style game. Your dialogue choices basically build your character's traits based on the flavor of response. Unsurprisingly, I ended up as a Theurge. Sadly the demo ended at that point. Looks neat, I'll probably pick it up when it releases.
 

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Just played the demo. It's a text based, choose your own adventure style game. Your dialogue choices basically build your character's traits based on the flavor of response. Unsurprisingly, I ended up as a Theurge. Sadly the demo ended at that point. Looks neat, I'll probably pick it up when it releases.
Doesn't sound like it's very long even for a demo, but the "Choose your own adventure" thing(which one can kinda gleen from the screenshots) does sound interesting.
 

happyninja42

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Doesn't sound like it's very long even for a demo, but the "Choose your own adventure" thing(which one can kinda gleen from the screenshots) does sound interesting.
Yeah it was...maybe 15 minutes? Basically just the prologue, if that.
 

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That's being gentle on it. This game looks like something out of the late 00's in everything from level design to combat to actual environments used. It is not a good sign when the first games that came to my mind were Blood Omen 2 and Hunter: The Reckoning, both games from 2002, and not something even remotely contemporary.
Maybe it's a genre throwback? Eh? Eeehhhhh?

I'll see myself out.
 

happyninja42

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Rage isn't just a meter you use to fuel powers in combat. I mean it IS for some powers, but it's also a measure of how bestial you are. How instinctively afraid of you other beings are. From animals, to humans. It's a blessing and a curse, making you more prone to blood frenzies, where you might kill your own family and allies.

Penumbra Vision, they're just turning the entire spirit realm of the game line, into Eagle Vision, when it's anything but that. It's more accurate to say it's more like the spirit realm of Pan's Labyrinth, crossed with the hellscape of the Constantine movie (if you are in a blighted area), and the shadow realm from the LotR movies. It's teaming with spirits of all the aspects. It's very shinto in that regard. But, no, it's just, Predator Vision.
 
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Rage isn't just a meter you use to fuel powers in combat. I mean it IS for some powers, but it's also a measure of how bestial you are. How instinctively afraid of you other beings are. From animals, to humans. It's a blessing and a curse, making you more prone to blood frenzies, where you might kill your own family and allies.

Penumbra Vision, they're just turning the entire spirit realm of the game line, into Eagle Vision, when it's anything but that. It's more accurate to say it's more like the spirit realm of Pan's Labyrinth, crossed with the hellscape of the Constantine movie (if you are in a blighted area), and the shadow realm from the LotR movies. It's teaming with spirits of all the aspects. It's very shinto in that regard. But, no, it's just, Predator Vision.
Oh, they probably could have just done scent vision or something. But aren't zones of pollution like that supposed to be kinda spiritually dead?
 

happyninja42

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Oh, they probably could have just done scent vision or something. But aren't zones of pollution like that supposed to be kinda spiritually dead?
they can be dead, though more often they are corrupted. the Wyrm (the primary antagonist force), is the manifestation of chaos/destruction. normally it's just doing it's thing in balance with everything else in creation, basically just being Entropy, not evil or good, just a fact of creation. But the Weaver, the manifestation of order/stability, went mad, growing tired of seeing all her systems eventually breaking down. So she bound the Wyrm in webs (the Weaver is a spider), and trapped him. Trapping him, drove him insane, so now he lashes out, intent to destroy all of creation, to try and break free. So his influence, is now more like mutations, corruption, etc. Think Dark Side influence on people/creatures from Star Wars, but way more body horror and grotesque, because World of Darkness.

Spiritually dead zones do exist, but they are sort of just, a byproduct of all the crazy shit. I don't recall those being directly due to Wyrm influence, and were more of a side thing in the various books. Areas that the Wyrm has had influence in, either directly or via his servants, is basically a corrupted hellscape. Horrific reflections of the normal spirits that would naturally be there. Hollow eyed humans, looking like drug addicts (even if they aren't), shuffling in fear from building to building, in neighborhoods filled with corruption. If it's a wilderness area, it will be corrupted animal/nature spirits, pollution, decay, etc.
 

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they can be dead, though more often they are corrupted. the Wyrm (the primary antagonist force), is the manifestation of chaos/destruction. normally it's just doing it's thing in balance with everything else in creation, basically just being Entropy, not evil or good, just a fact of creation. But the Weaver, the manifestation of order/stability, went mad, growing tired of seeing all her systems eventually breaking down. So she bound the Wyrm in webs (the Weaver is a spider), and trapped him. Trapping him, drove him insane, so now he lashes out, intent to destroy all of creation, to try and break free. So his influence, is now more like mutations, corruption, etc. Think Dark Side influence on people/creatures from Star Wars, but way more body horror and grotesque, because World of Darkness.

Spiritually dead zones do exist, but they are sort of just, a byproduct of all the crazy shit. I don't recall those being directly due to Wyrm influence, and were more of a side thing in the various books. Areas that the Wyrm has had influence in, either directly or via his servants, is basically a corrupted hellscape. Horrific reflections of the normal spirits that would naturally be there. Hollow eyed humans, looking like drug addicts (even if they aren't), shuffling in fear from building to building, in neighborhoods filled with corruption. If it's a wilderness area, it will be corrupted animal/nature spirits, pollution, decay, etc.
Could this be the edition of the game after the apocalypse happened? I mean I know they did that, but I also have no idea what changes those made to the game system since I never looked through those books. (I didn't play the game but I found the source books interesting, although its been years since I last looked through them)
 

happyninja42

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Could this be the edition of the game after the apocalypse happened? I mean I know they did that, but I also have no idea what changes those made to the game system since I never looked through those books. (I didn't play the game but I found the source books interesting, although its been years since I last looked through them)
Well, the Apocalypse, as published was literally The End of Everything. All the prophecies about the destruction of creation, given story elements so you can turn them into a campaign. There's no scenario where after the apocalypse has happened, the Garou would still be running around, fighting the trapped Wyrm forces. Either he wins, and destroys everything, the Weaver wins, and freezes everything into stagnation, the Wyld wins (force of creation/change), and things just go batshit crazy. Or, the slim Good Ending, the Wyrm is freed, the Weaver is made sane again, and balance is restored.

So I doubt it, given the setup they've shown, that it's post-Apocalypse. The elements presented are very much the pre-Apocalypse agencies that the Garou are fighting.

To clarify, they did a final publication, when they ended those game lines, where they actually fleshed out HOW all the various game lines would end, based on their prophetical doomsayers.
 

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Well, the Apocalypse, as published was literally The End of Everything. All the prophecies about the destruction of creation, given story elements so you can turn them into a campaign. There's no scenario where after the apocalypse has happened, the Garou would still be running around, fighting the trapped Wyrm forces. Either he wins, and destroys everything, the Weaver wins, and freezes everything into stagnation, the Wyld wins (force of creation/change), and things just go batshit crazy. Or, the slim Good Ending, the Wyrm is freed, the Weaver is made sane again, and balance is restored.

So I doubt it, given the setup they've shown, that it's post-Apocalypse. The elements presented are very much the pre-Apocalypse agencies that the Garou are fighting.

To clarify, they did a final publication, when they ended those game lines, where they actually fleshed out HOW all the various game lines would end, based on their prophetical doomsayers.
I thought they did have some edition after the apocalypse happened. Maybe Werewolf the Forsaken? I don't know, I thought there was one that also replaced the big as war form with mainly just being... teen wolf or something.
 

happyninja42

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I thought they did have some edition after the apocalypse happened. Maybe Werewolf the Forsaken? I don't know, I thought there was one that also replaced the big as war form with mainly just being... teen wolf or something.
Yes, Werewolf: the Forsaken is after Apocalypse, but it's not a continuation of that reality. It's a hard reboot. Same game lines in the broad sense Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, etc.(because those titles and the genre's were incredibly popular and marketable). But a DRASTIC retooling of everything about them. New origins and mythologies (specifically leaving out any global/large scale metaplot stuff like the old lines), new ways the various supernatural groups functioned, etc. It's not like Apocalypse 2.0, it's an entirely different setting.

Basically they wrote themselves into something of a corner with the original game lines, what with all of them having the End Times scenario in their premise...that was forever being pushed back by publications, so the "looming end of the world" became less and less dramatic for the fans. Plus they had conflicting origin stories, that are just absolutely contradictory. Like how the Vampire mythology is heavily steeped in christian mythology about cain and abel and the like. Which makes no sense if you say the Werewolf mythology is "correct" Because it's shinto manifestations of universal forces.

So they just said "ok, fuck it, let's write an End Time book for all of our OG game lines, actually, officially finish them off, let the players have their glorious final battles that they've been building towards for years, and then retool this shit to be more sustainable, interchangeable, both in mechanics, and setting, so that it doesn't become a huge, bloated mess 10 years down the line as we make various publications." Thus Forsaken, Awakening, and the others were born. Same basic skins, same basic concepts "you are a werewolf" "you are a mage", "you are a vampire" but fundamentally different in a lot of other ways.
 

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Imagine seeing this 25 years ago and thinking OMFG this looks amazing, when is it coming out?!?

Actually though aside from the presentation looking a bit rough the gameplay mechanics and design look slightly above average next to current action/stealth games. Solid Snake wishes he could wolf his way through venting.
 

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Biker Beard Man have girlfriend, him likey girlfriend. Girlfriend go long sleep because bad man with rifle. Biker Beard Man angry, go punch robot to metal music. Nothing about that says Werewolf: the Apocalypse to me. It could be any of a million stock standard games/movies from the last 20 years, as far as implied narrative structure.
Aw sweet, I've never played a game less than thirty minutes long before! You create your character, you go to moot, your pack tears you limb from limb for lifting the veil!

Or hey if girlfriend is also garou, your pack tears you limb from limb for violating the Litany instead!

Groundbreaking, next-generation innovation!