Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names Steam Charts & Stats

Flawless

I've played quite a few of Choice of Games' WoD rpgs now and this one feels absolutely nothing like any of the others. Night Road, Parliament of Knives, Beast of Glenkildove; those all read like I was reading a novel rather than playing a text rpg. This one feels far more casual in it's prose. While the core narrative held strong as a properly serious-toned adventure, the characterization and the self-aware writing style actually applied a pretty liberal use of humor to soften the blows and make it feel more "natural". In terms of length, it's the longest of any of these i've ever played by far it's not a matter of "quantity over quality" either, the narrative really hooked me once I got the ball rolling. I at no point found myself wishing the game would hurry up and end already, I just kept wondering how deep the Black Spiral goes. The author comes across as fairly amateurish at times though (Sometimes singular words or metaphors will be overused in different chapters) but the overall narrative is still strong enough that I think it's enjoyable. It even meddles with a meta narrative in a unique way that capitalizes on it's text-based nature! It feels a little. . .I guess easier? than the others as well. Given it's swapped XP for "free time", you can very easily get close to maxing your character out in half the stats (something you'd never even come close to in the others) so at a point it just becomes "pick what you think sounds cooler" and not a genuine weighing of your options, but I still enjoyed the feel of typecasting my character into his Ragabash role. It's got a bit more spelling and grammatical errors than the others. Some very clear typos and others the games' script going haywire and duplicating sentences because two separate actions you took triggered the prompt. There's also a very noteworthy and climactic moment where choosing to use one of my gifts (Crow Spirit) went completely ignored by the following dialogue, which felt rather frustrating given it still spent my resources. But I chalk that down to just how extensive Crow was as a spirit (and that should say something about the sheer variety in your options!) And then there's my biggest gripe; The relationship system doesn't seem to have any impact on the narrative (unless everyone just needs at least 1 dot?) except for romancing someone. If you choose to spend your "free time" with someone who's not your current fling, even entirely platonic dialogue choices get derailed into "Look, you picking them or me?" causing you to always lose points with them. The games seems to intend for you to spend all your one on one time with your intended romance pick and boost everyone else through supporting them in the meta-narrative but literally none of this is communicated to you. All in all, it's got a strong narrative, enjoyable humor, a loveable cast, a unique use of it's Text-based genre, and genuinely to me feels like a full on Campaign of Werewolf: the Apocalypse. If you're new to the setting, it might feel a tad overwhelming at first, but I think both newbie and veteran alike could enjoy this one and scratch that itch you might have been having for a WtA campaign that you just can't get off the ground. Check the DLCs too, they each add hours of dialogue and unique gifts and you might just spot your preferred clan among them!

This game is so huge that writing an actual review would feel exhausting. If you like this style of game (ChoiceScript engine stuff) you will love this. It's as good as it gets. If you like WoD, you will love this. It's as good as it gets. Frankly, I'm just worried about the psychological state of the writer capable of making such a colossus.

Book Of Hungry Names is solidly my favorite WoD game I've played in awhile , 10/10 would recommend if you enjoy werewolves, well written characters, and horror where you kill the monsters. I hope the author does more WtA based stories in the future because there are few I see that get the vibes as right as this does.

This is probably my favorite World of Darkness choose-your-own-adventure game thus far, which is hard to admit since I generally prefer Vampire's mood and themes to Werewolf's. Even if this is your first WoD game, you can play it and learn along the way without feeling confused or overwhelmed. The writing for this game is top notch, and the overall story kept me hooked until the very end. I have two minor gripes with this game (see spoiler info). Overall, this was an absolutely fantastic ride, and I hope every WoD game, choose your own adventure or otherwise, lives up to this level of quality! [spoiler] your individual relationships with your packmates don't seem to have any effect outside of romance. I had Podge's relationship down to 0 and he still didn't leave or cause any negative events. and some of the achievements appear to be bugged; Even though Nomi died during the final battle, I still earned the achievement for a "perfect clear". [/spoiler]