Game: The Hunter’s Journals – Wyrmwood
Platform: PC
Genre: interactive fiction
Style: heavy influences
Verdict: Recommended
Buy: Steam
Lovecraft Video Games received a review copy of The Hunter’s Journals – Wyrmwood
The latest entry in the Hunter’s Journal series of interactive fiction is Wyrmwood, in which an encounter with an animated doll leads to a greater conspiracy. Inanimate objects have been coming to life and attacking people, and it all seems related to the wood they were made with.
When I wrote about Wyrmwood last month, the premise made me assume it would be lighter on Lovecraftian influences. However, this has a greater cosmic horror focus after all, with Externals and their cult taking center stage.
Gameplay is traditional for the series – it is split between interactive fiction choices and combat. Your choices are quite varied and can have either immediate consequences or consequences later down the line, while combat is handled through dice rolls. The Heirloom and Trait systems allow you to customize your playstyle with some additional passive effects, as well.
This is one of the more straightforward entries in terms of progression, and there aren’t as many brutal combat encounters as in prior entries.
However, it’s quite easy to make a wrong choice that will lead to an automatic bad ending later down the line – possibly even at the very end. While I can only blame myself when a mistake leads to me losing stamina or being forced to take a more difficult path, it’s frustrating to make it through the entire story only to get a game over from an early choice. Fortunately, since a single playthrough isn’t too long, it doesn’t take too long to make another run.
The story in Wyrmwood is solid enough – not one of the most exceptional ones in the series, but with a nice focus on Lovecraftian inspirations. It’s worth a look for fans on interactive fiction, and it will be interesting to see where the series goes from here.
Buy: Steam