Simulators hamsters, badgers, foxes and other fauna have always enjoyed moderate popularity. Studio Wolf Pack decided to contribute to this menagerie and released a game in which we operate a white she-wolf. Here, of course, immediately recalled the genius adventure Okami (the benefit of its recently released HD-remake), but it turned out that the Nocturnal Hunt does not look like it ...
She-wolf and hunters
However, the comparison is initially incorrect. Okami is a work of art in the form of an innovative action adventure game, and Nocturnal Hunt is rather banal, as it turned out, stealth with a view from the eyes. From the wolf's eyes, I see. She peacefully slept in a mountain cave with her wolf cub, but at night it climbed out and landed in a trap to local wicked cultists, who later, in a village church, decided to use the animal for their wicked rituals. The wolf, of course, ran to save the child.
And this trace she sees literally - if she uses her wolf vision, which also illuminates the enemies, and through the walls. And there are many opponents - along the way, we constantly find patrolling hunters-cultists. You can try to quickly run past, bite someone from a take-off or act secretly, sneak up from behind, silently removing them one at a time, or even completely bypass the enemies side, trying not to dissolve your teeth and kill no one. They even allow you to distract the hunters without throwing them, but by breaking bottles.
The wolf also knows how to jump - mainly to climb into hard-to-reach places and find another piece of meat. The more we collected them, the more points are given after the passage. Points are also awarded for killing, for broken bottles. And the bonus bonuses give out, if you do not kill anyone, you never die yourself and never hit the hunters' eyes. The penalty, of course, is for the opposite - for death, for the damage received and for every detection. As a result, the final rating is calculated and some title is given - "Peace-loving wolf", for example, or "Bloodthirsty beast".
Howl from boredom
The concept, you see, is interesting. And with the decoration here everything is all right - Nocturnal Huntlooks pretty and stylish. Models of hunters and their weapons are well worked out, and the levels are full of details, there are bypasses, some tunnels and so on.
The problem is that there is very little content in the game and it is extremely short. Run Nocturnal Huntfrom the initial to the final roller can be literally 15 minutes to 20 minutes, if you do not get distracted by collecting pieces of meat and do not try to stay unnoticed. If you are distracted and do everything on stealth, then it will take a maximum of an hour.
And even that is unlikely: the enemies here are practically no danger - they are extremely stupid, they notice you only close and react slowly. It's easier to run, jump and dash past from the starting point to the final. What to say, if even the trap for the whole game is found only once - at the very beginning and on the plot. But mechanics with traps and traps could seriously enrich and complicate the concept. Like any role-playing elements or unique features of the wolf, in addition to the banal "super-vision".
It is clear that the authors focus on perfectionists and those who like to pereprohodit game in an attempt to knock out the highest rating. But, firstly, special incentives for this in Nocturnal Huntno, and secondly, it would be much more interesting if the style of passing influenced not only the rating and the resulting title, but also the ending of the game. But she's alone.
In this form, Nocturnal Hunt looks like a prologue, a short demo to something more serious and thorough. It can be seen that the developers have a fantasy, talent, sense of style and good artists. But they did not have enough time, or resources, to do something more on the basis of an interesting concept. Well, let's hope and wait for new Wolf Pack projects , and Nocturnal Hunt for the time being is of purely scientific interest.
Pros: a promising concept; nice graphics; high-quality design of models and levels; rating system.
Cons: the game is catastrophically short; primitive stealth; the enemies are almost no danger.
Very good.