Hunter: The Reckoning — A Time of Monsters

Довольно интересная история с большим и вариативным прохождения. Каждый вариант отыгрыша имеет свою концовку, персонажи не страдают плохой памятью и припоминают прошлые взаимодействия(могут и послать), игра не заканчивается в случае смерти npc, и смерть кого-то приводит к новым сценариям взаимодействия, внешний вид имеет значение, все за одну катку не охватишь. Ваши первые шаги в игре уже будут иметь последствия. За два прохождения пока не охватил весь спектр истории и позже пройду снова.

i enjoyed the game, if you're a WOD fan you'll probably like this, but it is nowhere near as good as The Beast of Glenkildove which is why i'm leaing a negative review. Beast is a much better game/story. the character creation and limited stats are mid combared to Beast.

Alright, I've completed a few playthroughs, and have concluded that this is a very solid game. It is not without flaws, but overall it's a good experience. That said, I feel it's important to understand what you are getting into. This is a Hunter game, which means you are a more or less ordinary human investigating monsters - in this case vampires. However, don't go into this expecting an action-packed high-stakes power fantasy, because this isn't that kind of game. There are action scenes in it, and there are fights, but most of your focus is going to be on interacting with other people and on day-to-day living. Because at its core, this game isn't about monsters. It's about people. It's about building relationships with your fellow Hunters - finding out how they ended up on the path they did, learning new skills from them, and offering them emotional support when they're at their lowest. It's about being good to your neighbours - on my second playthrough I focused on boosting my standing in the local community and to my surprise there was a moment where they sent me groceries when I ran out of food. There's a clear message here; even if your life and the lives of those around you seem like ♥♥♥♥, you can all get through it if you stand together and help each other out. It's a very optimistic message in an otherwise bleak game and setting. Play your cards right and the Hunters can potentially become this sort of found-family that takes you in during a time when you are at your most vulnerable. It is also a game about society. It takes place in a particularly poor neighbourhood in modern Vancouver, a city that has an exceptionally bad housing crisis even by Canadian standards. Needless to say, there is a lot of commentary on those issues. And this is fine. The game would feel soulless if it didn't address this. There are also a lot of references to local areas in Vancouver as well as its history, as well as some nods to Canadian history and culture in general. Occasionally it can venture into some very heavy themes. Anyway, beyond the refereces to history and the economy, there are also a few fun pop culture references sprinkled in here and there; it's not all depressing gloom. Now, if you really want to, you CAN choose to sell out to and attempt to join the vampires. I would not recommend this route on a first playthrough because it requires you to betray or otherwise isolate yourself from most of the characters you met during the game. And since the characters are the game's primary selling point this simply isn't a fair trade. The narration makes it very clear that you're betraying your friends, neighbours, and fellow humans solely for your own gain, sacrificing your own autonomy in the process, all to join the ranks of the people who caused your problems in the first place. Mechanics-wise, you have five main stats - Health, Willpower, Physical, Mental, and Social. Physical/Mental/Social are what you will be doing for most stat checks. Willpower is what you use to resist vampiric mind control or persevere in difficult situations - it fluctuates throughout the game but you can keep it high by keeping yourself fed and sheltered. Health is how badly you've been hurt; don't get it to zero and you remain alive. I've had no issues managing Health or Willpower. As for the other stats they mostly work fine, though I feel like Social comes out significantly stronger than the other two. There are some basic life simulation mechanics. Primarily, you have to manage Money and Food, and while there's no dedicated "Housing" stat you do have to worry about that too. You can use your Money to pay rent, buy food, and acquire new gear. Food isn't hard to get and there are ways to acquire it without money, but you are limited in how much food you can have at a time unless you acquire a fridge (do not bother acquiring a fridge; it would be a good investment if the game was longer but it just isn't worth it.) Also to quickly address one of the other reviews claiming your stats can't increase after the game's prologue; this isn't true. You can increase your stats later on, by learning from your fellow Hunters, it just takes time and you can only increase each stat once. I admittedly prefer games with simpler stat management because it lets me focus on narrative and roleplay instead of becoming a number-cruncher, so this worked out fine for me. But if you do like stat-heavy games this will probably be a downside. Now I'm going to talk a bit about what I feel is missing. The Hunters in this game don't really do a lot of planning. A lot of encounters with vampires in this game involve the vampires attacking you first. Other encounters consist of attempting to find the vampires with no actual action plan on what to do if you succeed. This is even lampshaded at one point where you can ask the group if anyone has a plan right as you're about to walk into a suspected vampire den. That was a bit annoying to see, I'll admit. This group has at least two veteran hunters in it with decades of experience each; we shouldn't be winging every engagement. Furthermore when we actually fight the vampires I wish there was more exploitation of their weaknesses. The most common trick you can use is attempting to temporarily blind vampires with a flashlight, by triggering their instinctive fear of sudden brightness, and that's perfectly fine. But why is my character trying to stab the vampire in the gut when I should be going for her heart or her head? Why do I never try to acquire a stake? At one point an NPC did give me a flare gun though, which was awesome. When it's often pitched to me, people talk about the Hunter RPG line to me, it's always been presented as a game where you're constantly outmatched and the only way you have even a chance of victory is through meticulous planning and only engaging the enemy on your own terms. So when a lot of the hunting sequences amounted to: "just walk in and see what happens" I was quite disappointed. Ultimately though, it's a good game despite the flaws I have mentioned. I would definitely recommend picking it up.

3.5/5 If you are desperately looking for more contents of WoD IF like I do, likely you won't regret playing this game, as it was competently written, with clear structure and an ambitious story. I found it especially interesting to play as someone who didn't know vampires were even true, and try to piece out what their culture was like. And it was a nice touch that the stats were stated in a sentence like "someone starts to trust you, only a little" instead of percentage. That said, if you only want to play the best CoGxWoD collaboration has to offer, probably could look elsewhere I agree with other reviews that themes and characters were clearly heavy-handed, even if you agree with the message you may still find the delivery wanting. Further, the MC's background was under-explored and almost irrelevant to the story. As players we knew MC was young and has been homeless for a few days when the game started, we also knew the MC had "better days" - that created a puzzle, a potential tension inherent with the character, and it felt like a missed opportunity when it was never addressed in a meaningful way. Last but not least for this ambitious a theme - uniting people against impossible odds- I really think this story needs to be better fleshed out to feel credible. The first interlude was handled nicely as an opening scene, but following interactions unfortunately felt rushed to me, which also bleeds into romance.

it may have been a struggle against the odds to survive but in the end it was worth it to 1. romance the troubled older man who was simultaneously warning me away from him and hoping i wouldn't listen and 2. to get a vampire hit by a train.

Kinda woke, but still pretty decent

Disclaimer: This thing has a free demo, you should probably try that instead of relying on the opinion of internet randos (if you know me, then I'm not an internet rando, but you should still play the demo. It's like, right there. And free). If, despite the endless wisdom of second disclaimer, you're still reading this (for some godawful reason) let's get on with it. Life sucks. In A Time of Monsters, life sucks really hard. You're homeless in the streets of Vancouver, with little to your name other than the tent you spend your nights in. And AToM makes sure to take even that for you in its first few pages. "Damn, that's terrible", you think. Well, it's about to get worse, because you know what, besides life, sucks? Vampires. Vampires suck. This one in particular is interested in sucking your blood, and that's, y'know, bad for you. You kinda need it to live. After an unlikely rescue via crowbar, you find yourself thrown together with a small band of hunters, interested in protecting not just you from vampires, but the entirety of downtown eastside from both vampires and, perhaps even more dangerous, the cutthroat society that threw them - and you - to the neighborhood left forgotten. Will you throw in with the local gang for a roof over your head against the cold Vacouver winter? How many people are you willing to help them step on if it makes your life easier against the bloodusckers, both literal and metaphorical? Is wise old Zheng right? Does standing by others at the cost of yourself build something better overall? What if the overall leaves you in the dust? They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but what if yours has a very short anchor chain? The Eastside is certainly not floatiing very well, and it isn't for lack of people. Maybe Wil's got the right of it. Maybe everything's ♥♥♥♥♥♥, and people will backstab you at the first opportunity if it means even a meagre chance that it'll make it better for them. Reading what I'm writing, arent YOU considering backstabbing some NPCs and taking their stuff if it means you get a roof? That you don't starve? But if that's true, why is Wil even here? He certainly can backstab a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ - or frontstab one, if it comes to that, but fighting fair is for people who aren't very interested in winning. From each of those paths, paths split, but "giving to others and hope it works out" and "keep it to yourself, and maybe take some more" is the most basic of choices. And you better choose, or someone with more power will choose for you. And it doesn't matter if it's the people who think you're unseemly and bad for property values or the ones who think you're a snack and good for their diet (and also bad for the Masquerade). Both the literal and the metaphorical vampires agree on one thing: They'd rather you don't be. And if you want to spite them on that... well, the good news is that you got your work cut out for you. THE GOOD: - A certified Paul Wang, with all the impactful narrative choices, stellar writing, and ocasional rapier-wit humour that you might be familiar from his other works. - Storyteller Mode on, if you want to see all the nitty gritty mechanics. Storyteller Mode off, if you don't. - You want choices that make a difference? Well, here you go. None of that Telltale false advertising here. Some of those consequences you might not see coming for a bit, but pretty much everything consequence that you'll take to the face you'll be able to go, "damn, this is probably because I did that other thing. Maybe I should've picked differently." (Spoiler: that just means you take a different thing to the face. You'll be taking a lot of stuff to the face, and very few of it is going to be food) - See if you can spot every meme Fleur-de-Lys throws at you. - Fight uphill! Your opponents are fast, strong, tough, brutal, and merciless. And that's just the metaphorical vampires, let alone the literal ones. Even with Storyteller Mode on, when you can see if you're good enough to make a check, you'll always be left wondering, "what about the NEXT check?". And if you want your groceries, what about your next paycheck, where is THAT going to come from, and what are you willing to do to get it? - Save slots. Are things going poorly? Instead of having to make a whole new playthrough, go back a couple of chapters and try something different. Maybe it'll go better. Or maybe it'll just go poorly in a different way. - You can hit a vampire with a train. A TRAIN!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD THE BAD: - I ran into ONE consequence that you aren't told about when you make a choice, even though I can't find a narrative reason for it. Maybe it's more predictable if you're familiar with World of Darkness? Fortunately, there are save slots, so you can go back and go another way. - Terrible marketing. You can hit a vampire with a TRAIN and these people waste a Steam store page bullet point on fire? ON FREAKING FIRE?! I CAN HIT THAT WOMAN WITH A TRAIN!!!!!!! (there is no "bullet train" pun if you do, though - I expected better of you, Wang. smh) - You can only hit a vampire with a train once. But I don't know why you're still here, man, for real. I opened this review by telling you there's a free demo you can play, shouldn't you be doing that instead? Alas, you cannot hit a vampire with a train in the demo. P.S.: Have I mentioned you can hit a vampire with a train? It's hella fun. More games should let me hit vampires with trains.

Another fantastic WoD game from CoG, this one has a more grounded tone than Glenkildove, feeling closer to Hungry Names or Night Road. I completely recommend this fun and engaging story with a diverse conclusions and options. It does feel significantly shorter than Glenkildove or Hungry names, and there's some options that feel like you should have but don't. Although it's possible I've just missed them (Things like confiding about a secret deal in one companion rather than all of them.) and in a few places a discussion you've had isn't remembered but thats an exception on the whole this game is extremely reactive. I've run it acouple times and it's got good variation. Not dethroning Hungry Names as the best WoD text game, but a solid and fantastic addition to the line up. Survive the night, gain friends and rise to power.

As a big fan of the Choice of Games WoD titles, I was really looking forward to A Time of Monsters. After almost six hours and one playthrough, I'm unsure how to rate it. The writing style is great, and I like the setting. It was exciting to find myself in the role of someone who has nothing and yet keeps losing more and more. Learning how to navigate an area marked by poverty and suffering while also trying to learn how to smack a bunch of vampires was challenging in a good way. Two things bothered me while playing: First, A Time of Monsters suffers from the same weakness as The Beast of Glenkildove. Both stories start incredibly strong and captivating - only to have the finale wrapped up in just a few pages. The ending felt rushed. Second, I was disappointed that there wasn't enough time to get to know all the group members. Especially if you're interested in a romance, it consumes almost every moment left for social interaction. I still give the game a thumbs up, because I was well entertained and I’m also thinking of going for another run since I’m pretty sure I missed out a lot the first time.

long-time CoG fan but haven't ever really engaged with paul wang's works before (no real reason, just a light vibe incongruence heretofore). got this on a whim bc i'm also a big WoD fan (even though my experience with the past titles have been... mixed) and omg I actually love this - I think it's my favourite CoG WoD title so far. great prose, plot, and characters, with thoughtful social commentary that complements the WoD setting, points of sparkling humour, and diversity that's handled with attention, depth, and care. overall, a captivating read with enough branches and opportunities to exercise player agency to make it well worth a few replays. the only critiques I'd have, for the sake of a comprehensive review, are that a) there are a few really good character development scenes apparently only available via an option that locks you into a specific ending later, even though there's no real narrative or thematic reason that the same / similar scenes couldn't have been available elsewhere (if they are then I stand corrected); and b) while i actually love that the stat points are really rare, just one other way to get them (even if very difficult) could've added even more dynamicity. now, those are two very minor points, so excuse the verbosity (UPDATE. I WAS wrong on that first point, I DO stand corrected. I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love this game it’s a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece there are cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see. or whatever.) tl;dr this slaps severely