Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names

Setting the scene, introducing the characters, the way you build your indentity. The places, the events, the creeping anxiety that builds as you learn more and more about what you are facing. How is it I'm a 10 foot tall killing machine, that's constantly worrying and looking over my shoulder? 5/5

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names is a game that makes me hungry for more. Taking the position of a young cub in a disfunctional old pack that runs away to find its own destiny among other outcasts making some tough calls, and oh boy do your choices make a difference here. It is truly a great experience and I find myself replaying the game again and again, being drawn into this amazingly written version of the World of Darkness.

I really wanted to like this game more than I did, but in the end I cannot recommend it. My main issue is the structure. Instead of feeling like a focused, linear story with strong pacing, the game often feels more like a sandbox of scenes, investigations, side threads, lore dumps, and optional directions. That can be appealing if you enjoy wandering through a very dense setting, but for me it created serious pacing problems. There were long stretches where I felt like the story was losing momentum, and by the time the main plot became urgent, I was already mentally tired from everything surrounding it. I also had some immersion issues with repeated relationship content. For example, in my playthrough, some romantic moments with Melodie felt like they happened more than once in very similar ways. It was not a huge mechanical problem, but it did pull me out of the story and made the relationship feel less natural than it should have. Another big problem for me was the amount of lore. I understand that Werewolf / World of Darkness stories are supposed to have deep mythology, and I can see how some players would love that. But personally, I found it overwhelming rather than engaging. Garou society, the Wyrm, Gaia, spirits, gifts, tribes, religious references, different supernatural rules, political factions, old histories, spiritual concepts — there is just so much of it. After a while, I stopped trying to fully follow every concept and started focusing only on the immediate choices. For this kind of story, I would have preferred something more grounded, physical, and nature-focused: the feeling of being a werewolf, surviving, hunting, protecting territory, dealing with instinct, rage, the pack, and the wild. Instead, the game often leans heavily into abstract spiritual lore, metaphysical threats, and complicated faction history. That is not necessarily bad, but it was not what I wanted from the experience. There are definitely good things here. Some characters are memorable, a few scenes are genuinely strong, and the writing can be very creative. I also appreciate how ambitious the game is. But ambition is part of the problem: it often feels like the game is trying to contain too many ideas at once, and the pacing suffers because of it. If you already love dense World of Darkness lore and enjoy a more open, investigative structure, you may get much more out of this than I did. But for me, the experience became exhausting, unfocused, and too lore-heavy to stay enjoyable. Not recommended.

40 hours of gameplay, ladies and gentlemen. A bit drawn-out, but I have no regrets. If the visuals were better (or simply existed), this game would be more popular.

I like that your choices matter. Each time I've played has followed a different path and resulted in a different ending.

Fantastic writing and world building. This game has a lot of bang for its buck. Just finished my second playthrough - and I only replay games i absolutely love. If you want a fun, engaging, thematic and masterfully written RPG, this is worth every cent of what you'll pay.

Of all the WoD 'Choice of' games I've played through (I've finished all but two games), The Book of Hungry Names has to be my favorite. It's got great characters, a great story, and I really enjoyed the leveling system.

Балдежная игрокнига - не смотря на солидный объем, прерывал чтение лишь на еду и на сон.

Fácil, muito facilmente a melhor história feita para o novo WoD. The Book of Hungry Names é um excelente livro-jogo. Kyle Marquis merecia escrever livros oficiais do cenário, digo sem brincadeira. Ele pega a secura que é o W5 e introduz uma dinâmica excelente de restituição da nação garou, criação de matilha, restautação de caern, dramas de personagens, eco-ativismo, mensagens progressitas, toca em cada ponto do cenário muito bem com respeito a tradição sem se submeter a ela. Recomendo a qualquer pessoa disposta ao formato. Goste do WoD ou não.

Brand new to Werewolf: The Apocalypse as a long time fan of VtM and this game has been a great introduction to the WtA and exploring the themes and vibes of it. Very fun game