Travel has resumed after the pandemic, and how could it be otherwise, both at 3DJuegos and 3DJuegosPC we are taking advantage of the resurgence of face-to-face video game journalism. Gone are the non-playable interviews or glimpses over Zoom or Skype. As a result of this, and since I recently traveled 2,000 kilometers to try 7 games, it has given me to think that only 1 conquered me for several hours: Wild Woods, a roguelike of kittens with katanas.
yes, when there michis, automatically one puts the eye on the game in question. But tell Stray, although the indie From the past 2022 he also has many other achievements to comment on beyond the presence of our furry friend. However, when they told me in Germany “it’s a game with cats as protagonists who have to protect a carriage pulled by a goat to survive,” something clicked; a click that it took me about 90 minutes of game.
It may not be much, but in an event with almost a dozen games from Daedalic Entertainment, the European developer now part of Nacon, playing a project for more than 1 hour is rare; especially considering that you want every minute to count. But, the pillars on which Wild Woods stands, a party game with soul of roguelikeare fun enough to share a sofa with up to 4 players and addict ourselves to killing evil rabbits.
It sounds absurd, which it is, but playable is flawless. It’s one of those games that doesn’t need an extensive tutorial —in fact, now that I’ve solidified my opinion, there wasn’t one—, just a few seconds to get the controls (dodge, attack and the action button to pick up items from the ground) ; understand that whatever happens, the carriage will not stop for nothing; and that we need to get wood and food to survive one more night.
That component survival It caught me off guard. At nightfall, there will not be a single source of light to illuminate our path and, depending on the wood that we have recovered, felled or stolen during the day, we will be able to keep the fire that crowns the rear of the carriage active. If we don’t, nothing happens, at least immediately. will not appear a game over resounding, but it will be impossible to see. and when i say impossibleis the most exact definition of the word.
There will be no single source of light, the whole screen will go dark; the dev team—whom we got to play with, by the way—has made sure of that, so we’ll be at the mercy of the enemies until the sun rises. The idea is that far from dimming the light, what the Germans have done is place a static black image above the gameplay, but below the HUD —we understand that to see how life drains from us. There is no option to increase the brightness and avoid “suffering” this fateful moment. You have to fight with katana in hand to survive the barely 90 seconds that separate each night from the day.
Wild Woods doesn’t want this to be a “let’s see how long you can last”, but a “do you have what it takes to get to the final boss?”
But what’s the fun then? He challenge, plain and simple. Even with everything, Wild Woods does not want this to be a “let’s see how long you last”, but a “Do you have what it takes to make it to the final boss?”. I would have been upset if the game took advantage of the simplicity of its mechanics to always offer us the same thing. An approach to the Call of Duty World at War and its zombie, where there was no ending, would have killed my interest. However, once we get to bosssomething that can take us between 20 and 40 minutes depending on the turns we take along the way, the phase will end; thus beginning a new section and leaving us time to restructure the play.
Something so simple and so fun that it kept me with my buttocks in a chair and my eyes fixed on the screen, along with 3 other strangers, and all enjoying the game. A party game that, although its strong point is playing locally, it will include online play when this Wild Woods is released. But when will it arrive? At the moment, the game appears on Steam to be able to add it to our “wish list”, but nothing of a date beyond a little clear 2023. So, it will have to wait.
