There have been a ton of different video game announcements coming out from World of Darkness (WoD). This includes game announcements and news about games that have been previously announced. This news is unexpected in some ways because I didn’t realize WoD was investing so much into video games. We have a new DEV diary for the game, Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish, a trailer for the new game Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn, and a new visual novel called Vampire: The Masquerade – Oaths & Ashes.

Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish DEV Diary

This video is almost two and a half minutes long, in which one of the developers discusses the game. In Hunter, players play as humans going after the supernatural. At the one-minute mark of the video, they mention how you can create your own character. Hell yes! It feels like Teyon, the developer behind the game, is coming at this project knowing that Hunter was a TTRPG first. I love this. In character creation, you can also pick your attributes, which come from the rulebook. There seems to be a ton of customization, which makes me more excited for the game.

Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish is a game I will be pre-ordering as soon as I’m able. That’s rare for me to say because I hardly ever pre-order games, but I will make an exception for this one.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn

This video talks about the new game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn. In watching the gameplay, it looks like this is a third-person shooter, meaning you are looking from a bird’s eye view of your character and all the enemies. Additionally, you can shape shift at will from your human form to a smaller wolf to a full Lupine walking monstrosity. If I’m honest, I don’t know if I like this. I prefer first-person, meaning you are looking through the eyes of your character. Unlike Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish, it doesn’t appear to have RPG elements, meaning you are playing as a pre-made character. I don’t know as much about Werewolf: The Apocalypse as a system, so there isn’t much else I can add.

This is the game that I would need to see more gameplay before purchasing or pass on it altogether. As mentioned, I don’t like the bird ‘s-eye view, and that might be too much of a dealbreaker for me.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Oaths & Ashes

Vampire: The Masquerade – Oaths & Ashes is a visual novel similar to Shadows of New York and Coteries of New York. I didn’t mind the visual novels, and I liked how both visual novels bled into the NY By Night live play that WoD did with Jason Carl as the Storyteller. If the visual novels provide more lore into the games, I’m all for that. Oaths & Ashes takes place in Berlin, and one of the playable characters is a thin-blood. Thin-bloods are vampires who have diluted vitae, or vampire blood, so their powers are muted and different. This has led to thin-bloods being targeted for who they are within vampire society. I’m curious to see how Oaths & Ashes explores this in the game. This would be a game I’d consider pre-ordering once a release date has been solidified.

While I’m happy to see the WoD brand extending into video games, I still feel there’s a whole area of missed opportunity when it comes to live plays. For Vampire: The Masquerade specifically, I think there’s a ton of different channels and podcasts playing this game. For Werewolf and Hunter, though, there could be more. If someone watches a WoD official live play of Werewolf and it ties into the new game, it would help promote the game and get more players playing the TTRPG. This feels like a win. I can understand that the TTRPG may not be super profitable, so making a video game makes sense to me. However, WoD began as a TTRPG I’d hate for them to lose sight of that.

With that said, I’m mostly excited for Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish and Vampire: The Masquerade – Oath & Ashes. I will be watching Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn to see how things develop, but wouldn’t surprise me if I find that the game isn’t for me, and that’s fine!