Assuming you played Act I of Lone Wolf (and if not, read my Act I review), you’ll know exactly where Forest Hunt begins. You, the titular Lone Wolf, have fought your way through town, repaired the elevator and have now descended to the forest floor below in order to pursue the Giak threat. Act II retains the same excellent writing and sense of style found in Blood on the Snow, so you’ll already know what to expect.
This time around, a few secondary characters play important roles in the story. First, there’s Leandra, the crossbow-wielding woman who you’ll likely remember from Act I. If you befriended her the first time around, she’ll be by your side for most of this act. If not, she’ll pop up less often. As it turns out, not only is she a fighter, but she’s quite an inventor too, and takes after her dad, another important character in this story arc. A Giak commander has stolen plans to a powerful war machine the two have developed, and retrieving it is the primary focus of the story in Forest Hunt.
I never warmed to Leandra in Act I, and I like her even less after Act II. She’s frustrating, constantly goes against your directions, and is prone to getting in the way, regardless of the choices you make. While she shows strength, courage, and even realistic emotion, it’s difficult to appreciate any of that when she interacts with you so coldly. On the other hand, I was pleased to see Merok return, even if only briefly, since I freed him from his cell in Act I. It was great to see choices I had made in the previous chapter affect the new story as I played.
That said, the story is still generic table-top fare. It’s well-written and designed, but never particularly edge-of-your-seat or surprising. Still, I enjoyed seeing more of Lone Wolf’s world and learning about the mysterious Shianti and their ancient temples. A new gameplay element is introduced alongside the temples too: Shianti power cubes. These are puzzle blocks that can be pushed, pulled, and rotated into different shapes. A few times in the game I was required to shape them into specific forms to open magical doors. Pushing and pulling by tapping the screen is easy, though rotating and fitting them into the keyholes is a little bit fiddly.
Act II has some other surprising control issues as well, and one that is borderline game-breaking. Nearly fifty-percent of the time I played the game, quick-time events in combat (where I had to tap a circle repeatedly to use a power) wouldn’t function. This bug prevented me from using one of my Kai Powers and both of my Summerswerd abilities successfully. Since they would often turn the tide of battle in my favour, it was incredibly frustrating. Restarting the game would usually fix the problem, but I still continued to encounter it throughout my playtime. It’s worth noting that most players do not seem to have encountered this issue.
Combat is far more difficult this time around too. There are a couple of new, more powerful foes to fight, and battles rarely have less than two waves. It is disappointing that there aren’t more new enemies that fight with different styles, though at least the increased difficulty forced me to try new strategic options by mixing the weapons and powers I was using.
Otherwise, the gameplay stays the same from Act I. You progress across the map, stopping to read new pages of the story, fight enemies and eventually unlock merchants you can barter with. There’s plenty of new equipment to buy and upgrade, though nothing particularly surprising. Non-linear side-quests are a welcome addition, though most are brief and don’t provide any new elements you won’t encounter in the main story. Like Act I, there are many choices to be made and there’s good replay value to be found in choosing different ones and visiting new areas. Act II clocks in at about the same length as Act I, which, for me, was approximately four hours.
All in all, Forest Hunt should definitely be on your to-buy list if you enjoyed Blood on the Snow. It’s more of the same, but with just enough tweaks to keep things interesting. Though the controls caused me problems, they weren’t severe enough to turn me away. I hope that Act III will introduce a greater variety of enemies and new powers to use, otherwise the series risks falling into repetition.
