I was really looking forward to Northmark: Hour of the Wolf, since I’m a huge fan of RPGs, (I basically grew up playing them). There’s just something about them that makes me go all fuzzy inside… probably because it reminds me of the wonderful and addicting side game I used to play in Final Fantasy 9.
The story in Northmark: Hour of the Wolf is set in a fantasy kingdom, where you witness the murder attempt on the duke of Northmark. The hooded assassin, armed with a crossbow, manages to flee the castle and leaves behind a poisoned duke and a town full of fear.
This is the point in the story where our hero steps in. The assassin must be tracked down and questioned. You get to choose between 4 different characters, all with different backstories and more importantly, bonus stats.
After you have selected your hero, you also have the ability to choose an occupation; warrior, paladin, druid, and ice mage. Choose carefully, since you won’t be able to change it later, and, if you’re playing it for the first time, I would suggest an occupation with healing abilities… it gets rough out there sometimes. After you make your decision, you’re finally set and ready to take on the great adventure. At least that was what I expected…
Instead I got boring dialogues and a story full of clichés in which I unfortunately lost interest at the very beginning. But hey, at least the “card-battles” were really fun. After you get through tons of instructions, which are, in my opinion, almost completely unnecessary, since you get the hang of the game immediately, you can choose three main cards with which you enter the battle and also a so called battle deck, where you can choose special attacks from during the fight.
You have the ability to buy, find, and receive new cards throughout the game as well; there are more than 200 to be collected. And of course, like in any real RPG, you level up. The more you play, the stronger your hero gets. So hit those arenas!
The graphics in Northmark: Hour of the Wolf are pretty simple, which means there aren’t many animated scenes or fancy backgrounds. You wander around the kingdom on a simple map, visit castle after castle, that are actually just pictures with a few clickable spots, and even the people you talk to aren’t animated.
To be honest I found that quite pleasing, since the animations, and especially the character animations, in indie games are sometimes just disappointing, so I’m glad the developers didn’t go down that road. The music and the sound effects, on the other hand, are really good. I enjoyed the soundtrack a lot, and I think that it fits the game perfectly.
Altogether Northmark: Hour of the Wolf is a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon, since the card game is really well made, however, after a couple of hours… it just gets dull.