A pretty solid adventure game but there is a bit of jankiness that you’ll have to get past in order to fully enjoy the game.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Adventure, Point and Click
Developer: Storycentric Worlds
Publisher: Unimatrix Productions
Release date: 21 April, 2020
Intro
Hello everyone, Summit of the Wolf is a surprisingly long point and click adventure game whose story revolves heavily around child sexual abuse and it’s also based on a true story. Thankfully it’s only discussing the subject in the game but it may be a bit much for some people. I’ll admit that I wasn’t looking forward to playing the game after I learned what it was about, mostly because it’s a subject that disturbs me greatly but I do recognize that it’s also a subject that needs to be talked about, no matter how uncomfortable it makes people. So, it’s a poignant story and it gets its point across but figured it was worth mentioning for those that aren’t aware of this. I didn’t realize this fact going into the game and it definitely surprised me.
Story
Summit of the Wolf’s story largely revolves around a young girl named Ophelia who wakes up in a strange and fantastical land. She is informed by a goddess that she must go on a journey to the Summit of the Wolf in order to reawaken her memories. As the story progresses, more of Ophelia’s memory about how she came to be in this land comes back to her and they aren’t pleasant memories either. She finds herself in this land because something bad happened to her and it’s her way of coping with the pain of what happened.
Ophelia’s journey is largely based around a fairy tale that her father had read to her. She also happens to be a pixie in this world as well. Her journey is a long one and there are quite a few unique creatures that she encounters along the way, like the Cions and the Spring Eagles. She also winds up teaming up with some people as her journey progresses as well.
If there’s one thing about this game that I can certainly praise, it’s its story, which is poignant and quite well-written. Some of the voice acting can be a bit spotty here and there but I wound up getting used to it so it doesn’t bother me much but it might be a little jarring for some in the beginning.
Graphics and Audio
One thing I will admit straight out of the gate in this section is Summit of the Wolf graphically is impressive in some areas and a bit weak in others. This game is the very definition of an indie game though and it was made by a team that previously worked on text adventure games with Summit of the Wolf being their second graphic point and click adventure game. So even though it’s noticeably janky, I’m pretty impressed by what they managed to accomplish in only 5 total games.
Graphically, there were a couple of areas that I was fairly impressed with. The first is the character models for some of the characters and creatures. My favorite creatures were definitely the Spring Eagles, they were very cool looking and their models were excellent. Ophelia’s own character model was also well designed as well. Another area that I was pretty impressed with is the background for each scene. As you can see above, the backgrounds were quite well designed and pretty impressive considering it’s their second graphic novel adventure game.
The biggest weak area that you notice right from the gate is the jankiness of the animations during the cutscenes. This area still needs some work but I’m sure the devs will get it in a future release.
The music to the game was definitely my favorite part of the audio. It has a fairy-tale feel to it that doesn’t overstay its welcome nor does it become repetitive and annoying. It blends into the background as you’re exploring and trying to solve puzzles. Definitely well done in that area. As mentioned the voice acting can be a little hit or miss. Ophelia’s voice actor did a great job, and many of the creatures were that bad either. The main thing I noticed is the quality on some of the recordings felt a bit on the poor side which was pretty noticeable when two characters were speaking with differing mic quality.
Verdict
Overall, I’m not really sure how I feel about Summit of the Wolf. It’s a fun point and click adventure game with some pretty solid puzzle-solving but its janky cutscenes can sometimes feel a bit, off-putting. Its story is also pretty poignant but at the same time, I found it quite disturbing as well. This is the first time I’ve ever been exactly 50/50 when it comes to a game it has some good things and I still find it pretty impressive given their previous games but it’s also far from the best adventure game that I’ve ever played. Since I tend to lean more positively when it comes to indie games, I’ve decided to Save for Later on this one. If you’re in the market for a point and click adventure game and can get past some of the Jankiness here and there, you’ll likely enjoy Summit of the Wolf. It’s far from perfect but it’s also not the absolute worst adventure game I’ve ever played, far from it in fact.
