WolfQuest Review

Edutainment is an odd category. Most games in this genre fall too far on one side of the other - either too dull to be engaging or too game-like to teach anything. One game that manages to straddle the line well is WolfQuest, a game in which players can learn more about the lives of wolves.

Concept - 4

If you spend more than a few minutes with WolfQuest, you can see its roots as an edutainment game. The whole concept of the game revolves around experiencing what it's like to be a wolf - surviving in the wild, communicating with other wolves, and dealing with the challenges of being a wild animal in the modern world. It's a neat concept but one that has been done before with other animals. This version is fairly well done.

There's a certain amount of realism here that you're not going to see in similar games in that this game has a mechanic for marking your territory, after all, so it gets a lot of points for sticking to realism. Though the game itself is relatively light on anything resembling a story, it still manages to be a very compelling simulation, as well as a game that lives up to its reasonably noble purpose.

Graphics and Audio - 3

It's probably very generous to say that this game is about average in terms of graphics. This doesn't mean that the graphics are not quite as good as an AAA game - it just means that someone put some effort into making this game look great. WolfQuest looks incredibly dated, like the budget for the design was very small. This is forgivable, though, considering why the game was made. It looks good enough for its purposes, but that's about it.

The sound is likewise just acceptable. It's not bad; it's just not right. The sounds that you expect to be there are there, but without anything else. Again, this is what most would expect from an edutainment game designed by a zoo. A better soundscape would add something to this game, but that's not in the cards here.

Gameplay - 3

On the one hand, you have to applaud how well thought out this game is. The creators wanted you to live life as a wolf, so they do make you go through a wolf's routine, and this doesn't just mean hunting - you're going to wander around marking your territory, searching for mates, and trying to survive as a wolf would survive. For the most part, you do this through menus and keyboard strokes, all of which are responsive enough when you are in the single-player mode.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is pretty bad, though. It's just not as well-made as one would hope, and it feels more like a giant chatroom than anything else. Most of the charm that comes from the simple story falls away here, and honestly, what's left here is little more than a mediocre wildlife simulator.

Conclusion - Replayability - 3

WolfQuest is not a bad game, but it's not exactly the kind of game that you're going to play again and again. It's perfect for educating young kids, but older players just aren't going to find much to do here. It's worth trying out since it is free, but it'd be hard to recommend spending money on this game. Instead, it stands as a friendly educational tool for those who want to learn more about wolves.

TL/DR

WolfQuest is an interactive wildlife simulator designed to help kids learn more about wolves.