Summit of the Wolf | PC Review

The Summit of the Wolf (2020)

It’s not often that a game begins with a disclaimer that warns of the dark themes the game you’re about to play is addressing. The Summit of the Wolf, developed by Storycentric Worlds and published by Unimatrix Productions, is one of those games. The content warning was for strong references to child sexual and emotional abuse, and depictions of suicide. This makes it clear that The Summit of the Wolf is not gonna be a light experience, and sets the tone for the entire game. 

Quest For The Truth

In The Summit of the Wolf you play Ophelia, a sweet and kind 12-year-old girl who one day wakes up in a mythological place. She gets told that the only way to find out what happened to her, and to find the truth, is to travel to the Summit of the Wolf and drink from the water there. This will reveal all. The way to do so is to follow the white wolf. This sets Ophelia on her quest, with the first problem to solve: summon the white wolf, who represents Ophelia’s innocence. When she succeeds in this, Ophelia will meet several interesting characters, both human and fantastical, and some of them will join her on her quest and play an important role in the story. All the beings and places she encounters are kept in Ophelia’s journal, which adds a nice bit of world building to the game.

When Things Get Real

This is not the only storyline you are involved with. Parallel to Ophelia’s adventures, you also play two other timelines in the real world. I don’t want to spoil anything about this part of the game, but I can say that whatever you learn about the events of the real world has a huge impact on Ophelia’s story in the fantasy world. This gives the game the feeling of movies like Neverending Story or Labyrinth, where real life and fantasy also intermix and deal with some heavy subjects as well. Needless to say, that white wolf does not stay white for the entire story.

Trauma And Hope

It’s also here where the disclaimer warns about. I must stress that the events that are implied to have happened are very disturbing. This is not a game you should play if this triggers you. It’s handled quite well, nothing is shown outright, but you don’t need a lot of imagination to realize what’s going on in Ophelia’s life and what the horror is that she’s trying to protect herself from. And once that realization is there, the things that happen in the fantasy world take on a more dark meaning too, because you can see how they mirror the real world. But while the game deals with trauma, it also deals with hope. You, as the player, bring that hope to Ophelia, as you guide her and her friends to the Summit of the Wolf.

Easy Gameplay

The gameplay is very straightforward. It’s the most basic form of point-n-click, as you’ll always do the right thing with a hotspot. If you can pick it up, you will pick it up, and if you can manipulate it, you will do that. This has an added effect that it makes the game a bit faster, as you don’t have to think about how to use something. In your inventory, you can combine certain items, and you can use items in the environment.

The puzzles are mostly story-driven, but there are also a few instances where logic must be applied and even an arcade section or two. It was the right kind of challenging, as I never got stuck for long and could stay in the story. This is a good thing, as I really wanted to play the game to its conclusion and get Ophelia to the finish line. This also unlocks an extra scene that you can then watch. It seems to set up the next game in the franchise.

Uncanny Valley

The graphical style is very distinct. The game has 3D graphics with cel shading, giving it a bit of a comic book feel. This works very well for the fantasy creatures Ophelia encounters, but the uncanny valley is still strong on the human characters. While I’m not a fan of this 3D style for adventure games, it did not take me out of the story and the cell shading helps a lot here. I liked the style of the fictional fairy tale better (told as a bedtime story to Ophelia by her dad), and I would not have minded to see the entire game like that. The voice acting was solid, and I kept it on for the entire game. Should you not like the music or the voice acting, you can always turn it off, but I rather enjoyed it.

Conclusion

The Summit of the Wolf is a very heavy game, but it’s not without light in the tunnel. Storycentric Worlds clearly intends this game to give the player a sense of what it is to live with this kind of trauma, and I must say that they succeed in that. It was hard to shake the game, and there were several instances where I had the goosebumps on my arms. I really felt for Ophelia, I wanted her to be safe and sound. Even with not being a fan of some of the artistic choices that were made, the story is strong enough to push you towards the conclusion and that’s still the most important thing in this genre.

To hear me talk more about Summit of the Wolf, be sure to check out Episode 293 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8PAu_JeT8U&t=7s

This review is based on a PC copy of Summit of the Wolf provided by Unimatrix Productions/Storycentric Worlds for coverage purposes. It is only available on PC.