The game has plenty of good points in its favor. The core premise of a Werewolf-style mystery game is good and the setting and characters both contribute to it. I generally enjoyed the first two thirds or so and was interested to see how it would all be tied together.

But there are two main issues that really bring the game down for me.

First is that the game's central premise never felt fleshed out enough in terms of actual gameplay and writing. You are stuck in a time loop, keeping your memories each time you experience the game. Yet, apart from a handful of choices scattered about, nothing ever actually changes to reflect the knowledge you've acquired. Start a loop from the beginning knowing exactly who the werewolves are? Well your thoughts never actually change to reflect that. You are just as clueless and helpless as the first time unless you are reacting to a very specific choice. Ultimately, I can at least understand this flaw but it does still bring the game down. One of the interesting aspects of a game like Werewolf is just all the different ways things can go depending on how people act. Different choices for the wolves' target and investigations and accusations can all go a lot of different ways normally. But in Raging Loop, the choices are limited (and almost always just lead to an immediate bad end if you choose incorrectly) so the game actually ends up being completely linear with few deviations.

Maybe that's just an issue with expectations, but given the inspiration they're working with and the opportunities it presents, Raging Loop takes what makes the original Werewolf such an interesting experience and diminishes it into a structure for telling a very linear and unchanging experience. I can understand why they did this, but it does leave a poor taste in my mouth.

Second, and the issue most other reviews point to, is that the ending is atrocious. I honestly don't even know how to express the sheer nosedive the story takes once you approach the ending, but rest assured that I am not exaggerating when I say it is one of the stupidest and most out-there resolutions I have ever seen to a mystery. Ever seen the resolution to a Professor Layton game? Well think of something along similar levels of bullshit to that.

So good fundamentals, but brought down by some structural issues that underdeliver on the game's potential and an atrocious resolution. The early stuff can still be interesting to play and I enjoyed my time with it enough that I don't feel cheated of my time and money, but its hard to recommend the game given its pretty significant flaws.

Maybe play it if this seems like something up your alley. There is still good content to be found, just know ahead of time that the buildup is a much greater experience than the payoff. And don't touch any of the postgame content. Its not worth your time and retroactively makes the ending even worse.

Reviewed on Jul 20, 2022


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