I was sent Howl as a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. If you enjoy these reviews, please leave a like, comment, follow, and share this with your friends. You can also always buy me coffee.
Howl is a turn-based strategy game you can pick up now on Switch and Steam, and PlayStation, Xbox, and Epic Games on January 23rd.
A strange disease spreads through the land, turning anyone who hears it into a violent beast. It is now up to one lone girl to brave the dangers of this new world and find the cure. Fight monsters, save survivors, and forge your destiny. Do you have what it takes?
Howl is such a beautiful game with a unique concept. I am a huge fan of the living ink art style. It reminds me of old Germanic folktales and makes for such a magnificent vibe. It has beautifully voice-acted narration, a phenomenal score, and some neat animations. I recommend you at least check out the demos to appreciate how pretty this game is.
Most importantly, Howl is a fun game with unique gameplay that would make an excellent addition to your library. While Howl does have unique strategy elements, the game feels like a puzzle.
Each stage has a limited number of turns, actions, and resources you can use to clear the stage and collect all of the loot. Each stage awards players with nodes of light or skulls that players will need to level up the prophet. These upgrades unlock or power up new spells and give you more turns per action. You’ll need these upgrades to 100% clear some stages.
The action economy is what makes this game unique. Where other strategy games separate hero and enemy actions, Howl combines them. Players have a set number of actions they can perform per turn. They can move a space, attack with an arrow, or use magic. Enemies perform their actions in reaction to a player’s. Players need to queue up all available actions in a turn while guessing how the enemy will react, turning this game into a puzzle. Players must manage their resources efficiently while guessing or memorizing enemy patterns effectively. There is an assist mode that lets you see enemy movements, but it is much more satisfying to solve correctly on your own.
I loved Howl because of how unique and manageable it is. If you are looking for a beautiful casual experience with enough of a challenge, this game belongs in your library. It looks cool, sounds great, and the gameplay is fun. You can pick up Howl on Switch and Steam today, or wait till January 23rd to get it on PlayStation, Xbox., or Epic Games. There is a demo available for Steam, Switch, and Xbox.