Wolf

The Good
Superb attention to detail - from the musical score, to the information about the life of wolves to the smooth animation of the predators, it's evident a lot of time and care was spent on the game.
Informative - there are plentiful nuggets of information provided during the course of a game, meaning you'll learn whilst playing.
Variety - hunt, eat, sleep. The life of a wolf doesn't sound that varied, yet the game has a great variety of scenarios to play, from finding lost cubs to just staying alive.

The Bad
The game needs 600K of base RAM to play with both sound and music, which can be fiddly for people not used to setting up a DOS configuration.
Some parts of the game seem superfluous, such as scent-marking. Yes, real wolves do it but it doesn't seem to be of any consequence in Wolf.
The CD-ROM version has wonderful audio tracks but the game will only play MIDI versions of them.

The Bottom Line
To this day Wolf remains the only wolf simulator out there. Playing the part of a wolf in a variety of settings, your basic goal is survival. By using your senses and pack members you're able to stalk and hunt prey, as well as ascending the pack hierarchy if you're not already the Alpha. Arguably the hardest part of the game is to successfully raise pups, something which is a real achievement if you manage it. The variety of scenarios ensures the game has a long life and there's a free-form mode which allows you to do as you please.

The real value of Wolf is in its educational features. There's a section with all sorts of hyperlinked information about wolves, along with multimedia such as clips of wolves snarling and animations of tail and body posture. It brings the world of the wolf alive, far more so than a textbook.

It was truly groundbreaking in 1994 and as a result of playing Wolf I'm now involved with the real thing at a wolf centre in England. Indeed, we often get asked if there are any decent games involving wolves and the only one I recommend is Wolf. My copy now resides on a PC in the visitor centre and it's proved popular with children and adults alike - hopefully a glowing compliment of the way the game has stood the test of time!

The Good
From just game-fan's point of view: What we have here is a kind of an unusual simulation. You don't see games like this too often. Animal simulation! What a concept!

And it's fairly well-done too. Rather nice graphics for the day, and very nice and cute music too. The game has a quite interesting, realistic, and nicely working atmosphere.

Playability had been worked fairly nicely, with a good job at making logical mouse and keyboard controls.

I also like the interactive wolf encyclopedia part. Interesting and fun and cute at times.

The Bad
When the wolves died. =(

And, of course, some facts related to the fact that this is a life simulator: Real life, simulated or not, can get boring at times. But that's generally why we're allowed to save game and try something else for a chance.

The Bottom Line
This is a wolf's life with all of its joys and griefs. Certainly no walk in the park compared to human lives.

Here we see the wolves run around, hunt, eat and drink, dodge traps and hunters, mate*, feed those cute little pups, howl, meet other wolves of the pack, fight for their rank in the wolf pack, travel, and, well, live. All done in a nice simulation / RPG way.

There's a mission mode with pretty clear details, and a free-play mode. The mission mode also has cute video clips when you win (which are longer on the CD-ROM version). And, it has an encyclopedia part too.

Graphics are nice, some based on photographs. Definitely something fun for wolf fans!

• For some reason, this has to be mentioned in every review of this game. At least it seemed so back in the day when this game came out. Happy now? =) Never worry though, it doesn't get too detailed in this respect.

The Good
1. Excellent animation of the wolves and other creatures. 2. Music sounds as mysterious as the wolves themselves. The CD-ROM version has red-book audio. 3. Sound effects accurately captures the feeling of life in the wild. 4. Game also comes with info about real wolves. 5. Chasing after large prey with the whole pack is one of the highlights in the game.

The Bad
1. It can get a tad boring at times when you're not hungry and there's no present danger. 2. Mating is rather difficult to achieve. 3. There are no other predators in the game to compete with. More variety would be nice, like bears, cougars and foxes. 4. It's nearly impossible to escape from men once they have you in their sights, but if you're careful, this isn't much of an issue.

The Bottom Line
There have been other wolf simulations that have come out since then, but none of them have come close to Sanctuary Woods' realistic portrayal of the wolf. This is a must-have for all wolf fans.

The Good
Michael and I wrote this game back in '92 so of course I'm very happy that it is still around. It was probably one of the most challenging and interesting assignments I'd ever had. As it was in the end, I had done my best so I hope others can enjoy the game. Watch out for the hunters they are deadly :)

The Bad
Sometimes there is not much going on. Also at times it seems to easy.

The Bottom Line
A true to life depiction of how Wolves live.