House of Wolves by Shruti Deo
I always read all the other reviews of a game before writing my own. And we’re now at a stage of the competition where sometimes, this means that I feel everything has been said and I do not really have a new perspective to add. That’s certainly the case here.
House of Wolves is a short horror game about a study-at-home student (who isn’t really studying as much as just dragging themselves through their days). The student has to eat dinner every day with their abusive family group, who want the protagonist to be ‘presentable’ at dinner; to eat slabs of raw meat, cause they’re wolves; and to be thankful, because everything that is done to them is for their own good. Classic abuse. The meat and the wolves are not doubt a metaphor, but as Mike Russo and others have pointed out… it’s not clear what it’s a metaphor for. It kind of just becomes another metaphor for abuse.
The writing is good, and so is the lay-out and structure. In terms of atmosphere, I was vaguely reminded of Bogeyman. But that was a substantial work that could really hit you. House of Wolves is extremely short; a coffee break horror; perhaps an appetiser for something bigger that Shruti Deo will give us in the future.