Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries Preview

Taking well known children’s stories and corrupting them by adding mature or adult elements is nothing new to the world of gaming. This idea was most likely popularized by American McGee’s Alice though the original fables and tales possess a much darker tone than the versions most of us grew up with.

Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries is the latest title to follow in this line of thinking. The story is not a retelling of Little Red Riding hood, rather it draws themes and imagery from it while creating a new narrative. Currently, the game is still in Alpha stage of production so much of it is still in incomplete, missing, or otherwise unfinished. Even so, what I saw left me highly impressed.

We follow the titular Red Hood’s exploits as she traverses through several fairy-tale inspired locations. In each stage we witness the folk tale heroine either reading or writing a passage on her diary describing the game’s events. These are read in a somber tone and do a good job of establishing the story without feeling forced or contrived.

Gameplay is handled mostly in a 2.5D perspective. While the main character can walk in any direction platforms are generally designed so as to restrict depth movement save for certain specific locations. The camera is also fixed in a way that further emphasis 2D movement but this comes at a cost. It can be hard to detect paths leading to the foreground and jumping onto platforms is made even more difficulty by a camera that hinders depth perspective.

Littered throughout each stage are several instant death traps, however the current build is generous with checkpoints. Therefore most platforming segments required little to no memorization. Several puzzles must be solved in order to progress within each level. These were limited to pressing the right buttons at the correct time or simply figuring out which is order should one begin exploring each area.

Occasionally players will come across enemies, but in the current build they did not pose much of a threat as simply button mashing was more than enough to take them down.

Graphically the game is very impressive from both a technical and artistic standpoint. Levels feature a visual aesthetic that effectively mixes fantasy and turn of the century technology. Locales range from dark foreboding forests to impossibly large steam punk facilities while drawing influence from other children stories and songs including Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland.

The combination of these elements results in some levels being artistically similar to Peter Molyneux’ Fable series while others were more akin to a Tim Burton movie. Even the soundtrack seemed at times eerily similar to Danny Elfman’s work.

While the game is still far from finished I was impressed by how polished it was. The premise is interesting, the platforming mechanics sound and there is plenty of eye candy to keep players interested. If the camera and combat issues are addressed Grin GameStudio will have a winner on their hands.