Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries est un jeu d'action/plateforme financé en partie par un Kickstarter réussi. Un peu à l'instar de Alice: Madness Returns, il nous met à la place d'un personnage mondialement connu dans un contexte dramatique. Après avoir passé pas mal de temps en Alpha, le jeu est enfin disponible en Early Access sur Steam à petit prix.
Il faut savoir que le jeu sera disponible en 2 parties, une vendue ici même et qui sera disponible en version finale le 17 mars 2015 et l'autre qui sera disponible en Aout 2015. A l'heure actuelle, le jeu vaut le coup d'œil et même l'achat si vous aimez les beaux jeux de plateforme avec beaucoup d'action. Le gameplay est excellent et les sensations sont au rendez vous. Le personnage répond bien aux contrôles et les checkpoints sont très bien placés afin d'éviter toute frustration. Les puzzles sont assez limités mais ils restent néanmoins de bon aloi.
Au niveau de la réalisation, le jeu est beau, fluide mais certaines animations sont assez vilaines à regarder. La maniabilité est très bonne et le pad Xbox One répond parfaitement à nos sollicitations. L'histoire semble être assez légère mais cette histoire de vengeance ne manque pas de piquant car elle est très bien racontée en rimes. Elle se dévoile également via des symboles cachés qu'il faudra aller chercher un peu partout. La durée de vie semble légère à ce moment précis mais tout est encore en friche au niveau de certains aspects comme les combats contre les boss par exemple.
Il faudra donc acheter la seconde partie plus tard dans l'année si l'on souhaite découvrir toute l'histoire. Si le prix reste stable, ca ferait le jeu à 20€ ce qui est tout à fait raisonnable à mon humble avis. Les personnes ayant participé à la campagne Kickstarter auront eux droit aux 2 épisodes bien évidemment.
Dois-je acheter le jeu? Oui si vous aimez la plateforme et l'action dans un bel écrin et que vous soyez patients car le jeu a encore besoin de temps pour s'affiner et devenir un incontournable de cette année 2015 dans sa catégorie.
Présentation officielle:
Why Early Access?
“The successful Kickstarter campaign for Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries last summer provided us with financial support and valuable feedback from our Alpha and Beta backers, who’ve been testing the game throughout development. We’re very grateful for their help and support, but with only a few weeks to go until actual launch, we need all the input we can get. Especially from people looking at the game for the very first time. Are our tutorials clear to a first-time player? Do you understand where to go in the levels and what to do?
People have been asking us for early access and we are happy to oblige! Please help us polish the game, optimize the levels and hunt for bugs. Together, we can make this game as good as it can possibly be in the final sprint towards our release date.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“The release of Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries is scheduled for March 17th 2015.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The full version will include new level designs and boss fights following community input. And obviously it will be overall polished. We will hold back the final boss fight and story outcome until the very end of the Early Access period, due to spoilers. The end scenes will be released together with the full release on March 17th.”
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“Woolfe is currently in a late Alpha / early Beta stage of development, meaning every aspect of the game will still be improved and fine-tuned. From combat mechanics to level design, balance, training, polish and bugs to audio.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Our price during the Early Access period is fixed and will be the same upon launch.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“Our community has always had a huge influence on the development course of Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries and we really hope to extend this relationship during the final countdown to release. We would sincerely appreciate your help in balancing out the difficulty of the game, tracking down bugs and flaws and getting better stats on known issues, feedback on tutorials and navigation through the levels. Apart from that, your input could really make a difference in specific “under construction areas” (marked as such in the game):
The boss fights
Two out of the three boss fights featured in the game are still “under
construction” and we’d love to hear your thoughts as we
develop these. We will release them one by one early on Early Access, so
you can give us very specific feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
Level design
There’s a few scenes where we feel the level design could still be
improved or even completely changed. We’re talking actual new puzzles
and stuff like that. Ideas for improvement: more than welcome!
Targeted testing
We plan to launch short surveys where people get to rate specific features / elements of the game (story, puzzles, combat etc). Throughout the EA campaign, we’ll also do some very targeted A-B testing, asking for your opinion on things we as a team can’t seem to agree on. What visual to use for the menu-screen for example...”
