Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

45%
Game Brain Score Based on 408 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • gameplay
Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries Game Cover
Woolfe The Red Hood Diaries is a twisted gothic fairy tale that at times is held back by its mediocre gaming mechanics
Starting at $3.14Buy now

"Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries" is a stunning single-player fantasy platformer game with a unique plot, with Red Riding Hood seeking vengeance in a gorgeous 2.5D universe. The game offers marvelous music and plenty of humor, although it's plagued with bugs and didn't meet its Kickstarter promises. Despite its atmospheric setting and intriguing fairytale bosses, the second chapter's future remains uncertain due to mixed reviews for the first.

  • PC
  • Windows
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

45%
Audience ScoreBased on 408 reviews
story90 positive mentions
stability16 negative mentions
  • Beautiful graphics and art style that create an immersive atmosphere.
  • Interesting twist on the classic Red Riding Hood story with engaging narration.
  • Decent platforming mechanics that provide a fun gameplay experience.
  • Very short game length, typically completed in 2-3 hours, leaving players wanting more.
  • Combat mechanics are clunky and lack depth, making battles feel repetitive.
  • Frequent bugs and glitches, including issues with hit detection and camera angles, detract from the overall experience.
  • story301 mentions

    The story of "Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries" presents a dark reimagining of the classic Little Red Riding Hood tale, featuring a protagonist on a quest for revenge after her father's mysterious death. While the narrative has potential and is delivered in a poetic style, many players find it lacking depth and coherence, often feeling rushed and incomplete, especially given the game's abrupt cliffhanger ending. Overall, the storytelling is visually appealing but suffers from pacing issues and a lack of resolution, leaving players disappointed by the game's short length and the disbandment of its development team.

    • “The story is well written, using fairy tales we all know and twisting them into something altogether darker and more sinister.”
    • “The story follows the central character, Red Riding Hood, as she goes, axe in hand, to find BB Woolfe to exact revenge for the death of her father.”
    • “The artwork was very immersive and beautiful, the world that you travel through is a beautiful but terrible place and completely draws you into the story.”
    • “The story is almost non-existent and ends with a cliffhanger after a mere 2 hours of gameplay.”
    • “The story is weak, and the protagonist keeps making commentaries along the journey: I don't know about you guys, but that was pretty annoying and bad for me.”
    • “The story tries to be quite dark and full of twists, and I do believe it could have been a pretty good story at that, if only the game were at least three or four times longer than it is.”
  • graphics156 mentions

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning art style and detailed visuals, often compared to the aesthetics of titles like "Alice: Madness Returns." While many reviewers highlight the beautiful and immersive environments, some note inconsistencies in texture quality and graphical performance issues. Overall, the game's visuals are considered its strongest aspect, overshadowing its gameplay shortcomings.

    • “The graphics are incredible, the gameplay a little more complex than a 2D platformer, the story itself as a variation of the fairy tale is more predictable but there are still surprises along the way.”
    • “The graphics and art are fun, but the gameplay is a little boring.”
    • “The graphics are beautiful, textures look great and the world that has been created for the game is amazing.”
    • “Graphics are jittery on my system, and controls feel very clunky.”
    • “To be fair though, the game does have some flaws like the controls that are a little bit flaky sometimes, a few repetitive sequences and pretty bad graphics considering its release date.”
    • “Lastly, there were a few graphical bugs that made it seem like the creators were too lazy to fix or work on.”
  • gameplay140 mentions

    The gameplay of "Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries" is widely criticized for its clunky mechanics, unresponsive controls, and repetitive combat, which detracts from the overall experience. While the game features appealing aesthetics and an engaging story, many players find the platforming elements frustrating and the combat system lacking depth. Overall, the gameplay is seen as a significant weakness, overshadowing the game's visual and narrative strengths.

    • “7 hours of cool gameplay, nice story (another version of Red Hood), nice aesthetics.”
    • “The gameplay is awesome, the music is good, and the story says a lot.”
    • “In terms of gameplay, Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries is basically a 3D arcade game with a strong emphasis on 2D platforming mechanics which looks glorious on a PC with full detail.”
    • “The gameplay in Wonderland barely makes the game worth mentioning, but the broken gameplay almost makes players feel terrible during the game.”
    • “It's a shame then, that everything relating to the gameplay is so stilted and terrible.”
    • “The physics and mechanics are quite mediocre and unpolished; sometimes your character will get stuck on the smallest objects, and the responsiveness of the controls is not really 'responsive'.”
  • music52 mentions

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its atmospheric quality and ability to enhance the overall experience. While some players found the soundtrack to be excellent and immersive, others noted that it can become repetitive and fails to match the intensity of key moments in the gameplay. Overall, the music is often highlighted as one of the game's standout features, contributing positively to its gothic aesthetic and storytelling.

    • “The pros of the game would be its soundtrack, which I would say was probably the most enjoyable feature of the whole game.”
    • “The music is awesome and gives a great atmosphere to the game.”
    • “Love the soundtrack and atmosphere in this game.”
    • “The story is wonky, the gameplay is wonky, and the soundtrack is non-existent.”
    • “The music during tense/key moments just stays the same and doesn't really fit what's happening at the time, so the story being told isn't coming across as it should.”
    • “Negative points I find: the music repeats over and over again and gets annoying at some point.”
  • atmosphere31 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its stunning graphics, captivating music, and effective character designs, which together create an immersive experience. Many reviewers highlight the enchanting and dark ambiance, enhanced by atmospheric monologues and well-executed sound design, although some note that gameplay mechanics occasionally detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game's atmosphere is considered one of its strongest aspects, successfully drawing players into its narrative and world.

    • “The music is awesome and gives a great atmosphere to the game.”
    • “The environment is well done, and the theme and atmosphere are done perfectly to push the story and embody the tale.”
    • “Woolfe is an interesting short platforming adventure with an enchanting atmosphere and gorgeous graphics.”
    • “I say this so that you can understand me when I say the game lacks atmosphere.”
    • “Despite some negative combat issues, Woolfe is a superb old-school platformer with a great central character, witty dialogue and bags of atmosphere.”
    • “The hack n slash is a little repetitious, but I really do like the storytelling and atmosphere.”
  • stability18 mentions

    The game's stability is a mixed bag, with many players reporting various bugs and glitches, such as falling through platforms, laggy controls, and issues that can disrupt gameplay significantly. While some users found the game enjoyable despite these flaws, others experienced frequent crashes and frustrating gameplay interruptions, leading to a consensus that stability needs improvement. Overall, while the game has potential and beautiful artwork, the presence of persistent glitches detracts from the overall experience.

    • “The game ran smoothly with no glitches, freezing, or tears.”
    • “This game has so much potential and is very gorgeous to play when it works. I hope the next volume improves immensely and provides players with a completed experience with minor to no glitches at all, leaving customers satisfied.”
    • “I actually really like this game despite the mixed reception it has; seriously though, I can't play more than a half hour before it glitches out and slows down to the point where I need to quit the game.”
    • “The character you play likes to run backwards a lot and the screen glitches around a lot, making the game completely unplayable at times, forcing me to have to exit and restart the game.”
    • “After playing this game (on easy no less), I encountered unintuitive gameplay, glitches that blocked progress, screwed up hit boxes, and even glitches that made the game too easy.”
  • humor14 mentions

    The humor in the game is a mix of dark and absurd elements, with players finding amusement in the protagonist's witty one-liners and the exaggerated, often ridiculous deaths she experiences. While some aspects of the humor, such as the rhyming dialogue, can be grating or predictable, many players appreciate the blend of macabre and comedic moments that contribute to the overall experience. Overall, the humor is described as hit-or-miss, with a tendency towards being both funny and frustrating at times.

    • “I found it hilarious in a so-terrible-it's-good kind of way.”
    • “Good game, beautiful graphics, there are some flaws, but overall, it's a good game, very funny to play if you like platform games.”
    • “Red herself is a tough female protagonist who gives funny one-liners during the game, which adds some fun to an otherwise sad tale.”
  • character development8 mentions

    Overall, the character development in the game is praised for its appealing designs and atmosphere, particularly highlighting the character of Red. However, some players express a desire for deeper storytelling and more extensive character development, indicating that while the visuals are strong, the narrative depth could be improved.

    • “Character design is interesting and lovely.”
    • “I do like the character design, mainly Red's appearance.”
    • “Great story, character design, and detailed graphics.”
    • “I was also hoping for more story depth and more character development, as well as more characters.”
  • replayability6 mentions

    Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the high replay value due to multiple difficulty settings and achievements, others criticize its short length and lack of content, leading to a general sentiment that it offers little incentive for repeated play.

    • “High replay value, 3 difficulty settings, and 20 achievements will make you rerun parts of the game several times while it doesn't get boring.”
    • “Once again, it is a very short game and has very little replayability.”
    • “The short length, lack of replay value, and overall average underlying gameplay makes the only high point its presentation, and if you want that, I'm sure there are wallpapers you can put on your desktop for a week a year to get your fix.”
    • “This game is too short and doesn't have replayability.”
  • optimization5 mentions

    The game's optimization has received criticism for being subpar, with players noting that the magic system and overall controls feel poorly refined. While it supports both keyboard and controller inputs, many users feel that the experience is not smooth, leading to frustrating gameplay moments.

    • “No mouse needed; the keyboard is enough, though the game seems to be optimized for controller (which is certainly also supported).”
    • “The optimization could be improved to enhance the overall experience.”
    • “While the game is enjoyable, there are areas where optimization could elevate it to the next level.”
    • “The magic system could have been optimized.”
    • “Also, optimization is terrible.”
    • “It doesn't seem optimized at all, causing a walk-in-the-park parkour to feel like I'm hitting my head into a wall.”
  • grinding3 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly when forced to replay the same level segment multiple times to discover the correct path. While some appreciate the gameplay variety that alleviates the feeling of grinding, others feel that the respawn animations contribute to the overall repetitiveness and frustration during trial and error scenarios.

    • “Having to replay through the same level segment 20+ times on occasion to work out the single linear route becomes tedious.”
    • “The whole respawn animation effect makes it a little too tedious when you do trial and error.”
  • emotional3 mentions

    Players report a strong emotional connection to the game, particularly through its independent female protagonist and engaging narrative elements. However, some criticize the lack of interactivity and environmental coherence, which detracts from the overall immersive experience. Additionally, the game evokes intense physical reactions, such as motion sickness, highlighting its impactful design.

    • “A strong independent female protagonist, an emotional attachment within minutes of the game, great understanding of game elements and much more.”
    • “The game even made me feel motion sickness for the first time in my life.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

55% average critic score

Buy Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

Play time

2hMedian play time
3hAverage play time
2-4hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 5 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Similar Games