Rotating Wolves for Easy Gamerscore
Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves is published and produced by Afil Games, a team that describes themselves as a publisher of fun, casual, and accessible games to all ages. Claim the Forest is itself a puzzle game, but the issue with puzzle games and maintaining accessibility is the fact that a puzzle that is hard for an adult can be impossible for a child, and vice versa.
It’s a hard line to balance a game to offer an appropriate difficulty curve for various ages, unless the puzzles themselves change.
Mastering the Pack
In Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves the goal is to place various wolves, or clusters of wolves, onto a grid until every space is occupied. Each wolf can be rotated to ensure they fit properly, and in the event a player comes across any roadblocks, the game offers the option to request a hint or reset the level.
Hints function by simply highlighting a block showing what shape of wolf needs to be placed in that location. Additional hints will show another highlighted block, and it’s possible to request as many hints as needed to complete the level. Any player that does struggle with a level doesn’t need to worry about getting stuck for long.
The Logic of the Grid
With these kinds of puzzle games, the difficulty is usually a matter of approaching the solution with an incorrect start. My standard approach to these kinds of games is to place the largest pieces into the puzzle before working down to the easier, smaller pieces. This typically works, but sometimes the largest piece needs to be put in a counter-intuitive location, which can lead to every other piece being out of place.
The mechanics are fundamentally the same between every puzzle though, and while the grid changes, the thought process between solutions remains fairly consistent.
The graphics themselves are what would be expected of a game in this price range, and the music is pretty redundant to the point I recommend having something else on in the background.
Familiar Territory
What really makes Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves feel redundant is the fact that it is identical to many other Afil Games’ games, especially that of Fit and Fry: Mise en Place. That’s not an exaggeration either, there are three Fit and Fry games, each that uses the same puzzle mechanics, from the grid to the hints and restart mechanics. The Mise en Place entry in the series is the latest one, and it features the exact same menu and UI layout as Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves.
The only real difference is in Fit and Fry the player is rotating and shoving vegetables into a frying pan humanely, while in Claim the Forest, you are rotating wolves. Which hardly seems like something animal welfare groups would recommend doing.
Boosting the Numbers
But like virtually every other game published by Afil Games, Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves gives you easy Gamerscore. In fact, you will gobble up 2000 Gamerscore in under thirty minutes of playtime, which is hard to beat for anyone looking to pump their numbers up.
Realistically, this is a game where the potential target audience is going to be on the younger side. It’s a great puzzle game for young children that can be occupied with the simple, yet straightforward design of the puzzles.
Because while the layouts and shapes of the wolves do change, the core mechanic of rotating them and fitting them into the grid does not. New mechanics don’t get introduced either, so once someone understands the concept they don’t need to worry about changing their understanding of the game.
Which could be great for young children, but feels absolutely tedious for everyone else.
As stated earlier, unless there are options to adjust the gameplay, then there is no way for the puzzles to offer an appropriate challenge for older and younger gamers. This game doesn’t offer anything of the like to allow for adjusting or modifying the difficulty. Perhaps a timer function would also be an option, but the blocks would also need to be randomized to provide any amount of challenge when attempting a level multiple times.
And believe me, currently, there is no reason to replay levels. There are no unlockables, par times, challenges to complete, or so on, that would encourage replaying the game.
Functional Puzzles for the Achievement Hunter
Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves doesn’t have any technical issues and everything functions as intended. But realistically, older gamers will be picking this up for the easy Gamerscore and not because they plan on being blown away by the gameplay.
On the bright side, if it is a genre you genuinely enjoy, and have been swept up by other games from Afil Games, then fill your boots, especially if it is wolves you are interested in.
Important Links
Claim the Forest: Shape of Wolves Launches On Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/claim-the-forest-shape-of-wolves-launches-on-xbox/
Buy the game from the Xbox Store, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/claim-the-forest-shape-of-wolves/9NT4M9D60LX5
There’s an Xbox One edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/claim-the-forest-shape-of-wolves-xbox-one/9pn0z71trp02
And one for Windows PC – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/claim-the-forest-shape-of-wolves-windows/9mvf4g5srwbn
