The Runt of the Xbox Litter
Talk about a bad omen. The first thing we saw in Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits, the very first thing that it showed us, was a typo. There, on the title screen, big as you like, was ‘Wold Pack’ (sic). When your game can’t even spell its own title correctly, you know something bad is brewing.
Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits is the latest from Aery developers EpiXR Games, which is – perhaps – the second bad omen. I would say that the Aery games are too prolific for their own good. They release at such a fast rate that they can arrive buggy, and they certainly aren’t afforded enough time for new levels or mechanics. I don’t personally associate EpiXR with things like care or growing a franchise. They wouldn’t be our first choice for an open world wolf game.
They’ve let in a right howler
You are a cub who finds themselves chosen by the ancients. You’re given a mission to locate and wake your siblings so that you can form a wolf pack. Waking them is actually the hard bit: they’re all in a deep sleep, presumably from a big hunt the night before, and you have to travel into their dreamscapes to wake them up. Once they’re awake and in your pack, you can confront the evil in the realm.
It takes a couple of seconds to realise that something is awry with Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits. The camera is awful – perhaps the worst I’ve come across in a modern 3D game. It’s jittery, moving from the back-left to the back-right of the wolf on a whim. If the terrain is even remotely bumpy, it panics, moving in an orbit around the wolf’s bottom. Things get even worse when you’re walking over bridges, as the camera dips underneath as if it’s searching for trolls. You have to walk forward and hope you’re making progress, since you can’t actually see anything.
My daughter who, I am sad to say, was extremely excited to play something called Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits (and who had exhausted The First Tree, Spirit of the North, Endling and others), was instantly disappointed. She wanted to explore the sides of the valley, but immediately fell through the world. Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits pretends to offer an open world, but if you step off a path, it will throw a paddy and toss you into the water. She walked through rocks, inspected floating decor, and had to restart multiple times. After fifteen minutes, she had given up.
Perhaps an Open World Wasn’t the Wisest Idea
It was my turn to step up. So, I explored the open world in an effort to find sibling wolves. Except Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits doesn’t follow any rules of level design. Paths look inviting, but they lead nowhere. Points of interest, like windmills and lakes, do nothing. Glowing orbs lead you up mountain paths, a breadcrumb trail that surely should take you somewhere of value. But nope, there is nothing but more floating rocks. We even encountered a signpost with an arrow. It pointed into a cave with an immediate dead-end. Finding a wolf was an utter lottery.
Through a sequence of miracles, we found some of the wolves. Which meant dreamscape sections. Most of these dreamscapes are collectathons. You’ve got a sprawling location and collectibles of various shapes to find. Except there’s no map and no points-of-interest to orient yourself by. It’s almost impossible to stay oriented in the mazes of forests, rocks, cemeteries and mountains, as everything looks the same. Even the collectibles disappear, so you can’t correct yourself if you get turned around.
To add to the punishment, you’re often hunted. Our favourite was an asthmatic bear who would follow us while wheezing. It would have been funny if the sound wasn’t un-bear-able. My daughter said it was the same sound that she makes when she’s slurping at the end of a milkshake, and she’s absolutely right. Exploration is bad enough without an awful sound-effect hunting you down.
The Hovering Spectre of AI
Oh, we could go on and on. The story is laughable, with glorious phrases like ‘the ancient ancestors’ to chew over like gristle. At one point we were exposed to six consecutive sentences describing winter, like someone was working through a Thesaurus chronologically. It must be the product of AI: for the sake of humanity, I hope that’s the case. If it’s from a human then perhaps AI should take over.
That same AI accusation gets levelled at the music. The score is off-key, with jarring notes that sound like someone is headbutting the piano keys. I’ve played Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits in front of three separate groups, mostly to share the experience, and all three have noted of their own volition that something is deeply wrong with the soundtrack.
The shoddiness is almost impressive in its comprehensiveness. Almost every single aspect of Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits is bad, verging on broken. The camera, controls, speed of movement, exploration, level design, objectives, map, music – they are all abysmal. Only the level art can deliver something that approaches ‘okay’. There’s a simple beauty to the polygonal world… if only the camera would let us look at it, and the wolf didn’t disappear through the geometry.
What’s the Opposite of an Apex Predator?
I have a theory. Anyone with eyes and opposable thumbs would have told EpiXR Games that Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits wasn’t ready for release. It’s a miracle that it even passed certification.
My theory is that it was released accidentally. Someone’s finger slipped on the ‘Go!’ button, and suddenly Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits is out in the wild. Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits isn’t out on Steam yet, we noticed, when EpiXR tends to release on multiple platforms concurrently. I’m being deadly serious: I’m not 100% sure that Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits was meant to be released in this state.
Because this is not a finished game. It is many leagues away from being average, let alone good. Wold/Wolf Pack is by some distance the worst game I’ve reviewed in 2026, and I’m not convinced that its crown will be snatched away.
Important Links
Wolf Pack – Howling Spirits Sends You On A Journey Of Dreams And Quiet Discovery – https://www.thexboxhub.com/wolf-pack-howling-spirits-sends-you-on-a-journey-of-dreams-and-quiet-discovery/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/wolf-pack-howling-spirits/9ppn6jxj60hd
