Player Comments on Alpha Wolf

General Recommendation: I recommend this game, particularly to those looking for a well-branching narrative, those fond of traditional monster movies, and anyone looking for a fun and varied game.
Preview: Can you, a semi-washed up werewolf, reclaim your former glory days and make an impact on this world popultaed with characters from monster movies?

=SPOILERS BELOW=

General notes:
The idea of a world where monsters from horror B-movies live alongside humans is a truly unique concept that I’ve never seen done anywhere else. It’s a fresh idea with lots of possibility, and the wide variety of branches in this story explores it in a full and satisfying way, without ever letting the concept overstay its welcome. It’s not easy to put werewolves, mad scientists, and martians all in the same world and still have it feel natural, but all the elements of this story feel like they really could exist alongside each other.
Wolf’s pride in his own, and his struggles with his changing role in a new world are struggles many people can relate to. This parallel makes the character three dimensional and relatable, while not hitting the reader over the head with it.
Once again, EndMaster does an excellent job writing a character with an antisocial nature and aggression issues to be genuinely likeable, without falling into any of the common edgy pitfalls many similar characters do. Wolf is an excellent character, and the perfect choice to narrate this story. His done-with-everything attitude only makes the story’s campy aspects more fun and amusing.
The campy concept of movie monsters works well with the episodic tone of the story’s different plots. Each of the plots is its own little snapshot of Wolf’s life, allowing a glimpse into the colorful variety of characters and monsters you can encounter.
Despite each of the individual characters not having much screen time, each of them brings something new and interesting to the story, and it’s fun to see the variety of different inspirations for the characters in this story. A few highlights are the creature from the black lagoon, a typical long-winded posturing alien invader (I know he actually looks like bigfoot, but I kept visualizing him as the alien from looney tunes), an assortment of mad scientists (from Invisible to Fly), THEM!, killer plants, Frankenstein's entourage, and vampires.
I’d be quite curious to know the inspiration for this story, as it is a genuinely original concept.

Specific notes:
-The opening paragraph does an excellent job of characterizing the narrator with “You also realize it’s still daylight. You hate waking up early.”
-As always, I’m not a big fan of extra information links. I do think they’re important in this story though, as without them it would be tough for the player to get a feel of this unfamiliar world and its characters. As usual, the pace of EndMaster’s writing style helps these links be genuinely entertaining rather than just info dumps to slog through.
-Selecting a werewolf to tell this story through is a good choice. Many movie monsters are too specific or strange to be familiar to the average reader, but everyone is familiar with the concept behind werewolves.
-I’m usually annoyed by random murder schemes against the main character, but the tone of this work and characterizationo of Jekyll make it believable.
-I like that the government is taking advantage of the mad science in this world. Too often, alternate universes that have a concept like this (such as “real life superpowers” or “wizards”) will ignore the obvious real-world implications of its developments. Details like this make the world feel much fuller.
-The ending of the super serum plot is a nice “and the adventure continues” way of wrapping things up. I came, I saw, I kicked ass, I didn’t get paid. Life goes on.
-Henry tries to do the supervillain thing and explain why he did everything, and Wolf is having none of this shit.
-Though the ending where you refuse Henry’s offer is obviously more mundane, it does a good job of showing what Wolf’s “typical” jobs are like.
-The martians being defeated by the common cold is both amusing, and scientifically accurate, especilly since Earth has a higher temperature and more biodiversity than Mars.
-Gil’s complaints about factories being built in his swamp is an excellent tone-setting detail, showing both reality of the world, and the frustration many of the old monsters are having with its changes.
-I like how Wolf and Godzilla are both fans of each other, the casual way in which they interact fits the nature of the story’s humor.
-Moreau’s “paradise” has obviously been on the tipping edge for a while. In the endings where you do talk the inhabitants into standing up for themselves, the island descends into violence soon afterwards.
-Lol, Andre can’t get ANY free sugar packets? He’s clearly just not trying hard enough.
-It’s interesting that many of the monsters (like Kong) have gotten used to human comforts. It just shows how much the world has changed for them.
-It’s amusing that Wolf’s main beef with the body snatchers is how boring they are. UPDATE: Curses! Defeated by the history of cabinet making!
-It would have been interesting to see the storyline with the killer plants developed a little more, they’re certainly a staple of the genre and lend themselves to a wide variety of plots.
-After the (fun) chaos of the previous arcs, the plotline with Lawrence and Mary is a surprising and pleasant diversion. It’s nice that Wolf gets the chance to reconnect with his ex and his son, and meet some new family members he can be proud of.
-It’s both interesting and in character that Wolf remains satisfied as long has he gets pretty much any ending other than death. He’s attached to the “Alpha Wolf” image, and reassures himself that he’s still top dog no matter what, even in the pathes where he’s failed to assert himself.
-Interesting that Wolf hasn’t run into any of the wannabe werewolves, because there are PLENTY of them, and yes, Wolf would definitely hate them.
-Wolf’s random decision to go attack Vlad and/or Victor would seem weird in almost any other story, but given his personality and the tone, it works here.
-The path were Wolf takes the pack of actors for Mary’s movie under his wing to kick Victor’s ass is oddly amusing. It seems that on both this path and the one with his son, he winds up playing the mentor figure role regardless, despite his derision of the concept.
-I like the way the conflict between vampires and vampire hunters has adapted to the modern age, and I like the references to how the cinematic potrayal of vampires has changed a lot over time.

Grammar: All good!
Mastery of Language
Yeah, there’s a bunch of sentence structure issues, this could have used another proofread. It’s not enough to distract from the writing, but enough to be noticed. Some more commas would be nice.

Branching:
This game has some of the best branching out there, even better than EndMaster’s other majorly branching work, paradise violated. The player gets to make lots of important decisions.
Obviously the broad nature of this story means the individual plots can’t be as deep or complex as the ones in EndMaster’s longer works. The story doesn’t suffer from this, however, rather it fits the work’s episodic tone.

Player Options/fair choice: Very good, there is generally a clear strategy available for each challenge.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I guess I never gave this game a complete playthrough the first time around, so finding all the new branches while doing this reveiw was a pleasant surprise.

CONCLUSION: A fun and particularly original game, with a unique brand of humor.

This is my favorite of End's games that I've played so far. The routes feel so different in tone, humor, sorts of activities (tactical battles, chase scenes, romantic interventions, leading various packs of wolves and animal mutants, and absurd love stories). So many narratives in one, but all linked together by Wolf, whose grizzled and mildly annoyed and above-it-all attitude yokes it all together. Without that attitude, it would be half the game it is; with that attitude, with Wolf's casually violent and cynical attitude, it works.

“Damn, I really am getting too old for this shit,” you say to yourself.

That's the line that most captures the attitude here. All of the classic movie monsters are here, but older, more annoying, and generally pissing each other off.
The game pretty much always rewards thinking like Wolf, going for the throat, thinking about yourself, and not getting too caught up with these idiots you're meeting. You fight a little, mate a little, lead a little, and then leave. And that helps get the character across--the voice of Wolf is hilarious, and the info entries, while not always my favorite in games, are written in that voice as well, making them a fun and funny read rather than a tedious info dump.

There's a lot here, and it's all pretty funny and action packed, with a lot of memorable scenes. I especially really enjoyed how the fight scenes were in interesting places--Victor's castle, trying to pull out Vlad's heart, the elevator scene with Hyde--Igor firing from the wall--biting Ro-man--... When a game can have so many fight scenes and make each one so distinctive and different and interesting, something has gone right. Just a lot of fun. I could see myself replaying this again quite soon.

I’ve never read or watched the Phantom of the Opera, nor have the faintest idea about what happens, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what the deal was with Erik and probably never would have realised if the memories were not there. I’m sure if it was the intention, but I found the first page humorous when Erik was all depressed in that classic artsy way.

The memories were nice at the start as they were both funny and informative, but as the story went on became a bit tiring. They took me away from the ongoing plot and required the reader to read carefully as they contained a lot of information. I felt like I had a lot thrown at me and by the time I reached the third or fourth page I had already forgotten a lot of what I learnt on the first pages.

It was slightly weird to play as a wolf, and several times I would frown for a moment when reading parts like ‘“Nancy unexpectedly picks you up and puts on it. “Ohh your fur is so soft.” She says brushing her finger against your back.’ Just sort of odd and unexpected. Although it was super weird, it was also funny in parts, especially when I imagined a wolf riding a Harley.

I did really enjoy how the wolf was constantly angry with Erik and exploding all over the place, it was enjoyable and funny to see what insults he could come up with next. Most of the characters were unique and memorable (mostly achieved through the memories), even those that are less important to the storyline. It was also nice to see the wolf start to develop in some of the paths.

The fighting was also written very well, I liked how the reader had a direct influence into the outcome which helped to keep me engaged. The wolf instinct kinda thing made the fighting that much more interesting and unique. It was also nice that the deaths weren’t waffled around, they were nice and detailed, good for a horror story. Sometimes it did get a little far-fetched- I’m not sure how one manages to shove a table leg through a chest- but otherwise I enjoyed reading through the various torture and killing methods.

My favourite branch would definitely have to mad scientist one. Gaining little wolflings and throwing brains at Frankie was also pretty cool.
I didn’t feel like the endings gave me the same satisfaction that I had from some of Endmasters other stories, but I appreciated the variety of them and the abundance of choices and branches. Overall, I enjoyed reading Alpha Wolf, especially the fighting and killing and thought the references to characters from other works were clever and well intricated, even if I didn’t always understand them at first.

goated

Very baddie, very cutesy, and very demure

ATE. SO GOOD! but so long scentences.. still great

Enlightening. Truly enlightening.

Made me happy how he changed, great story.

it was amazing to see through the eyes of an alpha wolf

okay! that was one hell of a journey. throughoutly enjoyed the pure madness of it, and even managed to 100% (i think). very much enjoyed the interaction between charcters and the story as a whole, and im a faggot too, so that says a lot!

its damn good! wish Kong's side of the story was expanded on more, though.

Pretty good, not furry stuff like I thought it would be

It's fun and exciting.

10/10 for Phantom of the Opera reference

Boring

Writing needs work but i'd watch as an anime

Maybe... Decrease the use of swear words to get an 8

11/10

I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading this. Still more paths to find but this is great. Not as dark or edgy as some of Endmaster's stuff if that matters to anyone, it's just action and fun. And the whole concept of it is great.

Incredible story. As someone who was born in the 1970s and is thus old enough to remember what being cool actually means, I found this quite refreshing. Why is this not a video game or movie? Especially the part about taking down Fagula and Frankenstein. Fantastic.

Inapropiathu

Again, this was made on my birthday. Aside from that, it was a perfect story or storybook or something. I had taken a route that made me retrace my steps in some ways, since no matter what i did, i couldn't find a good enough ending.

The thing that I loved most was that the characters were expressed almost perfectly, their personalities and description. It's a bit odd playing as a wolf but it got me really immersed after a while. Incredible game.

Haha, I feel almost bad for Lawrence for having such an.. interesting stinking heap of character flaws as a father. I really wasn't expecting a modern bend to this alpha wolf thing, but it was nevertheless a wild eperience.

hate this game ITS TH WORST GAME IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great story with interesting twists on the well-known monster characters! I thoroughly enjoyed going through all the possible endings and even got attached to the old grumpy Wolf in the process. Some topics were rather sensitive, but were dealt with well enough and we were given the opportunity to take justice into our own "paws". Well done! :)

Hi EndMaster, remember me? The guy who told you that he was getting banned for no reason? Well, I enjoy choice of games and I just wanted to say that I miss playing here and I want to sign up again. I really don't know if they'd ban me again, so please make sure they don't. Btw, do you go online in choice of games? If so, pls tell me your name there so I can chat there with you instead although I haven't signed up yet. Anyways, i gotta go back to my class, cya next time i guess

:)really good

Very imaniginative scenarios including some weird.. Creatures.
Certainly worth a spin, but not on par with some of EndMaster's other stories.

This was awesome.

Really good, I really like Mary. But it was too short. Thank you for the story.

Alpha Wolf is another good EndMaster Story, but then again every EndMaster Story is good.

Too many swears

I really enjoyed the world crafted in the story and the character I play as- as flawed as he is. I chose what I could to make Wolf redeemable and a better person. I think the interactions between character are well written and put a smile on my face. I want more haha. A really enjoyable and solid story to play.

it was boring

sucks ass

great stuff! I played through and got the died by igor ending, and enjoyed every bit!
thanks for creating this story!

This is a fucking banger of a storygame. For anyone unsure about what to expect from Alpha Wolf, think Fables but with cultural icons. Dracula, Godzilla, Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein - the likes. Now read. You'll have a good time.

There's a noticeable amount of technical errors in grammar and punctuation. From the first page, they are evident. And this remains somewhat intrusive and distracting. However, the merits outshine (but do not excuse) this issue. There's an allure to the stories of the titular Alpha Wolf - the macho, embittered, ruthless force of nature - and his interactions with the varied personalities of the monster community. Even in this early work, Endmaster demonstrates a polished ability to write engaging and dynamic characters.

I was invested in the ways Wolf would react to his bizarre situations; I'm always eager to witness an epic beat-down, and I was not disappointed. Our protagonist isn't, however, merely a one-note bad-ass for us to simply project ourselves onto. There's just enough depth to his character that makes the violent outbursts sympathetic, or even endearing. And there's an element of pity as we watch him cling to the noble savagery of his past, while compromising his own happiness. It's an aspect of Wolf that, while openly disavowed (he definitely isn't a conflicted romantic like Erik), nevertheless provides the emotional heart in most of the branches. Can this relic find fulfillment - even redemption - in his waning years, even during the sad routine of his life? It's a romp, for sure, and it never gets sappy - proof that a character's subtleties can be explored amid bombastic, visceral action.

For this reason, I found the 'Lawrence branch' particularly delightful. As a plus, we even got to murderise a pedo!

Compared to some of Endmaster's other storygames, Alpha Wolf may not be as expansive and impressive. However, I view it as a microcosm of his expertise in enthralling readers. The characters carried. Wolf owns. Wolf fucks.

I swear this is such a cool writeup! I was laughing like shiz, it was so funny!

One of the best games EndMaster blessed us with.

Very funny!

Could be longer.

i enjoyed this story i'm not sure if this was the really good ending or not but i liked it

pretty good, kinda short tho.

To start this review, I first need to address the distracting, obvious comma errors littered throughout the story.

'“You’re getting old Wolf” you say to yourself like you always do while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don’t have the mange.'

There should be a comma before "Wolf," and also right after it. It should read, '"You're getting old, Wolf," you say to yourself like you always do.' Furthermore, the following sentence is somewhat confusing in that there is no comma connecting the two related action sentences. A corrected version of paragraph is below:

'"You're getting old, Wolf," you say to yourself like you always do, while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don't have mange.'

I notice there's a chronic case of "missing comma syndrome" throughout the entire story, such as in this paragraph:

"After eating some left over mutton in the fridge and some Gummy Blobs (for the sugar “pick me up”) you ponder how you’re going to pay this month’s rent on your cabin."

Remove the parentheses, and you should see how much of a run-on sentence this is. I'm not one to just nitpick in my reviews, however, and so now I'd like to discuss some of the more positive elements of the story.

The characterization of the side characters are just exaggerated enough to paint a vibrant picture of the world they inhabit. When the Wolf first calls Erik, I was confused as to why an employment agent would be so mopey, but only after he mentioned Christine did it click to me that this was the Phantom of the Opera! The "Memories" pages utilize the CYOA format just well enough to accomplish something traditional novel writing is unable to, and that's mass-exposition dumps. Codex-style entries are usually only accomplished in video games, and, as CYOAs are "storygames," you took that principle to heart and used it to craft a better picture of the world.

(A tiiiiny nitpick about Erik! The Phantom never made a deal with the Devil, that was a theme introduced in a very awful adaptation of the original source material. Even in the original movies his deformity was natural, and his success in opera was the one thing that made him redeemable. He was the embodiment of the starving artist, a character who became so devoted to his music that it was his life, yet left his other emotional needs unfulfilled.)

There's of course, eh, the sex scene... which I'd rather not get into. I was confused as to who Mary was. Mary as in, Mary Shelley? I believe whoever she was, she was meant to be the Bride of Frankenstein, but the Bride is left unnamed in any original source material.

Now, I must note that it's strange for the protagonist, the Wolf, to be explicitly stated as NOT Lawrence Talbot, yet he still somehow knows characters such as Griffin or Dr. Jekyll. That was strange, to be honest, since Lawrence Talbot is the Wolfman typically associated with those characters, but I suppose this is an original take on the universe so I'll let that slide.

As for the Mr. Hyde arc, I'm guessing he's so much bigger because of the enhanced formula? Because Mr. Hyde in the original source material is not any bigger than Jekyll; in fact, he's smaller, to represent the twisted nature of evil.

Finally, I'd like to close off with a brief ending statement. As fun as this was, is it really a Horror game? I feel like it should belong in fanfiction, right? It's using already established characters and, even if they are horror-genre characters, wouldn't that make it fanfiction?

Anyways great game, 7/8.

this was good and dude it was okay but you write better than the storygame escape room two and i rated yours a six and it was nice horror

The first time I read this story was probably two years ago.
I remember going to read 'just one more branch' at 3:00 AM, New Year's Day.

I like the mad scientist branch in particular.

I really liked this one, though it doesn't feel like it has the depth of world building as some of your other stories, I find there is a lot of charm to your rendition of our classical horror figures and how they have become immersed in the 'real' world. I found all the history pages were well worth the read even though they imparted no choices.

I would just like to say how much I would like to have been in the game in real life :D

Excellent storyline. The background information is aplenty and very helpful too.

Great story! Dude that was so good! Many choices, great characters, and my favorite story line is meeting Lawerence and staying for the night at the character's son's house (Lawerence), and it is kinda long but its worth reading it. (also MARTIANS!?)

Oh my god haha that was violent.

It was great! Great ending, great plot, great characters
F*CKIN' GREAT!

This was a very fun and interesting story.

More more more more more

It was a great story just wish it were longer

This is probably my least favorite of your atories, it is however well written and cpuld be good for others who enjoy this sort of thing, just not for me. I'm more of a LOVE SICK/GEEKE kind of guy, I enjoy the disturbing and this just wasn't disturbing.

I was really confused until I got to the silver bullets part, then I noticed he was a werewolf. From then on, I was guessing you were talking about the Big Bad Wolf of something. Seriously, super confused. Other then that, though, pretty good.

Awesome!

i have a one thing to say besides i love your stories. and that Fuck! oliver.

Somewhat reminiscent of "The Wolf a Among Us".

First try, I ended up reconciling with Lawrence, protecting Iris form that perv Oliver and got back together with Mary

it was fucking awesome glad to see something that catches my attention unlike most the garbage on the site i enjoyed this much more than i thought i would

Really liked this story

Neatly put together.

Was awesome would definitely play again! I like the different characters/species introduced into the story. Oliver was the perfect amount of sick fuck.

werewolves fricken rule 8/8
(diden't say fuck in the comment but ima say it here, fuck fuck fuck )

How many endings are to this fantastic story?

I liked it, and there was some pretty interesting character development for the protagonist in some paths. Nice world and cast of characters, too.

Some paths were inevitably not as good as others. That was the only negative I could force myself to think of.

Great once you get to the alpha wolf pack ending

Wow, that was pretty damn interesting!! thanks for the story

awesome story one of the best i have read so far. Wish it was longer though.

Not the longest story game Endmaster has created, but enjoyable none the less. Definitely worth reading.

The characters are quite fun. I'll definitely be back to test out alternate endings.

I enjoyed this storygame. It was awesome

A bit short, but really worth reading! I loved the ending! (Spoiler/hint: never trust fat cats)

A truly enjoyable experience. I really felt the enjoyment of getting back into the fight with my character. Although I must say you tend to make me be a man so often I think I'm growing an extra body part.

Strange read indeed but victorious end! Yay.

Goodness me, that was intense.
I strapped myself into my seat for a crappy werewolf story, and dear god, I was wrong.

I found this very enjoyable to read/play. You have a talent for writing these sort of things (PS: love being a bad*** werewolf character XD)

good

I liked playing a character that relies on instinct, very satisfying.

This story was really great honestly I loved it yo

Its in the Horror section but I actually found it a really sweet and endearing story; at least the adventure I had! Excellent work.

I had a great time with this. Love the main characters attitude, and the way that his own subjective memories are written into the story adds a lot to it.

I always enjoy the level of divergence as far as personality and choice that goes in to some of these stories. Plus, no matter the route, Wolf is pretty bad-a.

A truly enjoyable experience. While I was sad to be a past-my-prime wolf, I really felt the enjoyment of getting back into the fight with my character. Although I must say you tend to make me be a man so often I think I'm growing an extra body part.

One of my favorite stories on the site.

interesting...

Obviously you've put in some effort into this storygame. It turned out to be a good one.

I liked it was very well written.

really fun game

I enjoyed all those monster references...a whiney phantom of the opera, hilarious!

I very much liked the story, short, but with differing paths, not exactly sure how you manage to fit that much swearing into each sentince, but you must have a tallent for it, not that I mind though, and even though there were a few spelling mistakes, they weren't that bad, and I like that you took the time to make a backstory of memories.
That really makes the story worth it, and your inturpritations are funny though disturbed, as is most of your work.
Dude, seriously, you make me think you need to talk to a counsler some times, either that or you just have a gift for putting your self in another persons shoes.

Great story with references to nearly every film and creature out there. Explore every nook and cran and don't forget to read those memories.

It should allow you to procrastinate whatever you ought to be doing for a few hours

8/8

Great story,plot,character portrayal,and endings

FRIGGIN GODZILLA

Good!

this is my new absolute favorite game the only thing that could make it better would be a sequel

Cool story! Vampires were mentioned a couple of times, but I never saw one. Maybe I just went down the wrong path though. I goth the ending with Lawrence and his family, where we killed the creepy cat guy.

There was something good but room for improvement never stops!

I got the girl and killed the vampires.

pretty good

Best. Game. Ever.

i love this story...please keep this going

I can't find a nice way to put this. Or a funny way. Long story short: It's messed up-ish.

Funny but if it was longer it would be better

Riping that guys balls of fucking funny as hell HAHAHAA

Nice mix of classic monsters :)

Enjoyed it. Author's certainly done the dialogue in their stories really well, as well as a good balance of characters and description :)

Bit strange, and for once I actually found the history a bit too long. Wished I could act more like a werewolf though. Good overall.

It would of been better with some pics or like some items to pick up

i liked it, the diff story arcs are fun.it was enjoyable.

It seemed to be more story than game. It was cool the way it brought in so many movie characters, & I can't say that it lacked detail. But I was disappointed that I read through all of that to encounter & kill a pedophile cat. Maybe if I follow the other arcs the way others did I'll find it to be more ...

Played a few more arcs and I think I see that this was more about playing several different scenarios than getting a good ending, so it makes more sense now.

I enjoyed it but I felt like the endings were lacking. Well more than lacking I felt there were no real scale of endings, none of them felt better or worse than the next. I'll play Oliver's arc and see if I feel any different though.

Not Bad...

Love it :)

Your the best writer on this site in my opinion

Great.

Bo approves

She's not in the story. She wasn't a "famous" monster, she was just some random werewolf woman.

Just wondering who the hell was the wolfs original wife. I think I have fallowed every story line and I still do not know. Who was it.

That was fun I loved killing that sick Oliver

Interesting :D

Very interesting! Great game and story!

It's got a really good story line I can say that. But what i didn't expect was Oliver. I thought that it was going to be like Irena was going to blow up on Wolf and he leave for good but I liked the twist.

very fun, lots of background though, hehe

shoots! i lost to the body snatchers, what a whimp!

Loved it, you used everyone in just the right spots. also liked the storyline too.

Poor kitties...

Brilliant story and great use of all the old horror characters.

Mr. Hyde, what an ***hole! lol! This was great as always. If there was an ability on here to favorite stories, I would favorite this one for sure... I guess I could put it in my profile at least.

The memories addition added a lot. It felt like a story with different scenarios more than a game, but there's nothing wrong with that, and for its purposes, it worked out well. The game seems like a bit of a tease, learning about all these monsters, but not really getting involved in the world. (At least the playthrough that I experienced) Thanks for putting so much thought into this game's characters.

I love anything to do with wolves. Great story

scuse this but FUCKING AWESOME!!! sweet game!!!

Fantastic work and great storytelling! 8/8

Nice one, man. I loved the modern twist you put on classic movie monsters. 8/8

I knew DEP was going to say that.

There are NO furries in this story. You may all proceed to read without fear.

Furries.

Another great work by Endmaster. Keep it up!