Second Runner Up: Werewolves Within
Werewolves Within is a game that’ll never get half as much attention as it truly deserves thanks to the fact it’s a VR title. Based on the social game, Werewolf, which has two players assume the roles of werewolves while other villagers try to suss out who the werewolves are, Werewolves Within is a perfect match for VR’s strengths. However, Werewolves Within adds a couple of twist inclusions to the cast. You’ve got the likes of the Turncloak, who wants the werewolves to win and knows who they are, but the werewolves don’t know who the Turncloak is. Gossips, on the other hand, are given a true and a false clue each game which may reveal the werewolves true identities.
Thanks to the head-tracking capabilities of the VR headsets, however, your body movements can be used to gesture or trick other players into shifting their suspicions. You can even make direct eye-contact with the crudely drawn character models, making for intense battles of who can hold their nerve the longest. Leaning to whisper to the person next to you, or standing up and pointing can both have different effects on the game dependent on who you’re playing with and what character you are.
Werewolves Within is a great social game and one which has an abundance of replayability thanks to every person you play with being different. Unfortunately, the game isn’t cross-play, and with the relatively low adoption rate of PSVR in comparison to the 50 million PS4s out there, it’s unclear how long Werewolves Within will survive for. Werewolves Within is a great game whether you’re playing with strangers or long-time friends.
