First Impressions of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy

As we dive into the Halloween season, I figured it would be a great time to share some of my first impressions of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy by Bezier Games, which will be available to pick up at Essen Spiel for those who are attending!

First a little background on Werewolf Legacy..

Many of you may be familiar with Ultimate Werewolf. It’s a popular party game that is easy to teach and plays well up to especially high numbers. It’s a favorite of mine to use in the classroom and to bring engage new players. Ultimate Werewolf Legacy will be very familiar to players who have played Ultimate Werewolf. The major change is that the game is a campaign based game, where game components are permenantly changed based on decisions in the game.

The campaign is divided up into five chapters, with three sections per chapter. Each chapter should be played in a single setting, meaning that players should generally meet around five times to complete a campaign. However, many groups may try to play multiple chapters in a session, because the minimum number of players to play Ultimate Werewolf Legacy is nine players. Coordinating that many schedules can be difficult so groups may want to get through more chapters at a time.

My thoughts..

This weekend my group was able to meet for the first time to play through the first chapter of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy. It was difficult to find a time that we were able to get nine players together, but we managed to make it work. I would say that the player count is probably the biggest negative to the game, as it does require 8 players and one moderator.

I was the moderator for my group, and we played with a mix of five people who had played Ultimate Werewolf prior, and three who had not. As the moderator, there was some prepping that had to be done before the session, but not too much. I also liked the use of chapters so that the moderator can switch between sessions.

While playing, the game felt very familiar. Those who follow the rules in Ultimate Werewolf closely will feel fairly confident in the rule set for the legacy version as well. However, I would argue that Ultimate Werewolf Legacy is an even better way to introduce new players into the game.

During out game our three new players were able to easily pick up and understand the game. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that new roles are introduced gradually. Players really were able to understand each new role as they came into play.

However despite Ultimate Werewolf Legacy being a campaign style game, players are still eliminated in the sections in a chapter, so players may become frustrated if they are eliminated right way. While there are safe guards in place to keep the same person from being eliminated first, many players are consistently voted out early.

The game introduces a few twists though to keep the attention of the players, and make their decisions and contributions count.

While I wouldn’t say that this game is for everyone, I would say that those who enjoy Ultimate Werewolf or social deduction should take a closer look at it. It’s definitely new player friendly, and provides a new enough experience that it would appeal to those who enjoy Ultimate Werewolf without being repetitive.