In Louissi's real-time strategy simulation game House of Wolves, you're responsible for establishing and protecting your own bloodline by building a thriving settlement from humble beginnings that can stand against the forces of darkness. (Actually, it says, "his bloodline", but the joke's totally on them because I made this goatee out of black felt and totally snuck past the game's dude-dar, which is a radar to check for dudes.) Though you begin with only a single watchtower and one lone settler, the tutorial will walk you through the basics of building. Everything is done by ordering your people around, and you can click on them to open their menu for building or attacking, and then right-click anywhere to make them head to that location, selecting multiple people by dragging your cursor to form a box around them. Send settlers to gather resources like food and building materials, and train and recruit warriors and archers to defend your land from hostile forces.

Lacking any sort of fast-forward option, House of Wolves is a game best suited for players that don't mind everything happening in due time. Much of your time will be spent waiting for things to be built, or for enough resources to be gathered/generated to build them, and since your interaction primarily consists of ordering people around, it can feel like a very slow-going time. The game is played on a 2D plane, restricting building to a straight line, so eventually you'll wind up with a sprawling territory that will be harder and harder to defend as the frequency and strength of enemy attacks increases. Balancing offensive with the defensive is tricky but a necessity if you want to gain access to the more powerful buildings and upgrades, so you'll need to make sure you don't spend too much time hiding within the safety of your soldiers as opposed to spreading out and exploring. House of Wolves, however, strikes a nice balance itself between simplicity and complexity to allow both casual players of the genre and diehard fans to find enough to like, especially with the difficulty options. It's a game meant for a bigger time investment than some browser titles, but Louissi's usual level of polish and style will make it worth it... provided you have the time to give.

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