In 2022, the US copyright on AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh expired, unleashing all sorts of horrors – including the critically-derided Poohniverse horror film franchise. Winnie’s Hole treads in similar footsteps, as a horror adventure starring the titular Winnie, but it goes far beyond its gimmick.
Winnie’s Hole has now arrived in early access and promises to be a moreish and encouraging roguelite experience.
Winnie’s Hole early access review – quick links
Winnie’s Hole is far more than a funny Pooh homage
It would be easy for Winnie’s Hole to coast on its storybook homage, putting Winnie the Pooh’s appearance front and centre, and playing on the novelty of the character featuring in a horror story. While that’s the case for much of the game’s viral marketing – and the reality is that including the character draws a brighter spotlight to the new game – it was surprising to note that’s not really the case with the actual game.
Rather than being a childhood-destroying spectacle, Winnie’s Hole is a very good roguelite. The focus here isn’t really on Winnie at all. He’s just the carrier for layered, combat-heavy gameplay.
At this stage, the game is likely to evolve considerably. In its early access release, there’s only a simple story to introduce you to Winnie and his conundrum. You get a brief flash-forward to a terrifying, evolved Winnie as he leers from within a tree, then the action starts fresh. Winnie encounters a virus – his tummy feels ‘rumbly’ – and he begins to mutate, to deal with a newfound sense of aggression.
You play as the virus itself, working to defend its new host. Winnie roams ever-onward through a woodland realm, encountering all sorts of creatures in his path. With the virus whispering in his ear, Winnie is drawn to attack his friends – rabbits, wolves, squirrels and owls alike – as he works to defend himself.
Soon, word spreads, and Winnie encounters a menagerie of more recognisable friends, all attempting to push back against Winnie’s newfound violence and the growth of his inner virus – which manifests sharp claws, extra mouths, extra eyes, tentacles, lumps and other appendages.
Survive long enough, and Winnie becomes a ball of flesh, guarded by various limbs.
Picking the right combination is key
As Winnie’s virus, you must make clever choices in how to proceed. With the entire woodland realm dogging Winnie as he attempts to become the perfect organism, you must consider how to combine new power-ups and evolutions in order to overcome ever-more-powerful foes.
With each successful battle, you’ll get choices between perks – lifesteal, extra damage, healing, guard and more. They’re all randomised, so there are elements of chance in the mix, too. But if you’re clever about which perks you pick, you can create a stacked Winnie who turns attacks into healing, and eventually ‘beast modes’ his way out of combat.
In Winnie’s Hole, dying is inevitable. That’s where the rougelite elements come in. Here, you’re fighting through waves of woodland creatures as they attempt to stop Winnie’s advance, but you’re also working on strengthening his virus and allowing it to mutate into new forms.
Gain enough experience by weathering waves of combat, and you’ll unlock forms like Berserker, which has minimal healing and guard abilities to start, but plenty of opportunities to cause massive damage in a single blow.
Personal preference will play a part in how you build your version of Winnie, and with significant choices following each combat, no two builds are the same.
While there is disappointment when a successful run ends, as you will be required to spend time thinking about each and every aspect of your journey, Winnie’s Hole is streamlined and intuitive enough that dying and starting over isn’t even a second thought. It’s a ‘just one more run’ sort of experience; a game that encourages you to push on, with a real sense of progress backing each and every death.
You’ll build your strategy slowly in Winnie’s Hole
You’ll learn more about strategy when you die. You’ll figure out that Owl is a formidable opponent, and that you must inflict as much damage as possible early in the fight to gain the advantage. You’ll learn more about the tile-based combat system, which encourages you to tesselate shapes to get the best possible outcome, eventually understanding more about each and every move.
There is a prediction system in the game, so you can monitor how your moves will land, and it allows you to experiment freely with deployment. Using your assigned Tetris blocks, you’ll need to select the ‘right’ moves in a particular alignment – a challenge which allows combat to feel complex, without being too complicated.
If you place your straight four-block across your combat menu (in the form of Winnie’s brain), you might be able to select a double combo that increases damage. Selecting another block might allow you to initiate a shield defence before an attack lands. The placement of each symbol, and how you rope them together, is important for your damage and defence.
When death arrives at your doorstep, and the monstrosity that was Winnie the Pooh is defeated, you’ll have learned valuable lessons about attack locations, and when to save your biggest hits. It’s all very layered, with elements of skill and chance dancing together in harmony.
Sometimes, your run will be out of your hands, and you’ll be dead within the minute mark. Other times, you’ll get lucky with cohesive perks, building out a tank Winnie who plows through the woodland, defeating each of his friends, and getting further and further into the game’s overarching mystery.
A solid foundation
At this stage, Winnie’s Hole remains in early access, and that is fairly obvious when jumping in. Over hours, you’ll progress through various virus stages and mutations, charting woodland realms filled with creatures of all kinds. For now, Winnie’s Hole has several virus strains to unlock, around 50 research recipes to gather, over 100 perks and mutations, and two major regions to explore.
In future, this will change, as developer Twice Different has confirmed plans to add new enemies, bosses, and story beats that will flesh out the world of the game.
As it stands, Winnie’s Hole has arrived in early access with ample content that encourages you to keep moving forward, and experimenting with new ways to survive. While you’ll experience combat encounters over and over again – Owl keeps kicking my butt – you will make progress, and the game rewards any time invested.
This is the sort of game that worms its way into your mind, tickling your brain to keep you moving, and thinking about what’s next. With teased story tidbits dogging your way through the woods, there are enough loose threads here to drag you along to the next reveal.
There is a terrifying appeal in seeing Winnie the Pooh in this fashion – facing many battles and slowly turning against his friends – but the greater fascination in Winnie’s Hole is seeing its moreish gameplay to its inevitable conclusion.
While Winnie’s Hole trades on the Winnie the Pooh IP, it goes well beyond its gimmick to be a morbidly curious, compelling game in its own right. It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on as it continues to evolve and grow.
Winnie’s Hole releases in early access on 26 January.
A PC code for Winnie’s Hole was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this early access review.
