It’s a new series – it’s werewolf reviews!
I’m going to start reviewing various werewolves across many forms of media. Movies, TV shows, video games… and I’m always looking for werewolves in video games, namely ones that don’t suck.
I never really found time to do this or motivation to write these kinds of posts/reviews, given I am – on average – not a fan of most people’s werewolves, and I try not to be some kind of horrible negative energy here on this blog, but… it seemed a popular choice and many of my followers and patrons wanted to see me write something like this.
So let’s talk about the werewolf I actually cannot believe I missed: Dire, from Fortnite.
I absolutely love this guy and his questline, and I really want to talk about all the reasons why.
So I started playing Fortnite off and on a few months ago, when they announced a skin pack that includes Chris Redfield from Resident Evil (RE5, specifically, too!). I immediately downloaded the game, bought the pack, and started to play it. I had a blast for a while and I still pick it up now and then sometimes, but it’s not really my kind of game.
I don’t really do battle royales (I play Apex now and then in the past, but they aren’t my thing; I’m a deathmatch person, I guess I’m old or something), especially because my internet connection sucks and cannot handle them whatsoever. So I’ve been playing the co-op world mode, Save the World, because I prefer co-oping with my brother anyway. I’m having a whole lot of fun, and Chris looks so incredible. You really have to see him in-game to appreciate the ridiculous attention to detail and just how truly great he is.
I found out, though, that when I first started playing, there was a werewolf questline going on in Save the World mode! Now, at first, this filled me with dread. Why? Because I basically detest 90% of werewolf media, and Fortnite being a very silly game, I figured the werewolf would be handled horribly and just be a big goofy walking dog joke that sounds like Scooby Doo and is never taken remotely seriously at all.
I was so pleasantly wrong!
“Wolfy Business” Questline
Now, don’t get me wrong, the questline is obviously silly. It’s a silly game, after all, and that is absolutely fine. I, however, expected the story to be a travesty toward werewolves like every other comical werewolf thing wherein the werewolves are bork bork boof floofy fluffbeast goodboi doggo waffs uwu scooby snacc, pissing on fire hydrants, chasing mailmen, etc. I’ve seen… so much of that…
And sure, there were a few dog jokes about walkies and whatever, mostly from one character who is incredibly obnoxious anyway, but overall the story was the most fun one I’ve played in the game so far. I absolutely loved Dire. He never actually talked, which was to his benefit, he just growled and made wolfish noises (wolfish noises, not barking! I was so pleasantly surprised). The “business wolf” was an obvious jab at Wolf of Wall Street and was fairly amusing at times. Vastly preferable to the same old tired dog-oriented jokes, for sure! My only question is… why can’t I get his business wolf skin? He was pretty awesome.
So while overall silly as I fully expected, the little questline was really fun, and I enjoyed it. It didn’t piss me off even once, really. Everything in it was either tolerable or straight-up fun. I enjoyed the werewolves being characters and something people feared, instead of either total jokes or throwaway dumb-as-rocks villains.
Dire – Character
Dire is great. Not only does he not talk, as mentioned, but he doesn’t ever seem to bark, either. He does howl. HE ACTUALLY HOWLS. Werewolves in video games basically never howl anymore, for some absurd reason. But Dire howls whenever night falls in Save the World mode, and there’s an emote you can buy (for a separate fee, of course) that is a howl animation with a sound, which is specifically built for him. It fills me with joy that he actually, legitimately howls, and it isn’t played for laughs.
What makes him even more fun is that everyone in Homebase – the main characters of Fortnite – are clearly scared of him. He isn’t allowed in the base because he would eat everyone. I just love that. The werewolves are never really portrayed as jokes – they are dangerous and can and will eat everyone. Dire included. Dire, though, isn’t a bad guy. He’s nice and he helps the heroes!… He just still wants to eat everyone. He doesn’t really mean it in a bad way, though. Whoops.
I seriously adore this guy.
Dire – Appearance
So many werewolves, especially in video games, fall into two distinct traps: they either almost never transform, and if they do it’s only for like 10 seconds – or they never actually turn into a human at all and are just wolf-people. I’d much rather have the former than the latter, overall, but that’s personal preference. Some games manage to avoid these issues at least to some degree, and they aren’t always the best solutions. It seems so difficult for games to really embrace what werewolves are all about, the way Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind – Bloodmoon did (best werewolves in video games, by the way).
When it comes to Dire, you could argue he is more of a wolf-person variant, since he doesn’t ever turn in-game – and they could fix that so easily by giving him one of these new “transformable” skins… I really wish they would. I’d shell out for that, and I don’t even really play the game basically ever right now. But – still.
Anyway, I was very happy to learn he does have a human form, and we get to see it, and we can even play as it if we want:
It’s always nice to know werewolves aren’t just designated eternally-transformed wolf-people, since the transformation is the core of what makes them werewolves.
But what’s even better to me – yes, truly fantastic – is that he also has an in-between skin. He has a wolf-man skin, too! And it’s GREAT. I adore it. Seriously. This miiight be my favorite skin in the whole game (except Chris, obviously, because of massive personal biases).
Look at this guy! He’s great! How often do we get to see, much less play as, in-between stages of transformation? Awesome.
And then, to make things even better, we get multiple variants of his fully transformed, wolfish form, to top things off…
Don’t mind the banner telling me I need to grind like mad in order to evolve him enough to unlock his transformed werewolf skins. You know how modern gaming is.
BONUS: his upper and lower canines are in the correct position! People often get that wrong. I don’t know why it’s so hard to look up predator – specifically wolf – skulls… looking at you yet again, Blizzard. Actually I’m not, because I will probably never play World of Warcraft again, you jerks, but that’s a discussion for a different time and place. Right now, we’re enjoying Dire.
His ears are, of course, kind of long/flat, instead of pointing up like wolf ears. But you know what? I don’t care. He still looks great. Despite common belief, I am not that freaking picky about werewolf designs, as long as they look cool, are reasonably wolfish, and are executed well in the story/setting. Dire certainly hits those marks. I love his claws. I love his abs, too. Too bad his wolf-man form doesn’t have visible abs… Anyway.
Again, so many props for his design. Wolfish while still being cool and unique. I love the way his fur looks and that he actually has fur, and I love his general look and build. I especially love his teeth and his awesome spiky mohawk-style hair. Seriously, his entire design is right up my alley, even specifically up the alley of my favorite character design in so many other details (like his gloves, his vest– everything!).
All he needs is a tail… really missing that tail. It works without a tail, I get what they were doing, but I still think the design would look better with a tail, since it has such a wolfish head and the wolf legs (both of which are great).
Dire – Abilities
One of the best things about Dire is his abilities – one in particular. He’s a Ninja class, so he moves fast and can double-jump, which is already fun (and makes him what I believe is the most fun class in the game), and he gives lots of speed boosts in general. But he has this fantastic passive…
When night falls, he gets a big speed boost and – this is the best part – he howls. He actually howls. I know I mentioned that before, but can you believe it? A werewolf that actually howls like a wolf? I know, I had a hard time believing it, too. It’s so refreshing. It’s so inspiring. I love it. And I love that it comes with such a big speed boost and is tied to nightfall and that he will howl regardless of what you’re doing in-game. This isn’t something you activate. Plus, your whole team can hear it.
Gah, I just love that so much.
Conclusion
The takeaway from all this? Dire is actually a great werewolf. Being perfectly blunt, he’s one of the best werewolves I’ve seen in video games for a long time or possibly ever. He’s unapologetically fun and wolfish and he actually howls, while also getting several fun skin variants, an entertaining quest, and very cool passive abilities. He isn’t a horror werewolf, but it isn’t a horror game, and even so, they still made him treated as being very scary in the context of the universe, and I generally just love the way he was handled over Halloween. This proves you do not have to have some super gruesome horror story to have a cool, fun, and scary werewolf that is treated as interesting and unique: it’s all about how other characters react to them.
It’s a solid 10/10 for Dire, even if his fully transformed state could really use a tail. Great work to Fortnite for accomplishing what shouldn’t be so difficult but is apparently really hard for most people: making an awesome werewolf!