Sadly to me, this new version seems like a massive departure from a lot of the fun and interesting aspects of the older versions. In total, it feels like a very different game using the same or similar names and themes of a game I have enjoyed gming for over twenty years. That is not to say that all is bad or lost, but it simply isn't for me

First, the good:

• Changing the names of certain tribes, especially the Gale Stalkers (former Wendigo) and Ghost Council (former Uktena) is a step in the right direction and is something I will most probably incorporate into my own games
• the rage dice are an interesting idea, though not that well implemented in my opinion
• tying gifts to renown is a really neat idea that was only vaguely explored in a handful of gifts before, but something I really like
• doing away with the always hard to use appearance attribute for composure makes certain rolls rather interesting and is again something I like quite a bit
• I also like the implementation of the Rage dice, though I must admit that it feels like a not that well thought through translation of the hunger mechanic of the V5 mechanic
• adding tribal totem favors and bans is quite cool and is something I will likely take back to the "previous edition" in some way
• the addition of touchstones is a nice touch (no pun intended)
• shifting forms a lot can cause damage
• the artwork is beautiful
• the pdf is well bookmarked, but does not allow the adding of own bookmarks

Next the different but still alright:

• the Cult of Fenris (former Get of Fenris) being a group of Garou who have fallen in a different way to the Black Spiral Dancers is rather interesting and not as bad as it seemed at first, not quite my cup of tea, but I can see the reasoning behind it and it can be used as an interesting story hook, though branding the entire tribe as fanatics who see problems everywhere and want to remain "tribally pure" is a bit strange when this is something many tribes had in common
• the rewrite of the Black Furies and Red Talons seems strange to me, but again, can give out some interesting stories. For those who played the W20 or older versions, they are basically the Get of Fenris with a few tweaks, no more female only or wolf only tribes
• other tribal rewrites are less drastic, but still present, but again, a thing for personal preference
• some gifts were changed in their level, which I have not fully gone through yet, but that seems alright in general, as nothing stops an "old school" gm (or a "new shool" one for that matter) from rearranging them once more
• Willpower as a "mental" health track is cool in general, but it has issues as I will list further down below
• a "native gift list" for all Garou is quite cool, but it came at the cost of breed gift lists
• the claws of a Crinos wolf only do superficial damage, only the bite does aggravated, seems strange once again, but hey, punching or clawing is the same

Lastly, the stuff I dislike

• Renown as traits that are raised with experience instead of something that organically increases next to renown
• the removal of Gnosis in favor of Gifts costing Willpower or a Rage check, the former seems excessive, since it doubles as a frenzy stop and health pool...
• the removal or rank in favor of only using total renown
• the removal of Metis and Kinfolk
• the removal of pack totems
• the seeming removal of most other Changing Breeds (though this could just be a slight retcon, that they are no longer known)
• the ridiculous swiftness one frenzies in Crinos (you frenzy, unless you have killed something last round or spend a point of Willpower)
• forcing rage checks to regenerate in every form, which means that a few bad rolls ensure that you cannot regenerate, as you have lost the wolf
• gifts are "only usable in the supernatural forms" but just about every other gift I looked up seems to circumvent this rule
• the experience cost of gifts increases with each gift known, this is interesting in theory, but will force many players to simply ignore a "fluff" gift, since is would not only be rather expensive, but increase the cost of "useful" gifts as well
• having two "if this fills your character becomes unplayable" tracks seems both excessive and reductionist, and having a "your mental health will deteriorate" track is something I will definitely not add to any game I run that is not Cthulhu, as only few players I know would be alright with roll mandated mental breakdowns. As for the "callousness and brutality" track, I prefer to keep stuff like that behind the gm screen so player's are unsure how "tainted" they are
• the "Gaia is dead or the apocalpyse has already started" storylines are not something I like that much

All in all, I think this might be an interesting buy for those who want a nihilistic modern system about werewolves fighting a lost war where they will ultimately succumb to depression or callousness. For those who enjoyed the previous systems, I would reccomend sticking to the W20 edition and possibly taking a few things from this edition (Galestalkers and Ghost Council will be my pick and I will probably run a storyline using the some of the Cult of Fenris ideas)

This book is a good and surprisingly well structured catalogue of all kinds of critters that can be used in various runs. And while some may complain that not every previously mentioned critter has been updated to the 5th edition, there are more than enough mundane, magical, mutated and technological beasties with a wide assortment of powers to surprise your runners. I was pleasantly surprised by the well made index that groups the critters both by region and another that groups them alphabetically. The only resaon I am not giving this product 5 stars is the anoying fact that it is impossible to add further bookmarks into the barely marked, but otherwise stellar pdf.

While the premise is interesting, the general setup and difficulty curve of all runs in this compilation seems unfocused and all over the place. Furthermore, in one of the runs I had the distinct feeling of reading a badly written D&D campaign, since all it basically boiled down to was a minimum amount of legwork and then encounter after encounter the players would have no chance of knowing anything about. Either way, I cannot recommend this book to either experienced GMs (who will find it badly written and have to rewrite most of the encounters and scenes) or inexperienced GMs (who might not realize how unbeatable or laughable some of the encounters and scenes will be). To end on a positive note, the idea of the legwork tables has been done quite nicely, though the information attainable is both too little and too much.