Dark Light

World of Darkness’ Werewolves is many things. Depending on who you ask, they are either described as genocidal maniacs and racial purity preachers, or the ones with nature, morally ambiguous entities relentlessly fighting for the environment. Whatever they might be, one can’t deny the fact that Werewolf: The Apocalypse is pure video game material. While Heart of the Forest beautifully blended real-life ecological issues with the eco-terrorist activities of the Garou, it’s Cyanide’s Earthblood that I was really looking forward to. The gameplay trailer did remind me to keep my expectations in check, but hey, I always love me some Eurojank. Plus, I’m a fan of previous Cyanide games. Sadly, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is at least a decade late to the party.

On paper, Earthblood sounds pretty great. It’s a no-nonsense action game where you play as Cahal, a bald-headed angry badass who gets to shit on the plans of capitalist fascists. You get to meet and interact with a variety of characters in your Homid form, explore and infiltrate large, industrial environments in the Lupus form and wreak absolute carnage as the Crinos. Sounds like an awesome time, right? Well, it would have been if the game came out two console generations ago. Almost everything about the game is outdated – from the visuals to the level design to the action. It was wise to keep expectations in check, after all.

The story of Earthblood is pretty straightforward and aligns with what you’d expect from the IP. As mentioned earlier you play as Cahal, a Garou who abandoned his tribe and became an exile after a family tragedy at the hands of Enderon, a multinational corporation.  5 years later, one thing leads to another, and Cahal is forced to return and protect his former tribe and caern from Enderon. A disappointed brother-in-law and an estranged daughter welcomes him. The rest of the story involves Cahal and his team of eco-terrorists trying to take down Enderon and save the environment.

The story is fine for what it is but the wooden voice acting, sub-par presentation, and pedestrian dialogues severely affect the emotional impact it tries to convey. While the story tries to portray Cahal as a conflicted and torn father, he just comes across as just a big angry dude. The same goes for the rest of the cast. They are either barely there or are not worth caring for. Honestly, for me, this isn’t such a big issue because I never expected the game to portray a deep, impactful story. I’m just here for the action- speaking of which…

Earthblood is a linear action game with hack n slash combat and some stealth elements thrown in. The story progresses in a linear fashion through missions where you infiltrate Enderon facilities to disrupt their plans and occasionally kill key targets. Most missions can be completed in either straightforward action or by using stealth – Cahal’s ability to turn into the agile Lupus form at the press of a button encourages the latter. But honestly speaking, the stealth mechanics are so basic and boring that you’ll have a better time switching to Crinos and delivering Wyld justice.

Speaking of Crinos, whenever you are spotted by the enemy or during scripted encounters, you get to turn into the big bad wolf. Combat becomes hack ‘n’ slash-focused where you get to switch between an agile form and a strong form to deal with different types of enemies. Kill everyone in the room, as well as the reinforcements and you’ll switch back to Cahal and can move on to the next section of the map. The combat isn’t bad, per se. But like many things in the game, it feels like a ghost from the past. Floaty attacks are accompanied by (too)fast animations and confusing visual effects that it’s hard to tell what the hell is going on most of the time. Simply by button mashing, you can deal with most of the enemies in the game and if that isn’t enough, you can enter a frenzy mode by filling up your rage meter. As I mentioned, the combat isn’t inherently bad. It’s just not anything exciting or challenging. Even the boss fights are pushovers. There is an XP system that lets you unlock new moves for both combat and stealth, as well as passive boosts that saves the combat from being a total chore.

While the missions are very linear and will take you through one similar-looking room to the other, you do get some freedom while at the main hubs. There, you can freely talk to your tribemates, collect lore-notes, and do a handful of side-quests. The second act of the game did spice things up a bit by tasking you with infiltrating a penitentiary from the inside out. This was probably the most fun I had in the game as it had more interesting objectives and better ways to complete them. Sadly, this Escape From Butcher Bay-Esque sequence didn’t last long and Cahal was back to doing the same repetitive stuff once again.

Much like the story and gameplay, the visuals of the game are surprisingly outdated. PS3-era shaders and lighting will take you back on an unpleasant journey through time. Every other character except Cahal is badly modeled with awful facial expressions and stiff animations. It feels as if Earthblood was in developmental hell for a long time and the devs had enough of it and just one day decided to push it out. Performance is great though – I mean with the way the game looks and the fact that I’m rocking an RTX 3070, it had better run great. I had no dips below 144 fps and faced no crashes or bugs throughout the 10 hours-ish campaign.

The music fares significantly better. There are some headbanging metal tracks during combat and some somber tunes while you’re exploring the caern. Sound effects are also pretty good, with the only lackluster part being the voice acting. But that is expected from a budget title.

Real Talk

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a dated furry adventure that doesn’t exactly do a great job of utilizing the potential of its source material. It’s a guilty pleasure at best and a tedious experience at worst. Even if you’re a hardcore WoD fan, Earthblood is best picked when it’s accompanied by a hefty discount label.

FINAL RATING: IGNORE

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