It’s always sad when you see a video game miss so many opportunities when you can easily see how it could be great. When I picked up the Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood review, I expected a layered story-telling as it’s one of the key fields for Cyanide Studio in most of their story-driven titles, but this time I was wrong. Earthblood has tons of potential in every major aspect from gameplay to story, but it leaves you with an utter sense of ‘meh’ in most of the moments due, in large part, to its light-hearted nature.
When I played Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood, it felt like the developers made 30 minutes of the game and then cloned a bunch of missions out of that initial idea. This idea is even applicable to the story as every chapter ends with a similar scene, even the game’s ending. Even if you decide to ignore the importance of the story, the repetitive level design will wear you down somewhere along the way.
Playing as a guardian werewolf called Cahal, Earthblood follows the tale of a pack of werewolves that are trying the defend their homeland against Endron. This military organization pretends to be the savior of earth, but in fact, destroys forests and animals for the sake of expanding its presence in the world. The story starts well by turning Endron’s fight into a personal vengeance for Cahal. However, the sluggish level design in the initial chapters holds the game back from being an engaging experience. I wouldn’t be surprised to see players bounce off in the first few missions due to the repetitive scenarios and locations.
Of course, many games start out simple or samey before adding to the game by introducing new mechanics. But In Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood this rarely happens. Locations are mostly similar, and boss fights are always the same, except for the final chapter. From chapter three on, each fight with the main antagonist happens the exact same way. You almost catch him, he flees, and you’re left with another werewolf as the final fight of the mission. And it keeps happening again and again in every chapter. Even the ending, based on your decision, could lead to a similar scene.
To be honest, this is a disaster in the story-telling. And this is why I call the entire chapters of the game clones of its first missions. Unfortunately, the same thing happens for the gameplay as well. In each mission, with no exception, you should infiltrate the Endron outposts and hack their servers in order to open your way into the location of the antagonist. The game allows you to do the infiltration quietly via stealth or chaotically by your muscle power.
Unlike the game’s combat system, the stealth mechanics don’t leave you many options for being creative. You either need to find arrows and shoot enemies quietly or reach them from the back-side and take them down. Pursuing the stealth mode is possible all the time, but usually, it requires so much time and patience that you’d prefer to end things with a bloody engagement. While the stealth route is undeniably easier, there’s no real reason to do it unless you just want to blast through the campaign.
Taking it one step further, let’s look at the two different skill trees in the game. There is one for combat abilities and the other for stealth skills. Again, you’re better off upgrading your combat skills as it offers more interesting new abilities rather than the stealth one. Also, you know that the combat abilities will come in handy more, as you can’t fight against bosses with your stealth abilities.
Generally, the combat system is almost flawless if you don’t take the camera issues into account. Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood gives you lots of various abilities to wipe out the enemies, and all of them are useful in the proper time. There are many different enemy types in each mission, some of which require you to use certain skills. The more you upgrade your fighting abilities, the more you will enjoy the combat system. This the part that gains the highest score in the Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood review.
Visually, Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood features a completely outdated set of textures, animations, and lighting. It’s more like a game from the seventh generation of consoles. Of course, this is not a triple-A game, but in such cases, developers rather pursuing some unique graphical styles that look less realistic but more artful. Earthblood tries to deliver realistic visuals, but it feels out of place and outdated. On top of that, I encountered a few game-breaking technical issues during a few boss fights.
All in all, in this Werewolf The Apocalypse Earthblood review what I tried to tell you was to give you an overall perspective of the game’s various features, but at the end of the day, this is a game that I don’t suggest you play unless you are a big fan of the series. There are much better choices on the market in the same genre if that’s what you’re looking for. The game has some promising features, but they are not strong enough to keep you engaged with it till the end.
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