Werewolves have been elusive in gaming, even more so if looking for a game that lets you play as a werewolf. Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood offers players an action RPG where they take on the role of the titular beast of legend.
Set in the World of Darkness, and sharing a universe with Vampire: The Masquerade, Earthblood explores some of the lesser-represented facets of the tabletop RPG before Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 releases later this year. Here's what critics are saying.
Leana Hafer, IGN: "If Earthblood had at least been a fun beat-em-up, I would have been disappointed by the missed opportunity but glad we got a somewhat decent game about that one aspect of Werewolf: the Apocalypse. But the clumsy, unsatisfying combat even takes the teeth out of that and leaves nothing much worth your time. The stealth mechanics are actually pretty good in how they interact with the level design, which would be more of a consolation prize if Cyanide wasn't selling the fantasy of being a massive, savage apex predator. It didn't do much to salve my frustration with the combat, the characters, the animations, the AI, and just about everything else. When the next full moon rises, I'll raise my voice and howl in the hope that maybe, someday, we might get a Werewolf game worthy of the World of Darkness lore and legacy."
Luke Kemp, PC Gamer: "Another sign that the original vision for the game may have been grander than the available budget is the implementation of choice; or, rather, the general lack thereof. Conversations rarely offer any meaningful decisions, and there are only really three occasions where you can approach a situation in two very different ways. But what occasions they are! One, in a prison, tasks you with running errands for a mafia boss in order to access a secret area. This is what I did… at first. In my second playthrough, I simply slaughtered him and everybody else in an epic fight, after which my friend—after expressing hilarious shock at my actions—gave me the keycard I needed, which had been recovered from the bloody corpse of the mafia guy. Combat is arguably oversimple, and rarely a challenge on any difficulty. The inability to backtrack or create multiple saves means the rare instances of choice are one-shot deals. Yet I've played this game start to finish twice, and enjoyed it both times, which counts for a lot. It's a B-movie experience in the best possible way; not so bad it's good, but so determined it's good."
Andrew Reiner, Game Informer: "Sitting back and watching guards move along paths mechanically is as dull as it sounds, and there is no way to spice it up. I tried to see the fun in the stealth, but the monotony of it always led to me transforming into a werewolf to finish a sequence with the hope the next combat encounter would be better. It never was. The repetition also extends to the level designs, which mostly use the same industrial textures and objects from room to room. Cyanide injects some variety into the environments toward the end of the game, which is a welcome change, but the damage is done well before this. Most stages feel like Twilight Zone episodes of going through the same doors over and over again. Cahal is written and voiced well, but I never once cared about his bid for redemption or to save his tribe's forest from being fracked to death. The entire experience falls flat, and never truly embraces the complexity of shapeshifting. The idea ends up being a mess that pushes players to just bare their fangs and get through it all as quickly as possible."
Chris Moyse, Destructoid: "While it's accurate to describe Earthblood as a stealth-action adventure, there is a staggering disconnect between the Stealth and the Action. The stealth sections are extremely rudimentary, lacking the tension, finesse, skill, and open-ended nature of a Hitman. In fact, Earthblood harkens back to some of the weaker examples of the genre (remember Velvet Assassin?) with unreliable AI, repetitive motion, and unrealistic room layouts that depict Endron as a building built specifically for stealth infiltration purposes. While this old-fashioned approach could be forgiven if missions were varied or engaging, Earthblood essentially consists of a singular, near-identical missions, played out across strikingly familiar locations. The annihilation of Endron boils down to creeping through warehouse after warehouse, removing fuses, and hacking computer terminals. On a positive note, it should be stated that playing in Cahal's Lupus form is supremely enjoyable. One only wishes for more interesting locations to traverse, offering more verticality, less linearity. Regardless, The Good Boy is swift, nimble, nicely animated, and even comes equipped with a "bark" button. Playing as the wolf remains one of Earthblood's highlights throughout the adventure."
Matt Gardner, Forbes: "Sure, the story's predictable and full of holes, the gameplay is repetitive, the stealth is unforgiving, and the characters often can't act their way out of a paper bag. At the same time, the gameplay is as intoxicating as it is repetitive, it holds an incredibly smooth framerate, the fighting is dependable and enjoyable, and you genuinely feel satisfied after it's all over. As far as games go, Werewolf: The Apocalypse–Earthblood is beautifully ridiculous: a game that shouldn't work, and tries hard to prove it, but fails to dissuade you. Cyanide and Nacon should pursue the development of this series in the future, because nothing quite like it exists–and we all deserve to lose ourselves in a bit of mindless fun."