Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is not the first attempt at creating a video game from the popular World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying system, but at first glance that wouldn’t be clear. With a rich setting, pre-existing lore, and one of history’s most iconic monsters, it would seem like it shouldn’t be difficult to make a great game out of this, but unfortunately that is exactly what happened. While Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood has the makings of a great game, it falls short in a few major ways. As one of the few modern games that lets players take control of a werewolf, that’s sorely disappointing.
Unlike its predecessor, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, this game is meant to be a true action RPG. For that reason, the action and role-playing elements are arguably the most important. If Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood nailed these things but had a somewhat lackluster story, it would likely still be positively received by most, but they happen to be some of its most glaring flaws. One would think transforming into a giant werewolf and shredding enemies would feel amazing, but somehow it doesn’t.
In terms of story, players will likely have two experiences. From the perspective of someone that has played the World of Darkness tabletop game, and especially one that loves the deep lore contained within its werewolf-themed expansion material, things should make sense for the most part. On the other hand, newcomers to the franchise will quickly be lost in a torrent of vocabulary that makes next to no sense. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood takes no time explaining what these words mean or why they’re important to the story, so players will be left confused from the very start.
As an example, during the tutorial of the game, the protagonist Cahal will come across a Black Spiral Dancer. Aside from looking like a Werewolf and doing bad things, players never get any real context as to what the Black Spiral Dancers are or why they are so bad. This concept continues throughout the entire game, and only gets worse as the story dives deeper into Werewolf lore. Ideally, this pre-existing lore would be used to present the richness of World of Darkness to the player, but it instead only serves to confuse them more.
Pair this with some poor visuals and subpar acting and the experience is mostly forgettable. Characters don’t seem capable of showing off much emotion and they often act strangely. Picking what Cahal says in response to other NPCs is also confusing, as the dialogue options are written in a strange, third-person perspective. After playing long enough this issue fades away, but it’s an odd adjustment to say the least. The character models during cutscenes move in unnatural ways, and their facial expressions are distracting.
In terms of gameplay, there are a few things that Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood does well. The ability to seamlessly shift between human form (homid), wolf form (lupus), and werewolf form (crinos) feels amazing, and there’s nothing like stealth gameplay as a sneaky wolf. It could be argued that the stealth is the best aspect of the game, and while it certainly feels solid at times, it probably isn’t what most people are signing up for when picking up a game about werewolves.
Outside of this, most of Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood suffers from is only good enough, but with some caveats The RPG elements contained within Cahal’s skill tree allow for some customization, but most of the upgrades don’t make that much of a difference in how players approach certain challenges. The combat feels okay for the most part, but there’s a distinct lack of power in every hit. The roleplaying aspects in cutscenes almost make players have to really think carefully about how they will react to certain situations, but every problem can be solved with brute force without changing the outcome.
That bit about combat is perhaps the most important grievance levied against Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. In any combat-oriented game, it’s vital to make sure that actions have an impact, both literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, players want their attacks to feel powerful, especially when they are playing as a massive werewolf. In Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, though, standard human enemies hardly react to being hit. They will stand there until their arbitrary HP bars run empty, at which point they ragdoll and go flying despite their previously established durability. Along the same lines, players can use a pretty cool finishing attack on enemies, ripping a person in half, and yet their fellow combatants won’t blink an eye.
On the figurative side of things, the choices that players make in combat should have impact. Is now the right time to do a heavy attack and try to rack up damage or fall back and heal? These types of decisions are completely absent in normal combat with regular enemies, as they tend to be so easy that strategy falls to the wayside. In boss battles there’s a little bit of this, but it still doesn’t capitalize on that concept enough. One of the major selling points of the game was the idea of containing Cahal’s rage, but this rarely comes into play and actually benefits the player when it does.
Clearly, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood isn’t for everybody, but by default that means some gamers will enjoy it. As mentioned before, there are some things it does well, and most of its flaws don’t make the game unplayable by any means. It’s perfectly possible to enjoy romping through the levels and taking down enemies even with these other limiting factors, and those with a thorough understanding of Werewolf: The Apocalpyse lore will probably have an even better time. Perhaps the biggest issue is that this is a game presented and sold at triple-A standards that doesn’t reach those levels of quality.
Overall, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a game with a great premise but it fails to hit the mark. Players will find themselves torn between the more enjoyable stealth gameplay and the more efficient open combat approach, all while clunky dialogue and distracting animations plague the cutscenes and interactions with other characters.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided a PS4 code for this review.
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