Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood may just be the best werewolf game of all time. But seriously, the smooth shifting between forms, the carnage, the exploration and stealth. Earthblood is a gem out of all the other wolf games available. I really hope the developers bring another one to the table, I feel this game was critiqued more harshly than it deserved, especially for really the first of its kind. It has a lot of room to improve, but the bones are good!
Picture this, you just had a long day at work. You want to come home from a hard day's work and feel like nothing can stop you? Boot this bad boy up on easy and go to town in your Crinos form! Seriously, You feel so strong and unstoppable, but in the best way. Enemies are plenty and there’s so much to smash. Easy not your cup of tea? Boot this bad boy up on Hard and get your ass handed to you harder than that time you drew on your mothers wall with her expensive makeup, it’ll send you running with your tail between your legs! Definitely a good balance for its difficulty settings, for whatever mood you’re feeling. Want a full stealth game where you avoid as much combat as possible? You can do that too! Sneak around in your lupus form and take out cameras from the shadows with a crossbow. Want to just hulk smash everything? GO FOR IT! I think what really makes me love this game the most, is just the complete control over how I play the game. Aside from a few key moments, every single mission has optional ways to complete them.
So you have options, and I’ve mentioned a couple of the forms, let's deep dive into them!
Human: Yep, you get to play as a human. Most of the time I was a human it was for a split second to talk on the coms, open a door, or hack the security system. There are some missions that, if you choose to stay only human, you can walk around that area freely without any consequence, so that’s neat, but honestly I kept my human gameplay to the absolute minimum amount. The crossbow is nice to take out cameras and to sabotage though.
Lupus: I don’t know which form of wolf I like more, Lupus, which is the feral wolf form on all fours or the Crinos. But man, the movement just felt so good as a Lupus. You are fast, stealthy, the wolf animations are beautiful, and it is just some of the most fluid wolf gameplay I’ve ever played. Exploring through the vents also was cool, definitely wish they had more puzzle like areas for the Lupus.
Crinos: The games namesake, the Crinos, the BIG, bad werewolf! There are technically three different forms of the Crinos in the game: Agile, Heavy, and Frenzy. In Agile form, you can make quicker lighter attacks, and have a higher mobility to dodge incoming attacks or instantly reduce the gap between you and your prey. Heavy stance is the opposite, you are very slow, but for good reason, you are a powerhouse of muscle and every single attack you do is going to hurt someone or something. Gone are the days of guards blocking and hiding behind their shields, those don’t matter anymore. Last is Frenzy, and this stance is pure utter carnage fun. You have to build up the frenzy meter each fight to activate it for a short duration, but once you do, everything in the room that was standing is no longer. In frenzy mode, you are a combat machine, the biggest downside is you can’t block or heal in that mode, but who’s doing that anyway? Destruction is why we are here when we are in a Crinos form!
Now it’s not perfect, but it’s solid. I would love to see the developers take what they’ve made and just go bonkers. Make huge and more environments, bring in some new team members to work on bringing more lore in (if you didn’t know Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a huge series, typically visual novel or books) and work on more dialog. Just because it’s a wolf/werewolf game doesn’t mean it has to be campy dialog. Also have more dynamic environments and fights. I like fighting other werewolves for sure, and there were a couple mech fights, but overall the boss fights felt really similar (mainly because they were). I did love running around the Nevada desert and the forest in Washington though, MORE PLEASE!
Overall, definitely worth buying nowadays, and it does go on sale frequently too, you won’t be disappointed with this title if you’re looking for a solid werewolf game.
“Aedana… I can smell her.” -Cahal
I NEED MORE WEREWOLF GAMES!
