The Haunted Hoard: Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood (PS5)

Back in 2019’s Haunted Hoard I noted how few video games let you play as a werewolf, and unfortunately the game I did find that allowed you to do so back then was an abysmal NES game called Werewolf: The Last Warrior. When I heard about a werewolf game being released for modern hardware though, I got excited as it meant there was hope for a quality game based around this classic horror monster, but while Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is definitely a a step up from a game released 30 years ago, it also seems to have a foot in the past, feeling almost like a game that would have come out for the PlayStation 3 instead of the PlayStation 5. That doesn’t mean the game is doomed to be bad though, and after accepting only a few cutscenes would really utilize the system’s graphical might, what I found was a hack-and-slash that could at least capture the primal fury of turning into a ravenous half-man half-wolf.

 

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood takes most of its name from the tabletop RPG Werewolf: The Apocalypse which it also borrows its lore from. Unfortunately, at the very start it doesn’t do too much to introduce you to the broader concepts of the World of Darkness. You are at least told that nature is maintained by the balance of three forces, The Wyld creating nature, The Weaver shaping it, and The Wyrm corrupting it, and while The Weaver is practically irrelevant here, the other two forces can at least be tied into other concepts that the game throws at you at first with little detail on what they are. The player plays as Cahal, a werewolf which are known as Garou in this universe and have three forms known as Homid, Lupus, and Crinos. They serve the Wyld and live together in Caerns where they help nature spirits like Yfen push back the Wyrm, and if this feels like a lot of terminology to toss at you without explaining each one, you can understand the early game confusion, especially since once you think you understand that all Garou serve the Wyld, the game’s first boss is a werewolf known as a Black Spiral Dancer that you only later learn the origins of. Documents and dialogue do begin to flesh things out properly so you won’t spend the rest of the game confused, but when first leaping into Werewolf: The Apocalypse- Earthblood it’s easy to feel like you’re being immersed in the deep end before the game remembers it should start explaining what’s going on.

The broader plot elements are at least easy to grasp onto in those early moments. Cahal works together with his fellow Garou to try and stop the Endron oil company from pushing into natural areas with their destructive practices, but when their plan goes awry and the pack suffers heavy loses, Cahal leaves them in shame. Years later though he learns of an effort by Endron to wipe out the remainder of his pack and he returns to aid them, learning about Endron’s deeper ties to the Wyrm as he joins his pack in their efforts to strike back. Much of the story follows the push back against Endron and how the Wyrm’s power leads to heavy losses on the side of the Wyld, but while this could have been a tragic story for our gruff looking protagonist, some of its efficacy is lost by the wooden performances and emotionless character models. The actual writing could have made elements work like the pack gradually growing to trust human helpers or emphasize the distance between Cahal and his daughter after he left so suddenly, but the dialogue feels so flat so it’s hard to get invested in what otherwise works as a decent story structure for the action. There’s also an odd choice made where you are able to rotate the camera freely during character chats despite the lighting being precisely picked to only make things look good from one angle that does nothing to improve these wooden chats.

 

The story does at least keep you moving through new areas, things starting in a pacific northwest forest and Endron’s facilities but ending up in locations like secret laboratories, the deserts of Nevada, and even a portion where Cahal is sneaking around a prison and can’t rely on his Garou powers too openly to get the job done. However, it definitely feels like Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is first and foremost about mixing the thrills of being a terrifyingly powerful werewolf with the benefits of embracing stealth beforehand. As you move from room to room in the facilities occupied by Endron’s security forces, staying out of sight and sneakily taking down their troops unnoticed definitely has direct benefits even if you do get spotted and need to whip out your werewolf form. Not only can it lower the number of soldiers you need to fight, but you can sneak off and disable turrets, short circuit doors reinforcements come in through so they get zapped as they arrive, or even outright skip some encounters if you’re able to navigate the area well. Your Lupus form comes in handy here, this being the one where you become a regular wolf and can slink behind objects quickly, quietly, and easily, but you need to be in your human Homid shape to interact with technology or take down troops quietly. The Lupus also has access to special routes through vents and can bark to draw attention to an area it can then quickly run from in case some guard patrols are being particularly pesky.

 

In addition to some other options like Cahal having a crossbow he can quietly take guards down with from range, the stealth is easy to engage with and clearing a room with it is satisfying without being too slow. It also helps that most of the time, if you do get caught, you aren’t doomed or hit with a failure state. Instead, its time to change into your hulking Crinos form, this hybrid shape when you really get to run rampant as a werewolf. Early on in the game it is incredibly easy to just tear apart everyone standing before you with your wild slashing attacks, your move set not particularly nuanced but containing options like wild slashes, airborne slams, uppercuts, and even the option to pick up and hurl soldiers around. You have two ways to fight during a battle, the speed form good for cutting through crowds of weak enemies while the more attack oriented form slowing Cahal down so he can deal heavy damage up close and resist the attacks a bit better while doing so.

At first, it’s easy to revel in just going wild and not really paying attention to any sort of strategy while in Crinos form, this definitely emphasizing the pure power of being a Garou in this world. After a battle the area will be coated in blood from your rampage, but during the fight there are effects that make tearing through your enemies feel even more spectacular despite the game never indulging in any animations that are too grotesque or over the top. Soon though the game starts to roll out foes who have a better fighting chance against Cahal, this starting with armored enemies who have powerful guns that can be loaded with silver bullets that reduce your health bar for the fight. When the enemies get tougher, you definitely need to start backing off and pulling off a quick heal with the fury you built up from fighting, but you can also utilize extra abilities like a roar to make enemies fly back or your Frenzy Mode where the two attack styles mix for a brief power boost that is best held onto until you’re sure you’re fighting a wave of foes where it can be utilized to its maximum benefit.

 

Doing poorly in the stealth sections can mean these battles become more difficult early on, but there are segments where full-on fights are required and can’t be worked around. When the game starts bringing in enemies in huge mechanical armor and the Wyrm starts gifting his supporters strange monstrous forms, the battles start to get a bit more depth where picking the right foe to fight or using the right options to kill them quickly becomes more important. Some Wyrm troops can heal others, the combat mechs can electrify floors, gunmen like snipers pester you from afar if left alive, and enemies in general just get better at making the fights less about mindless violence and more about pointing your hack and slash tools in the right directions and knowing when to whip out an ability. It never gets to such a degree of depth that you’ll be struggling to find the right strategy to win, and that power fantasy of being a werewolf that can easily tear things apart is never really broken away from despite more durable enemies entering the mix. Part of this definitely comes from the fact that you are healed after every battle so you don’t need to play too carefully, but you can definitely feel worn down by long battles with strong foes so there is some difficulty to be found. Bosses are sadly underwhelming though since your speediness and healing options are too strong for one long fight with a foe that leaves themselves open frequently, so some of the climactic battles lose their bite unless the boss brings some good backup.

 

Outside of the combat, there are some mild role-playing game elements at play in Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, the most obvious being a level up system where you can increase your skills or add new abilities to your repertoire. Areas often have hidden areas you can gain experience from if you use your special vision to inspect them, the world turning red and highlighting lingering spirits. This can be used to figure out the lay of the land and where enemies are positioned as well, but the game does a pretty good job with sight lines that you won’t need this often and it’s properly limited by disappearing shortly after you start moving. Some moments have dialogue choices that change how an encounter will play out, and you can even just skip the chatter and turn into a werewolf to quickly end them if you like, but besides a big choice at the finale these only really have immediate impacts or let you learn certain details you could miss otherwise. One area where the RPG elements really fail the game though are the sidequests. The nature spirits the Garou serve have some of the most awe-inspiring models in the game, the forest giant Yfen with his face woven from branches to surround a spiritual center and the desert serpent Pachu’a a mix of bird, snake, and skeleton. Unfortunately, their tasks they give the player involve scouring areas for spirits, shrines, or other busywork that isn’t particularly interesting to pursue and often too spread out for its own good. The hub areas are better served as areas for chats and note collection, but these side quests bloat them with weak tasks that pay out mostly with just experience for leveling up your abilities.

THE VERDICT: Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood definitely makes playing as a werewolf exhilarating as you can often bloodily tear through weaker enemies with ease, and the game does ensure things aren’t too mindless by adding in enemies that require more than mashing the attack button to overcome. Having the RPG-styled progression and the optional benefits of stealth on top allow the action to have a few extra layers to how it unfolds without becoming overly complex, but by not necessitating too much strategy and making the bosses a bit too easy, this is still a game you’d mostly come to if you want to find a werewolf-focused hack and slash rather than a deep realization of the concept. Some poor presentation choices hamper an otherwise decent story line to hold the action together, so if you’re looking for anything but a chance to rampage as a werewolf, this tabletop game adaptation will likely feel rather mediocre.

 

And so, I give Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood for PlayStation 5…

An OKAY rating. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood wasn’t built by some huge production company so I didn’t expect it to truly be a jaw-dropping experience for the powerful PlayStation 5 hardware, so while it definitely feels like it could be a game from a different era with its design approach and graphical fidelity, it would also be a game that fits right into the middle of the pack for that time. It can be exciting to just go wild in the Crinos form, and the way new powerful enemies are mixed in shows that the development team knew that some quick unopposed violence can still be fun to indulge in even when you then need to start to think a bit about how you’ll handle the new foes who won’t go down so easily. The sidequests are positively dull unfortunately, bosses don’t put up the best fights, and the story’s delivery makes it hard to appreciate the actual writing, so you really only have an entertaining action core to sustain things. Bringing in stealth portions that aren’t rigidly required does a lot to lead to a natural rise and fall in excitement so that neither half gets too old, and segments like the prison portion that completely pursue new ideas means the whole adventure doesn’t just end up being about entering the latest Endron facility to sneak and fight your way through each room.

 

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood still doesn’t quite hit the mark on bringing us an excellent video game about being a werewolf, but it definitely outclasses Werewolf: The Last Warrior in every way and can at least often nail the feral fury of being an enormous half-wolf monster. It’s not too exceptional unfortunately despite playing into that expected primal energy in a fairly satisfying way, but this unpolished experience can at least somewhat slake the desire for a decent werewolf game if you really want to experience that particular power fantasy.