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**CTPhipps** · 03-18-2021, 09:36 PM

Originally posted by Heavy Arms View Post

Anyone have any idea how easy it would be to do mods for the game?

It really feels like if Earthblood is going to have any legs as a product, it's going to need a strong mod community like Bloodlines 1 has (people are still doing unofficial improvements to that game even now, and major additions to it as well). While banking on (free) fan work isn't necessarily a great strategy, encouraging it is usually a good thing and feels like it could be something that could make the game a lot more appealing for anyone that's not sold on "we finally got a WtA game and it doesn't suck."

It's not an open world game, really, so I'm not sure what you'd mod it with.

It seems very handcrafted for good and bad.

**heinrich** · 03-20-2021, 05:28 PM

So, I finished the game moments ago. Then, I couldn't reload the game to get the other ending, so I watched it on youtube....

Cons (and general ranting)
The gameplay was okay, for me. The graphics were kinda dated and often just textures in the landscape that didn't necessarily fit. Especially in the 2nd larger map (the desert/canyon one) the lupus often hit some smaller ledge or the corner of rock, halting the movement. That was kinda annoying. The decision to have Endron facilities and Caerns within mere hundreds of meters appart from each other, on the same map, was surely to reduce loading screens and such, but it requires suspension of disbelieve on my part.
The game doesn't seem to have many character models, like someone mentioned above. Even the endboss in one of the endings seems to be fomori like so many others in the game. The game also follows a linear mission path, with optional side quests. No variation there, up until the very last moment of the game.
Also, all spirits look alike, except for the two totem spirits. Interaction with the spirits is limited to posing next to them and converting them into 1/3 of an experience point... Also, they are tied to either plants of, I guess, artifacts of the garou, lying around in the endron labs/offices. Or fungi in the prison.

I hated how they introduced the Red Talons. Not from a plot point, but for the semantics used. "Leader of the Red Talons" is what the NPC says about herself (although it is later said she is an Uktena adopted by the Red Talons). It should have been "a pack of Red Talon" or the Sept should have been given a name. The sept you start at is also simply refered to as pack (maybe it is a one pack sept) but at least it is called "Tucker's Mill" (and this name is obviously derived from some human landmark we never get to see and wich I find odd for garou Caerns, but still better than 'the Red Talons').
That the Red Talon Pack leader kidnapped by Endron wears bones and carries a dagger in her cell is just lazy development.

Development should have justed a lupus form for this NPC, period.

There was some exposition in form of notes and letters and anouncments lying around in the endron base. The main character comments them with one-liners but I would have liked voiceovers or somethig like that. I don't want to read this stuff...

Also, I found the permanent use of in-ear communication atypical for garou. Sure, Ava, who runs operations is tech savy and all that, but still...

Also, I played with english audio but german interface and the translation was not done by anyone who played the game. No idea what the english word is when the lupus ducks into the convieniently lupus sized air vents, but "kreuzen" is not the proper German word for this. Aside from a breeder, who interbreeds for example two types of dogs, this word has only one other meaning in the German language and that is the process of two trains passing each other on an otherwise one lane trail. I had to look that up. It seems the translations were done by an algorithm and tested by a native speaker in real gameplay.

I liked the sneaking around and trying to figure out how to get by the enemies without a fight. Sadly, what alerted other NPCs and what not, and what was considered sufficient cover and what not wasn't always clearly discernable. So, it succed when I tried to do it all over again, because of savepoints I had no influence over. Hell, instead of saving after a fight, it should have saved before (which sometimes it does). But I had to recollect spirits and move trough five or so rooms before returning to the fight I wanted to redo, just because the savepoint was chosen inconvinient.

For the price of the game, the content just isn't sufficient. The game is too short, imo.

Also, I hated that guards you killed in fight mode (Crinos) turned into fomori - as if fomori were zombies. If you assasinated them, they did not. Some of them transformed before you killed them, and that is how it alsways should be.

At various points the game tries to build suspense by rushing somewhere (but being too late for the story is linear and stuff) but then expects the player to still go into rooms not on the direct route to find the spirits that constitude XP or has doors locked just to force the player to sneak around or kill anyone, instead of just running through the room and leave it. Enemies usually do not follow you into other rooms...

Pros
I really liked the story. It was nothing about a special snowflake, like "Heart of Gaia" was supposed to be. It was a good basic storyline. The characters were down to earth, imo.

I liked the sneaking and while the execution of this wasn't perfect it really worked.

The two major areas are divded by a short prison intermezzo, this was also a welcome addition and change of pace. Oh, and there were civilians there actually displaying Delirium.

I liked that the player could not fall to his death when moving. With the errors in the graphics and occasional unfavorable camaera angles this was a welcome feature for me. Until it was changed in the last map, an oil rig. One should really have a warning there. Come to think of it, there was a free floating piece of land in the umbra, but I don't know if one could get knocked off that.

So, all in all, this game is WtA's version for Vampire - Redeption. Let's hope there is a Bloodlines equivalent coming.

Or the game gets an level editor and scripting tool. With quality voice recording some minor missions would be fun to play through. So, once the game is not EPIC exclisive anymore, it could benefit from Steam Workshop or something...

**maryshelly** · 03-23-2021, 10:40 PM

It is now 40% off, is it worth it on sale?

**heinrich** · 03-24-2021, 06:50 AM

Depends on you, really.
I bought it, because it is werewolf. With that content I wouldn't pay the -40% either, if it was any other game.

EDIT: It's on sale for SONY PS. It's not on sale in the epic store.

**maryshelly** · 03-24-2021, 11:04 AM

Originally posted by heinrich View Post

Depends on you, really.
I bought it, because it is werewolf. With that content I wouldn't pay the -40% either, if it was any other game.

EDIT: It's on sale for SONY PS. It's not on sale in the epic store.

I would get it simply because it is Werewolf, and we have been waiting about 30 years for a Werewolf game, but when I hear comparisons to Vampire Redemption (which is really old school), I think maybe I should wait until it is about 75% off

**heinrich** · 03-24-2021, 04:23 PM

My Redemption comparison was based on the gameplay, rather than the graphics.
In Redemption like in Earthblood there is a linear plot with limited possibilities to stray from it. There is rarely something else to do than bypass the level you are in, to progress. It is not comparable with the limited open world of Bloodlines or other more modern games, like GTA or so....

**maryshelly** · 03-25-2021, 10:43 AM

Originally posted by heinrich View Post

My Redemption comparison was based on the gameplay, rather than the graphics.
In Redemption like in Earthblood there is a linear plot with limited possibilities to stray from it. There is rarely something else to do than bypass the level you are in, to progress. It is not comparable with the limited open world of Bloodlines or other more modern games, like GTA or so....

I see, thanks for the update. I figure that it has been the only Werewolf game to ever come out. So long as it (somewhat) follows the mechanics of being a werewolf in the tabletop RPG and I can unleash my inner Crinos for fun, I might just go for it. Does it capture the essence and gameplay of the Tabletop well?

**heinrich** · 03-25-2021, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by maryshelly View Post

I see, thanks for the update. I figure that it has been the only Werewolf game to ever come out. So long as it (somewhat) follows the mechanics of being a werewolf in the tabletop RPG and I can unleash my inner Crinos for fun, I might just go for it. Does it capture the essence and gameplay of the Tabletop well?

Well....
It is a single player game about a single werewolf. They talk about "pack" when they also could mean "sept". All in all, we see five garou in total at the "home base", so maybe all the caern has is one pack....
All garou action by other characters is limited to being either off screen or in cut scenes, except rare fights against BSDs.

The game captures being garou quite well, in my opinion, and I could totally see the plot of the game also be one of the 1st edition novels (which usually were about a single character, rather than a pack).

There are a lot of things different than the tabletop game is. There are two major spirits, with whom one can interact as in have a meaningful dialogue with. I liked how they were portrayed. I thought is was kind of a waste that all other spirits were just "hidden secrets", one had to find on the maps to get XP - but could ignore, for the story advancement also granted XP. Also, there were maybe three spirit models, for all the lesser spirits, so they looked all the same.

So, it is werewolf in the weird way that these early novels were werewolf and how playing with a troupe who has a totally different playstyle compared to what one is used to is also werewolf.
It is an element that fits into the greater universe, but is not really reflecting all of what werewolf can be or even all the major parts. But, it doesn't try too.

And so, I circle back to my Redeption vs. Bloodlines comparison.

**CTPhipps** · 03-26-2021, 07:37 AM

CT PHIPPS' REVIEW OF EARTHBLOOD:

3/5

WEREWOLF THE APOCALYSPE: EARTHBLOOD is a AA video game developed by Cyanide studios and published by Nacon. I mostly know them from 2018's CALL OF CTHULHU game that started very strong and then became really terrible. Still, I am a huge World of Darkness fan and am very happy to support the franchise. Still, I kept my expectations measured about the game and what it was good. So, is it any good?

Eh, it's so so. I'm not going to lie that this game feels like it's a PS2 game let alone PS4 at times and it has a lot of repetitive gameplay as well as reused environments. Still, there's some good elements to it and might be worth a purchase once the price has gone down from its initial cost. If that sounds like a three star review versus something that is either very good or very bad. Well, you would be right.

The premise of the game is you are a Fiana Garou named Cahal who is exiled from his caern after killing another werewolf during a frenzy. Returning after several years, he discovers that his daughter has disowned him and the caern is now home to a human environmental resistance group. The werewolves and humans are fighting against Endron Oil that is based on a combination of Enron and Exxon Oil.

Endron is actually more like Woflram and Hart than your typical evil corporation since it is devoted to destroying the environment for their evil spiritual masters. This is all complicated stuff from the tabletop roleplaying game and doesn't really get much explanation. Despite this, it's not really a hard concept to get. "Viking-like Fantasy Werewolves vs. Evil Corporate Soldiers! Save the Earth from the polluting evil doers and their mercenaries!"

Cahal basically spends most of the game wandering around Endron facilities, sneaking past various group of guards and slaughtering large groups of mooks in battle arenas. It somewhat undermines the realism, as much as realism can be said to apply to the game, that literally hundreds of people can be killed by our protagonists in the "real world" without it being a national news story.

I understand the game was limited by its budget but I think a better way to handle it would have had Cahal fighting Bane spirits like Scraglings or Formori rather than the endless parade of human mercenaries. Not just because it would have made the game more memorable but also because the Delerium doesn't appear to be a thing here. You occasionally fight the Power Loader from Alien and mooks empowered by the "biofuel" but the enemy variety is low.

It's also interesting to note just how big of a role that stealth plays in the game. Werewolves are not particularly associated with stealth in my tabletop games, so it's interesting to see Cahal sneaking around guards and turning off security cameras for a large chunk of the game. It's fine, sort of discount Metal Gear Solid, but it does feel a little weird. There's no Gifts present in the game either, which I understand, but could have helped liven up the story a bit.

The graphics are serviceable but, again, feel a bit dated. I think a more stylized version of the characters would have benefited. I can't help but think of HEART OF THE FOREST which took the exact opposite take with the game, de-emphaizing the violence. The latter is a visual novel but shows the benefit of focusing on the character and artistry of the setting versus the bloodshed.

The ending also feels like it is incomplete. Given all the events that happen to Cahal, I think a more definitive ending to the character would have been better. I won't spoil but the game leaves things on a cliffhanger with nothing really resolved. I don't foresee a sequel being likely and the experience is soured as a result. There's a lot of potential good character development with Cahal and his daughter even if I feel like it's a little too traditional to go, "my wife was killed and now I am mad."

In conclusion, this is definitely a decent game but I think they could have aimed a bit higher or wackier. If they weren't going to be able to do as much with the environments and characters, then they might have just set the entire thing inside an Endron facility and made it, "Escape from Endron" rather than try to break it up. Something more like Arkham Asylum than trying to do a pseudo-open world where Endron's mine is literally 200 feet away from the heart of the caern.

**Ana Mizuki** · 03-26-2021, 11:34 AM

Not going to lie, Earthblood reminds me of the game Space Marine. It's got repetitive foes, not many changes and in general, it just feels like it could have been 4 hours shorter. There is no character arc for Cahal, either.

**maryshelly** · 03-26-2021, 03:15 PM

Originally posted by Ana Mizuki View Post

Not going to lie, Earthblood reminds me of the game Space Marine. It's got repetitive foes, not many changes and in general, it just feels like it could have been 4 hours shorter. There is no character arc for Cahal, either.

Well, if there is one thing I will say about Space Marine, it did have good Voice acting. Mark Strong as Captain Titus is as good as it gets

**Ana Mizuki** · 03-26-2021, 11:31 PM

Originally posted by maryshelly View Post

Well, if there is one thing I will say about Space Marine, it did have good Voice acting. Mark Strong as Captain Titus is as good as it gets

Oh the characters of Space Marine were great, they had a good dynamic going on and the ending felt right.

Its just the Ork hordes stopped being interesting about an hour in. As did the stealth in Eartblood, as well as the lack of strong garou characters. It just felt too small scale, we only had named fomor bosses and no BSDs with names.

**CTPhipps** · 03-27-2021, 07:17 PM

Originally posted by Ana Mizuki View Post

Not going to lie, Earthblood reminds me of the game Space Marine. It's got repetitive foes, not many changes and in general, it just feels like it could have been 4 hours shorter. There is no character arc for Cahal, either.

It seems like they have one with "Is it better to give into rage and vengeance or build something better?" but the former is kind of necessary for the latter given how awful Endron is. The ending choice is oddly one where I'd argue the greater good is served by the "Renegade" choice.

**heinrich** · 03-28-2021, 04:28 AM