I’ll admit, I had high hopes for this game. Many gamers are anxious for a modern fantasy romp with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 coming, and the promises of being able to choose your methods much like Deus Ex sounded promising.
Unfortunately, I absolutely, positively despise this game in nearly every way. I had to force myself to keep playing in order to put together this review (plus, since I’m just a little publisher in a big world of publishers, I wasn’t provided a review copy, so I wanted to get at least SOME of my own money’s worth out of it). Allow me to break things down.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood: Stealth Done Poorly
First off, let me say this: I understand that it’s a lower-budget game. However, there are just so many glaring mistakes made here that the only way it could pass as decent is if it was released 10 years ago.
The stealth here is, well.. Let’s just break down the fails first. How about the fact that you literally have no control for moving stealthily?
You literally have no ability to control crouching. If you’re in an area with enemies, you automatically crouch. Once you’ve cleared the area, you’ll stand up, and.. Well, it’s pretty much a solid indicator that everything is good, do whatever you like before you move on to the next area.
That’s not all, though.
Let’s say you want to hop around as a wolf. No problem; you can toggle between that and your human form at-will. This is where the “choice” was supposed to come about as far as how you play, but honestly? I’ve found that it’s just as easy in some places to play as stealthy-human, and rarely do you actually HAVE to switch to wolf form.
The only times your wolf form is immediately useful is for the numerous wolf-crossings, highlighted in green.
Oh, and it gets “better”.
Remember that whole auto-stealthing thing? Yeah, apparently, Endron has invented one-way chain-link fences.
With the slim level design, if you get spotted, you’ll rarely be able to find a hiding spot before you’re just forced to go all alpha and kill everybody.. And yeah, you really do HAVE to kill EVERYBODY before you’re automatically changed back.
I guess the game isn’t a TOTAL loss, however. There is a takedown system with different animations, and the process tends to be quick.
And, the Splinter Cell-esque toggled vision allows you to see important bits of tech, silver, and your foes, making planning a simple affair.
Overall, however, the stealth feels less like a game developed by a studio with over 100 employees and more like a game developed by someone passing time in quarantine (which would get a much more favorable review given those constraints).
The rest of Werewolf: The Awful – Bloodyawful
This game is just.. I can’t fathom how I could despise so much of a game that was supposedly focusing on stealth. After all, I gave Ghost Recon Breakpoint a lot of coverage despite it’s negative reviews, and am also a Star Citizen backer.
The graphics are pretty poor; I’m playing on max-everything, and found a number of low-res textures..
..awkward characters..
.. More awkward characters..
..And oh, did I mention the awkward characters?
The bad guys are just plain bad in every way, too, such as this lovely lady attempting to poop the stick out of her butt.
Oh, and there are magic doors that spam bad guys!
What’s even worse is that, when the doors open, bad guys don’t walk out of them. No, they appear IN FRONT OF THE DOOR.
I just.. I am having a hard time even putting the effort into this review. That’s how this game feels; like there wasn’t any effort put in.
The voice acting was pretty spotty, but I tend to forgive that for low-budget stuff. The dialog animations were very, very weird (oh, and when speaking it’s as if they aren’t allowed to actually close their mouth at all).
When I played, I opted to use a controller so I could enjoy analog movement.. and that’s actually not possible. You heard it right: A stealth game in 2021 has no support for analog control sticks (at least, on PC).
The skills system feels tacked-on; while there are some useful skills, ultimately it’s “Eh”, and you could honestly probably get through most of the game without investing in it at all.
That’s really all I have to say here. If you want a stealth game with werewolves, get Skyrim with the Dawnguard DLC; it is much, much better, and it doesn’t even have any advanced stealth mechanics.
Don’t even waste your money with this game. Hold out for it to become a freebie on Epic or something.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to curl up in a corner and just.. Not think about this game anymore. Hell, I don’t even want to hear any metal music for a week; this game has ruined that for me.