Werewolf: The Apocalypse Earthblood - A Waste of Potential

Werewolf: The Apocalypse Earthblood is another new release available for next-gen and old-gen platforms. This game looked rather interesting thanks to the entertaining trailers that hyped up this game. Did it live up to its expectations? No. It certainly did not. This game, to put it simply, was very disappointing.

So, where did it all go wrong? Well for one, the story was extremely lacklustre and boring. The story was extremely forgettable. Mainly due to a lack of memorable and exciting moments, and an uninteresting plot. One of the worst parts about this is that there was so much potential to use a great collection of lore that had been built over years, and it was completely disregarded and unused. This lore could have made the game far more interesting and create some great moments. But it wasn’t.

The worst part about it all was the characters and dialogue. My god these were terrible. Extremely laughable. Visually, the character models were dreadful. But that is nowhere near as bad as their dialogue. Being extremely robotic and uninteresting, the dialogue could not be any worse. When I say it’s robotic, it doesn’t get more accurate than that because it feels like you are actually talking to a robot. With terrible acting and awful lines, the characters feel so unconnectable, boring and overall, as said before, laughable. Which just makes the story worse.

Unfortunately, the gameplay does not improve the game at all. It just adds to the overall, disappointing experience. The gameplay is extremely basic, boring and repetitive throughout the whole game. Providing no challenge whatsoever.
The first problem with the gameplay, the levels and areas. There is not much to say about the areas you fight through, because they all look and feel the same. There was no point in the game where I felt that an area was truly unique, both visually and through combat.

On combat, it is a mix of stealth and ordinary combat. Again, both are extremely boring and repetitive. Pretty much every section of this game has you trying to sneak around a couple of enemies and taking them out, or just fighting a load of enemies. There is nothing more to the combat or levels than that. The approaches you take to clear a room are always the same, there is no alternate ways or interesting methods. Just clear a room through stealth or combat, then go to the next room and do the same again. Rinse and repeat. Again, just extremely boring, and not difficult in the slightest.

Although, the direct combat is a lot better than the stealth. You turn into a werewolf and fight hordes of enemies with ease. Filled with gore and making you feel extremely powerful. However, this feeling of power is short lasting, as it quickly becomes repetitive and very boring. Like, the rest of the game. There are ways to enhance your combat through the talent trees available, but it is nothing special. It gives you a few more attacks and abilities, but again, quickly becomes boring. With a lack of interesting and in-depth abilities, the overall combat experience is simply: dull.

Another issue with the game. Enemies. There is a distinct lack of unique and enjoyable enemies through most of the game. Up until the late points of the game, the enemies you face are all the same and extremely basic. Just normal enemies that are not challenging whatsoever. Later on in the game, you do start to see a number of new and more interesting enemies. It is disappointing to see that these enemies are pushed right to the end, rather than spread throughout the game. Because these enemies actually provided a bit more of a challenge and a variety of attacks compared to the regular soldiers you encounter.
In terms of graphics and performance, the game runs fine. The graphics and performance are more enhanced and enjoyable on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, which is obvious. But, on Xbox One and PS4, the experience is decent. Nothing special. However, it hurts to see that the graphics are wasted within the game. There a very few moments where you get to see how nice the graphics are because of the extreme lack in unique and beautiful areas. There does not seem to be many major issues with the game, apart from a few ragdoll issues with the enemies. But nothing serious.

Overall, as stated, the game is extremely disappointing. It is extremely repetitive and boring. There is not much else to say about it upon that. The potential for this game was wasted, and it is sad to see that.