Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a tabletop role-playing game created by White Wolf Publishing, who also created its other famous series Vampire: The Masquerade, both games set in the World of Darkness Universe.

On February 4, 2021, publisher Nacon released an action role-playing video game based off of the tabletop series universe titled Werewolf: The Apocalypse-Earthblood, developed by Cyanide who also developed the Pro Cycling Games, 2018’s Call of Cthulhu, and the cult classic game titled Of Orcs and Men along with its spin off games Styx: Master of Shadows and its sequel Styx: Shards of Darkness.

The world of Werewolf: The Apocalypse revolves around Werewolves who are also referred to as Garou, warriors created by the Earth’s celestine known as Gaia.

The Garou live in different tribes, each with their own codes of conduct and ways how they interact with humans; however all Garou share one purpose: to protect Gaia and all living creatures that reside on the planet. 

The Garou tribes also have their own packs known as caern’s, which are sacred grounds for Garou to connect with the spirit realm.

Earth is also home to three entities known as the Wyld, the Weaver and the Wyrm, which all form the spiritual hierarchy known as the Triat.

Each entity has their spiritual purpose to affect the world while at the same time bringing balance, with the Wyld creating chaos, the Weaver taking control of and making order out of chaos and the Wyrm destroying the chaos making room for the new.

At some point in time, the Wyrm became an evil and malicious entity with the purpose of corruption and destruction, influencing and feeding off of the evils of humankind such as greed, malice and hate.

With the Wyrm and its unwitting human accomplices causing harm to Gaia, it is up to the latters warriors, the Garou, to fight against those who would harm the celestine.

The story of Earthblood focuses on Cahal, a Garou of the Fianna tribe, who’s Caern is located in Tarker’s Mill in Washington.

The Caern is led by the alpha of the pack Rodko who, with the help of his sister Ludmila, the wife of Cahal and their daughter Aedana, fight against the games antagonistic industrial company Endron, who’s oil, coal and petroleum mining have caused damage to the environment.

One day during an Endron infiltration mission gone wrong, Cahal gave into his primal rage while in his Werewolf form.

Despite being forgiven due to the circumstances, the guilt of his actions caused Cahal to self exile, leaving behind his Caern and family.

However, five years after the events that took place, Cahal returns to his pack after finding out the Caern is in danger from Endron and the Wyrm; with the help of his friends and family, Cahal will do whatever it takes to take down Endron and protect Gaia and his family.

Earthblood plays as both an action and stealth game, with the player free to choose how they wish to play.

As a Garou, Cahal has three different forms that cater to the players style of play.

His human form allows him to socialize with NPC’s, hack computers and perform takedowns while in stealth, his Lupus form turns him into a wolf which grants Cahal vast speed and agility and his Crinos form transforms him into a Werewolf, which is used for combat.

While in Crinos form, Cahal can fight in two stances, agile and heavy, both having abilities which give him advantages in combat.

While in combat, if Cahal defeats enough enemies, he will activate “frenzy mode” which offers newer stronger attacks.

Enemies in this game can range from Endron soldiers to humans infected by the corruption of the Wyrm.

At some points in the game, the player will also come across members of the Black Spiral Dancers, an antagonistic Garou tribe who are allies with the Wyrm. 

Cahal also has an ability known as penumbra vision, which allow him to detect enemies, find lore and locate points of interest.

Players can obtain skill points which allow them to purchase different abilities that can provide advantages for them.

With an interesting original story taking place in the World of Darkness, Werewolf: The Apocalypse-Earthblood delivers something that fans of the tabletop will enjoy and newcomers to the universe will find interesting.

Although the games graphics seem dated and its gameplay generic, the game is rather reminiscent of B-list games back in the Xbox 360 era which have developed cult followings, something this game most likely receive as well.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse-Earthblood is now available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

Update: This article has been updated; the incorrect publisher for the video game was listed. Cyanide developed the game while Nacon published it.