WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE – EARTHBLOOD

Game director Julien Desourteaux explains this new action RPG has bite

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Bigben Interactive Dev Cyanide Studio

Cyanide Studio is ready to mix it with the Triple-As for its new game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. Set in the World Of Darkness tabletop RPG universe (which also has two Vampire: The Masquerade games incoming), this is an action RPG that enables you to mix werewolf forms to blend stealth, melee combat, and a choice-driven narrative. We chat with game’s director Julien ‘Patch’ Desourteaux about influences, ambition, and wolf rage…

OPM: Why does the source material demand an actionfocussed game?

Julien Desourteaux: Werewolves are mighty and brutal creatures that have always fascinated writers but rarely videogames makers.

The World Of Darkness adds to the werewolf’s myth with a very mature and rich background while still keeping the essence of what makes a werewolf: its rage and brutality. We want the player to feel how it is to be a werewolf in the World Of Darkness universe, those shapeshifters fighting to protect Gaia against the big corporation destroying the planet. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the best way to represent this wild nature of a werewolf is by creating an action combat game with RPG elements taken directly from the original source book.

OPM: Were you at all anxious at the scale of the job at hand – three forms of werewolf, three styles of play?

JD: We had a year of preproduction to discuss internally and with White Wolf about how we could do this right. Their support has been very useful to guide us in the right direction. The key point about the three shapes was to allow the player to shift to the form they want seamlessly and give every shape a gameplay depth. The Lupus (wolf form) will be great for exploration, fast travel, sneaky approaches, and reckoning before taking action. The Homid (human form) will be the interaction form, allowing players to talk with people and use human devices to help him in his progression through levels. And of course, the Crinos (werewolf form) is the best form to unleash your rage on your enemies during brutal and visceral combat.

OPM: How does the act of losing control here differ from the tabletop game?

JD: We are still working on this part now, but we do not want the player to drop their controller and watch their character doing things without having any input to give. This would be far too frustrating and would not depict the feeling of strength we want. We want the player to be active and to play with the limit of the rage. Rage management is at the core of our gameplay mechanics.

“UNLEASH YOUR RAGE ON YOUR ENEMIES DURING BRUTAL AND VISCERAL COMBAT.”

OPM: On a rage scale of Knack to Kratos, where is the protagonist? How angry can we get in-game?

JD: Haha, definitely not Knack. As an old Haroun from the Fianna tribe with a troubled past, our hero is definitely not a softtempered one, and when he is fighting in Crinos it is all about destruction and bloodshed. I am sure players will love to destroy Endron facilities and paint walls with the blood of their foes.

OPM: Is your game’s world part of the wider World Of Darkness? And do you reference events in other areas of the world?

JD: Yes, but I do not want to spoil the story at this point. We are working closely with White Wolf in order to fit in the bigger scheme of things.

OPM: Is Earthblood planned as a one-off game, or is there scope for it to be the first in a much broader series?

JD: For the moment we are focussing on the first Werewolf: The Apocalypse game and [French developer] Big Bad Wolf is now working on a Vampire: The Masquerade one. As for a broader series… time will tell!