Endling: Extinction Is Forever Review

Synopsis: As the last mother fox on Earth, your cubs need all your care to survive in a merciless world that slowly destroys itself. You have to help them, teach them and save them. And you should never forget that extinction is forever.

Publisher: Handy-Games
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Also available for: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Developer: Herobeat Studios
Original Idea: Javier Ramello
Production: Julia Vila, Eduardo Gimenez
Narrative Design: Pablo Rodriguez – Tembleco

Endling – Extinction is Forever provides an emotional journey, surviving in a decaying world as a mother fox. The way the game evokes emotions from its player is first class, all held up by excellent set dressing, establishing the mood so effectively. The gameplay may be secondary to the experience of the game. However, the developers have still effectively used it to connect with Mother fox and her kits, mixing up the environments frequently to make the repetition less obvious.

A haunting start sees the pregnant fox running to escape a forest fire, immediately introducing you to the bleak tone present throughout the game. This level also serves as the tutorial before you are thrust into the real world in which the fox survives. Tired and injured, the fox collapses once you locate your first shelter before giving birth to four fox kits. The joy of this, however, is short-lived, as a scavenger soon kit-naps one of the newborns. This sets forth the structure of the game, where each night, you must exit the den with the last three kits in tow, locating food for them and keeping them happy, avoiding humans and other predators whilst also picking up the scent of the kit-napper.

Outside the Den, you explore a bleak world beautifully realised in a 3D art style, though the exploration you complete is through linear paths that connect each other. You explore each night, and you have to choose to explore further in the forest or focus on hunting and foraging for food for your kits. You learn that the forest is in the shadow of a nondescript factory, and its mark becomes more and more pronounced on the area around it each night as more trees are felled, and more and more waste is strewn across the forest. The nights can feel short, sometimes with the sun rising before you can explore every last nook and cranny. This can be a little annoying, but I think the short nights serve the situation and sometimes the desperation of the fox well. The sun coming up comes with more humans, increasing the risk of being out, which makes every night a careful consideration for survival. Will you play it safe and just feed the young? Or explore the world around you?

Every few nights, you will pick up the scent of the scavenger and follow it to learn more about their journey. When you find a trinket, you are shown a silhouette of the scavenger’s path, which acts parallel to the fox’s. It shows as they both work to survive and provide for their offspring in a world that is harsh to all life.

The gameplay loop is simple, though the hunting, foraging and exploring loop is broken up with stealth requirements or chases sequences that are easy to pass. However, what keeps this engaging is that the environments with which you are experiencing through this loop are frequently changing, both visually and in offering paths that open up to you. Like a Metroidvania, paths that are locked to you will open up as time progresses, though some will not open up for you until you do engage with them first. Even if you play without much exploration, the stomping grounds you cover also mix things up visually, with trees disappearing and things appearing in their place. The developers use this clever technique to take away the sameness of the nights, and picking up the scent of the scavenger often pulls you into new areas.

The gameplay also serves the story in that it helps you to step into the fox’s experience of the hellish world, growing that connection you have and having the emotional moments hit that bit deeper than they would have had in traditional animation.

Play

Endling also is an entirely visual game, with the only words appearing as part of the UI. The story is told silently through the stunning visuals that have been well animated, with the accompanying soundtrack setting the mood masterfully. Whilst the game has a very bleak overtone through its message and through things like the brutalness with which you face a game over screen, there is a hopeful undercurrent, looking at persevering and the importance of finding some light in a dark time. This is shown through some of the relationships you can find in some of the non-hostile humans and other unlikely friends.

Overall, my time with Endling – Extinction is Forever is ultimately an emotional experience that can firmly be praised as an example of why games are art. Thematically deep, the game uses the control you have over the Mother Fox to deepen your connection and explore these prevalent themes. Whilst the gameplay may not win awards for innovation, its part in the experience is still important and well managed, never feeling too tedious.