Endling: Extinction is Forever review

Depicting cute animals in peril is a surefire way to elicit an emotional response. Barcelona-based Herobeat Studios does it rather artfully. Endling: Extinction is Forever isn’t for everyone, but it you’re looking for a game that engages reflexes, mind, and heart, read on.

Games don’t often explore the transient nature of existence. Early coin-operated titles used lives as a currency, with mistakes causing players to forfeit a ‘life’. But reaching certain scoring plateaus often gave you additional chances, further undermining the analogy.

Many contemporary roguelikes flaunt a ‘permadeath’ mechanic, applying a punishment for letting the protagonist die. But taking a moment to reflecting on the feats of a fallen character is rare, outside of games like XCOM. Typically, we are goaded to get back to our objective, while the memory of our fatal oversight is still fresh. Perhaps the “Press F to Pay Respects” meme is the ultimate embodiment of how games think about impermanence. But as much as I relish the adrenaline rush in a visceral shooter, sometimes I want to feel more.

Children of Men, but with Foxes

Herobeat Studios’ Endling: Extinction is Forever adopts an atypical approach for an action game. Persistently, the title compels players to care about it fragile characters. When loss occurs, it stings with acidic intensity and lingers with a persistence uncommon in the medium. The game’s introduction tasks players with guiding the world’s last fox to safety. It’s a distressing trek, revealing a ravaged world where wildfires burn out of control and humanity appears to be expiring, likely from our own imprudence.

We witness small animals such as bunnies flee in desperate trepidation. Other creatures, like a majestic deer also make a last-ditch attempt at survival before succumbing to an agonizing, fiery death. But our fox is luckier, shambling into a makeshift den. Here, she lays down exhausted before giving birth to four absolutely adorable kits. While they’re cute, the responsibility of caring for a family of foxes is daunting. But upon seeing these baby foxes on-screen, you’ll probably determine to do everything you can to keep them alive. Hell, you might even resort to save scumming. Few would blame you.

Heartbreak is Ubiquitous in Herobeat’s World

Endling’s apocalyptic world is heartachingly merciless. A menacing human lures one of your cubs away with a cute toy. Beyond being tasked with scavenging enough food for the remaining kits in your litter every night, you’ll attempt to track down clues to help locate your stolen offspring. Herobeat Studio ensures you won’t forget about your stolen cub, with the toy placed in a corner of your den as an agonizing reminder. More importantly, your home embodies safely, depicting cubs playing without the persistent worry of predators.

Yes, some might argue that Extinction is Forever borders on being emotionally manipulative at times. But most other will appreciate game design that tugs at your heartstrings and produces a convincing sense of concern about its characters. Personally, I welcome any media that might make us think about the irreversible effects of human ‘civilization’ and our relationship with nature.

Clever as a Kit

Survival means skulking a network of paths, sporadically using your keen sense of smell to hunt down food. Slow down and you’ll be able to sniff out a lone apple hanging high on a tree branch or even something edible in a pile of trash. But that’s not Mother Fox’s only vulpine quality. She can creep about to avoid attracting the attention of malevolent humans. She can pounce on prey, dig into soil, leap, fish, and sprint away from danger.

Pleasingly, the game’s fluid animation helps to bring a sense of beauty to a ravaged world. Occasionally, the dismal setting is disrupted by a close-up of one of your cubs, who exhibit cartoonish charm as they yawn or tumble about. Other moments, a subtle glance by Mama Fox lets you know of a junction in the road. And a vault onto consumable prey conveys lithe athleticism, while your cubs behind you scamper up a crag. Get your paw caught in a bear trap and your assertive stride becomes a worrisome limp.

Survival doesn’t just center around foraging for food and avoiding adversaries. You’ll teach your cubs different abilities, allowing them to climb and burrow for themselves, accessing otherwise closed-off areas. Mechanically, it’s little more than a simple tech-tree but the concept of passing knowledge down to a future generation is heartwarming. Masterfully, the game is devoid of dialog, which allows for subtlety with the storytelling. We aren’t explicitly told that Mother Fox’s days are waning, but we worry if she will be able to impart her teachings before it’s too late.

The Bushy Part of the Tale

Although Extinction is Forever’s cultivation of concern for its characters is skilled, some might take issue with the execution of some of the game’s mechanics. As you progress, nutrition becomes steadily scarcer, forcing you to venture further away from your den. This decision promotes a feeling of desperation. But the game’s lack of balancing means that those far-flung food items aren’t always worth the expenditure of energy getting there. While realistic, the design decision can produce frustration.

Periodically, the title tosses dilemmas at players. Foraging through a trash heap might provide a much-needed meal but Mother Fox can end up with a plastic bag caught hazardously around her neck. These quandaries are thorny, requiring us to take risks in an attempt to aid the ones we love. Navigation eventually grows rather routine so these predicaments become the highlights of play. As such, you’ll probably wish there were more of them.

A more minor issue is rooted in the need to press a button to view the in-game map. Likely, Herobeat Studio wanted players to reconnoiter and learn the environment like an actual fox would. But the game’s 2D pathing can occasionally cause disorientation. A map is accessible via a pause screen, put looking at your whereabouts from an overhead can disrupt the sense of immersion. Ideally, optional on-screen screen map would be present to help with navigation much like your olfactory senses are given a visual representation.

Conclusion

Largely, it’s hard to fault a few minor mechanical imperfections given Endling’s ambitions. Without any conventional narration, Extinction is Forever compels us to care about its characters and context. The game’s tools are restrained, with visuals that depict huggable little kits and predominantly predatory humans. Meanwhile, an emotive soundtrack mixes somber strings with electronic instrumentation underscoring the action. Endling is a small feat in interactive exposition. Anyone with the slightest interest in the gravitas of digital storytelling should seek this title out.

Endling: Extinction is Forever was played on PC
with review code provided by the publisher.