In White Wolf’s RPG, players take
on the role of the Garou – from the
French loup-garou, meaning werewolf- a tribe of lycanthropes fighting a
war on two fronts, against the human
destruction of their habitat on the
one paw, and sinister supernatural
forces hell-bent on bringing about the
apocalypse on the other.
So far we’ve seen little of the
gameplay itself other than was
teased in a recent trailer at PDXCon in
Berlin, but we have had a little more
of the story revealed to us. It seems
you will be playing as Cahal, who in
human form looks like a hairy biker. He
obviously loves heavy metal, because
the whole trailer is soundtracked by
metallers Of Mice & Men, setting the
scene perfectly with a lovely bit of
angsty metalcore.Wuff justice
We also see Cahal in full wolf form,
and it seems likely he can take
the form of either at will. But when
consumed by Rage – an important
power in the game’s world – he goes
full hairy-back and starts chomping
on people like they were chew toys.
Bad dog! Or, good dog, because he’s
doing it for the planet. You see, Cahal
has returned to his pack from a few
years in exile having discovered they
are in danger, their forest sanctuary
threatened by an evil multinational
corporation. So the game is going to
tap into our current concerns over
deforestation and climate change,
and it seems likely that as Cahal you
will have a vital role in the coming war
against these humans.
But if you’re thinking it’s going to
be easy, like just get mad and have at
them, think again. Anger management
will be a big part of the gameplay – if
Cahal gathers too much rage, he’ll go
a bit feral and will likely not be able to
distinguish friend from foe. So you’ll
need to manage that temper to make
sure it’s just right. The game will be
out probably around the time of one of
the full moons in 2020, so keep an eye
on the lunar calendar for this one. QIt looks like 2020 will be packed
full of videogames adapted from
pen-and-paper RPGs. There’s Mike
Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk, of course,
and we’re also pretty excited for one
monster-themed Xbox game based
on a tabletop RPG, Vampire: The
Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Another
staple of the classic monster movie,
the wolfman, is also getting an RPG
in 2020. Werewolf: The Apocalypse- Earthblood is, again, based on a
tabletop game set in White Wolf’s
World Of Darkness, which is also home
to Vampire: The Masquerade. This
much hairier beast is being developed
by Cyanide Studios, which last year
had a good stab at Chaosium’s
Lovecraft RPG with the rather decent
Call Of Cthulhu.
World Of Darkness also includes such RPGs as Mage: The Ascension, Mummy: The Resurrection and Demon: The Fallen
BELOW Cahal is
like a wolfey,
rage-filled
member of
Extinction
Rebellion.
Werewolf: The
Apocalypse –
Earthblood
Bark at the moon in this
monster RPG adaptation
Chris Burke
PUBLISHER BIGBEN INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER CYANIDE
ETA 2020“The game is
going to tap
into our current
concerns over
deforestation”
028 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW