The announcement that Cyanide Studio – veteran French developer and publisher – was developing an action-RPG, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, marks the first time the werewolf-focussed role-playing game from the World of Darkness shared universe gets a videogame adaptation for console (there was a visual novel released on PC/mobile when it was announced).

Probably as a consequence of humanities apparent fixation on vampires, most PC gamers will be familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade, while console gamers might remember three Hunter: The Reckoning games on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. As such, I thought I would do a quick recap of the World of Darkness universe, for console gamers who might have never encountered the IP before.

The World of Darkness began as a series of shared-universe tabletop role-playing games in 1991

In 1990, Game designer Mark Rein-Hagen planned for a run of five tabletop role-playing games, all set in the World of Darkness universe (under White Wolf Publishing at the time): Vampire: The Masquerade (1991), Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992), Mage: The Ascension (1993), Wraith: The Oblivion (1994), and Changeling: The Dreaming (1995). Several more spin-offs were conceived from 1999 onwards, bringing the total number of IPs under the World of Darkness brand to 10 at present.

These games rely on the “Storyteller System”, based around 9 core attributes (split between mental, physical, and social); ability and skill scores; advantages based on character race/class; and virtues, vices, or merits (not dissimilar to traits or feats in the D&D games). These tabletop games were played with 10-sided dice, and your relative attribute/ability/skill level – from 1 to 5 “dots” – dictated the number of d10 you would role to calculate your score.




The World of Darkness is most often described as “gothic-punk”

The idea behind the World of Darkness was to conceptualise an alternate reality, in which monstrous species – think vampires, werewolves, demons, ghouls, etc. – lived hidden in plain sight among the human population. The idea was to create stories in which the player took the role of a “monster”, in a world that required they pretend to be human by day. By night, they would fight for survival and dominance in a parallel society, controlled by secrets cabals and ancient conspiracies, while avoiding the rapidly modernising human world.

This is one of the reasons the Storyteller System ensures players who invest entirely in the “social” attribute and related skills remain viable builds. Every encounter was envisioned to offer multiple solutions and completely avoiding combat was possible (or, at the very least, you could convince someone else to do the killing). This focus on multiple outcomes inevitably influenced future videogame adaptations.




A full decade would pass before we got a videogame adaptation set in the World of Darkness universe

Despite receiving critical praise at the time, the first videogame adaptation in the World of Darkness is often forgotten. Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, released in 2000, is a third-person RPG with a focus on Diablo-style combat and character levelling. The action starts during the crusades but concludes in the present day, allowing players to switch from medieval weaponry and armour to modern firearms and equipment. Players took control of crusader-turned-vampire, Christof, as he came to grips with his new powers, attempted to maintain a degree of humanity, and ultimately, hunt down another powerful vampire that enthralled his lover and is intent on subverting clan control and taking over the world.

It was 2004’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines that PC gamers familiar with the IP will immediately point to. This was an ambitious – and technically messy – first-person immersive sim/RPG that took place in the seedier parts of Los Angeles. The player, a recently fledged vampire, is spared execution by the ruling Camarilla (think Vampire government) and employed to investigate the emergence of an ancient relic that threatens all the clans. This concept of a hidden society of vampires, trying to maintain “The Masquerade” while dealing with the conflict between different clans, become the focus of future games.

Despite being relatively short by modern standards, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines offered incredible narrative and gameplay variety: your character build – from “noble” Toreadors who can blend in effortlessly with humans, to feral Nosferatu who must avoid contact with humans and travel through the sewers – had a massive impact on how NPCs interacted with you, and every core mission offered multiple outcomes. You could engage in direct combat, stealth and hack your way through areas to complete objectives, or engage with NPCs and achieve your goals through persuasion or completing optional tasks for them. It had beautifully realised locations – including an infamous haunted hotel – and impressive voice work for the time. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is still well worth playing today – just make sure you’ve installed the substantial community patch.




There have been three failed attempts to release a Werewolf: The Apocalypse videogame

Vampire: The Masquerade may have become the most recognisable brand in the World of Darkness universe – there have been several visual novels released since 2017 and considerable hype for the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 – but the very first videogame adaptation was intended to be based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse. The creatively titled, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, was announced in 1995. It was to be an isometric beat-em-up collaboration between Capcom and White Wolf Publishing, but the project was cancelled in 1997.

Next up was a Werewolf: The Apocalypse – The Heart of Gaia, an action-adventure that would have been developed by DreamForge Intertainment. It was announced in 1998 but the studio shut down in 2000, resulting in its cancellation. Finally, and perhaps most disappointingly, Troika Games intended to make a werewolf-themed follow-up to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (also just called Werewolf: The Apocalypse), but the project was cancelled soon after that game launched in 2004 with little commercial success. It remains to be seen if Cyanide Studio’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood veers more towards action or role-playing.




The premise behind Werewolf: The Apocalypse remains as topical today as it did in 1992

In the World of Darkness universe, werewolves are known as “Garou” and exist as part of the Garou Nation. They have spent thousands of years acting as the “protectors” of Gaia. In the lore, they have both stifled human progress (to prevent rampant industrialism, overpopulation, and resource consumption), but have also been responsible for culling other apex predators that threatened environmental balance. They have access to five forms that sit on a spectrum between human and classic wolf, with the monstrously-strong “traditional” werewolf form sitting in between.

Leading into the upcoming Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, the Garou find themselves in a world in which their trio of deities, the Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm – originally believed to maintain balance – have descended into a cycle of chaos, while the ongoing technological advancement of humanity has led to modern warfare, climate change, and environmental disasters. This has convinced many in the Garou Nation – especially with the population in continuous decline – that the apocalypse is nigh and they need to act more openly. This sets Cahal on his path against the Pentax Corporation, servants of the corrupted Wyrm, in the American Northwest.