Endling – Extinction Is Forever – Test, Action-Adventure

fox vs human

A little vixen struggles through a man-made lunar landscape. Between felled trees and polluted streams there is only the rubbish scattered everywhere, with which she feeds her two boys. Just a few nights ago there were four little fox puppies that followed her hopping through the forest. But one of her cubs was kidnapped by a poacher – and there just wasn’t enough food for another mini fox in this wasteland that was once a thriving paradise. After all: The proximity to the smoking and filthy factories of the people ensure a lot of waste and one or the other tin of meat that is left over for their young. And the mother fox doesn’t give up – after all, night after night, a trail brings her closer and closer to her missing cub.

Endling – Extinction is Forever is a playful memorial. It makes clear what terrible consequences the destruction of natural habitats, the destruction of the last intact forests and the global climate crisis will have for humans and animals. In a wonderful picture book setting, I experience the merciless struggle for survival of the vixen and her cubs up close. The young mother is the last of her kind – and her litter is her only chance. Above all, it is the inexorably progressive change in the environment that shakes me. Between the glorious green forest and the wasteland full of tree stumps and piles of rubbish lies just a day full of chainsaw noise.

30 nights of survival

I roam for 30 nights (or 4-5 hours) with the vixen and her cubs in an open environment that feels like a 2D Metroidvania but is actually a full 3D world. The developers use a trick for this: I can only explore the world on fixed paths while the camera is traditionally next to the animal. However, branches open in all directions, including “forwards” and “backwards”. There are also winding routes that open up new perspectives. All in all, Endling offers an exciting, deadly chic variant of a 2.5D world that conjures up beautiful panoramas on the screen and is often reminiscent of genre colleagues like Little Nightmares or Unravel.

The animals are wonderfully animated and heart-rendingly cute in every situation. It doesn’t matter whether I’m romping around with my offspring at the push of a button or whether I’m using one of the gradually unlockable puppy skills to push one of the mini foxes through a fence. If you don’t let yourself be softened by this sugar-sweet fox family, you have a heart of stone. My main task is to search for food – and everything from the mouse to the garbage heap can be searched and eaten. At the push of a button, the fox picks up the scent and at the end of the trail there is always something waiting to bite.