Endling – Extinction is Forever Preview – The Last of Cubs

Nintendo presented Endling: The Extinction of Forever at an Indie World Showcase in December. I was instantly intrigued by its concept. This is a sad attempt to address the problem of climate change and deforestation. 

Endling opens with an eerie look at how humans have destroyed nature. You control one of the last foxes on Earth, and you must escape a forest – presumably your home – being ravaged by a fire. You discover that you now have cubs to take care of, shortly after you find a new home. You will need to care for them and keep your world safe. 

Endling is a master at the idea of survival by the skin you teeth. At best, I was able to keep my cubs fed and teach them new skills to survive when I’m no longer around. One cub disappeared from my pack and the rest were hurt by predators, such as owls. It wasn’t easy to see that the world was burning, and that my species was dying. It was heartbreaking when situations turned from bad to worse. Endling, if you are a fan of adorable babies like mine, will be highly impactful. It doesn’t hurt that its visual style, which features broad strokes of color and a minimalist design, is gorgeous, especially in how it plays with the foreground and background.

Its premise is great, but its gameplay is not. Herobeat Studios describes Endling as a 3D/side-scrolling stealth game, and it is, but it’s not particularly  good in either of those genres. 

There’s just not much to do in the immediate moments. You can use the fox’s snout to track scents, which usually lead to food for your cubs, and you can pounce on unsuspecting prey by sneaking up on creatures like rats and rabbits, but that’s about it (or at least, that’s all I’ve really done in this preview session). While new cub skills, such as climbing and jumping up, can be beneficial, these new abilities ultimately lead to food. 

The section that you find the trapper cub-napping one of your children is more stealth-oriented. But these encounters amount to waiting until they’re no longer pointing their flashlight in your direction before moving on. They remained at the exact same location for several days after discovering me. I was forced to repeat the stealth section every night as it played every time. This became boring, but I had to explore the rest of the area. 

Still, I get the sense that my current problems with Endling’s gameplay result from me only having access to its opening hours. My cubs learned new skills as I played through the opening hours, and I hope the abilities I hadn’t unlocked yet shake up the gameplay to be more than “here’s a new way to find food.” Plus, despite gameplay shortfalls, I’m intrigued by Endling’s exploration. With my discoveries, each night I was able explore new parts of the game. This led to finding new objects to smell, which gave me clues to my missing cub’s whereabouts. This also allowed me to unlock previously locked routes. 

Endling’s not quite a Metroid-like experience, and it’s not necessarily going for that. I did enjoy how every night of exploration led to a deeper understanding of my environment and revealed more about the map. The full game should have more places to explore. I found myself ready for new things after just two hours. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait long to find out because Endling: Extinction is Forever hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on July 19.