Endling es bastante claro con lo que se propone, ¿se puede dar marcha atras en el rumbo que lleva la raza humana en relacion a su entorno?. Aqui seguramente no esta la respuesta, pero tiene claro que cuando llegas a la extincion es para siempre, el punto de no retorno.

A traves de la que podria ser ultima familia de zorros que se conoce viviremos un capitulo de la historia del planeta donde cada vez hay menos lugar para la vida, y tendremos que enfrentarnos a esa situacion mientras cuidamos de unos cachorros. Encontrar comida, seguir rastros, esquivar cazadores y depredadores y enfrentarse sobretodo al propio mundo mientras se deteriora.

A veces bonito, a veces agobiante, a veces un poco repetitivo... Pero en general un juego muy interesante que creo que consigue lo que se propone.

Endling Extinction is a game I found, and decided to play on a whim. Despite knowing nothing, it's fairly obvious what sort of game it's going to be. Those expectations were matched, it's a game where you play a mother fox protecting her cubs. It uses the inherent cuteness and lovability we have for little animals to tell a message on animal cruelty and environmentalism. However what surprised me was just how harsh the world of this game is. Playing with my partner, we were sweating and screaming multiple times desperately trying to avoid or run from encroaching hunters. Our decision to name our cubs (John, Johnathan, Jardani and Baba Yaga respectively) immediately attached us to each cub, and the game set it's stakes early on. Realizing the cubs were in very real danger, and might not make it out of the game alive made the game's dangers tense and terrifying. To the point of my detriment sometimes, as I didn't explore as much of the world in the first half as I would've liked, being too afraid to venture too far from home or take risks.

As the game's story progressed I found myself taking more and more of an interest in trying to figure out the clues it was giving me, and piecing together the background events of this world. The game surprised me with it's depth of commentary. I've often found stories like this lean towards a simplified approach of 'humans evil and bad for environment', with maybe a few good guys so we can feel good about ourselves. This game's perspective, really effectively digging into you through the increasingly oppressive environment and terrifying threat of survival, is more successful in communicating and emphasizing with the overwhelming horrendous impacts we as a species have on the world we live in, and the other species that occupy it. However, it doesn't resort to a simple 'humans are bad, they shouldn't be bad' approach. This will now be the spoiler section.

The obvious way it subverts this is the Scavenger. His intimidating character is the closest to a main antagonist for the majority of the game. The game's decision to show his life as a refugee struggling to earn money to pay for his daughter (Molly's) life-saving medicine is an emotional twist on the story that highlights individuals are often not the one's to blame for the state of the world (though some suck, looking at you, Furrier) but it's the large scale institutions and corporations that force people to do whatever they need to survive. And if the scene between the Scavenger and the mother fox upon Molly's death doesn't do something to you, I don't know what to say. Sociopath. It also puts enough onus on individuals would still try to be kind despite their pressures, as we see from encounters with kind strangers like Molly and the musician.

An image that sticks with me was early in the game hearing music from off view. As we approached, I found a view of a woman playing a lovely song to herself. In the background was the view of a large factory, and all around us rubbish and pollution. This view to me in scene encapsulated what I think is all the evil and destruction humanity is capable of, but also the creation, imagination and warmth.

Anyway, the gameplay was definitely engaging, although stressful. The story was emotional and effective. I think the game accomplished everything it was trying to achieve. A good game to play with your significant other, or if you're curious. Short enough it would be worth most people's time. Recommended!

You play as the last fox on Earth. At least until you escape a forest fire and give birth to four little cubs into a world that is rapidly crumbling. One cub is stolen away in the night, and now it's up to you to find your missing cub while keeping the others safe.

I have never cried so hard at any video game ever. Or probably any piece of media.

Visuals

Endling is done in a low-poly style, which really works for this desolate world. The world might be dying, but it doesn't look empty. There are lots of little details to tell you about what is happening here, like the bags of trash strewn about, the falling towers, and derelict buildings. The color palette is quite drab as everything is falling apart and rusted and dirty, and you always play at night. The fox is the main source of color being bright red.


Sound Effects + Music

The music and sound effects in Endling are quite minimal, but when they are more noticeable they really add to the stress and emotion of the game. The mournful yips when the cubs lose their mother, her injured cry, the dramatic doom music when a human catches her. It's not pleasant, but it is impactful. And when you hear some familiar sounds at the end, you know what's coming...

Gameplay + Controls

Endling is the most stressful game I have ever played. It's not because the mechanics are terribly difficult, it just feels like too much is at stake if you mess up. You control the mama fox as she works her way through this desolate world. The layout of the areas are kind of maze-like, since you're stuck in a 2D plane, despite the world being 3D. You can only change directions at specific points, which can make it a little hard to find outself around. Luckily, there's a map.

The main, and most important, game mechanic is finding food for the cubs. You can sniff to find a scent trail. and then you have various ways of actually obtaining the food. Things like apples and berries, just require interacting with the bush or tress. Live prey requires some stealth and good timing to catch it. But no matter what, you must keep those babies fed. If the fullness bar bottoms out, they will die.

Each night you have a limited amount of time to explore, find food, and complete events before you must be back in the den. Of course, prioritize food! But the more nights that pass the more areas unlock, providing more opportunities for food. Also more opportunities to get killed by roaming humans.

In addition to expanding the map and feeding the cubs, you also need to be looking for the taken cub. Every three nights, a scent trail will appear which shows brief glimpses of what happened to the kidnapped baby. Follow it to learn more, and to head in the correct direction.


Replayability

I would absolutely never replay this game. It's too emotionally stressful. There are missable achievements, and no chapter selection or save states, so you'd have to start from the beginning to get those. My version doesn't have achievements, but even if it did, I wouldn't worry about getting them. This game had too much of an impact on my emotions.

Overall

I absolutely cannot recommend Endling. It's too cruel. To go through all of this, and with the highest hopes, since I not only had all four of my babies, but a baby badger, only to be met with that ending? I know it's the most realistic outcome for these animals, but I wanted to keep at least a shred of hope.

Really nice game that is obviously a critic of the way mankind is treating the earth.
In the game you're playing the role a mama fox with 4 cubs and the goal is to survive throughout a bunch of days through different means and finding food.
The way the exploitation and destruction of the ecosystem is pretty good for me because you can see the landscape that you're going through change along the days, the trees are getting cut, the bushes are replaced by bag of garbage and so on.
Visually the game is really good. Gameplay wise is pretty linear and easy to understand but it doesn't get boring because the game is short.
Overall I feel like the game was a nice and short experience that was quite well craft and enjoyable.

Que jogo lindo, a direção de arte é maravilhosa.

Entendo que diz que a jogabilidade pode ser maçante, para mim, em nenhum momento foi repetitivo ou cansativo.

Em uma história se três horas, sem nenhum dialogo, consegue fazer você se importar com os personagem.

Finally, a short narrative indie survival game gets the ending right. The right mix of ideas and feels, just well done. I do wonder how players might interpret this but I do hope it is empathy.

My only desire is that the game could have been harder and more dynamic rather this is mostly for its mood and vibes. I do like the 2D movement and tracking camera, but I did find it difficult to detect incoming threats while running even if the camera could be moved slightly. The indicators do help, but I thinking if the camera could be zoomed out as an easy fix. The game is not hard so these issues are just slight inconveniences.

Good game and can recommend.