‘Endling – Extinction is Forever’: an emotional survival game

As questions about the climate and humanity’s role in facilitating climate change are increasingly present in our society, it should hardly be surprising that gaming has become another site to fuel this discussion. That’s the central concept of Endling – Extinction is Forever, a game based about survival in the face of climate change. It’s brutal and effective, and although Herobeat Studios stumble a little in the actual gameplay aspects, it’s well worth checking out.

In the game, you play as a pregnant fox. Her forest habitat has been destroyed by a wildfire, and so she finds refuge near an area populated by climate refugees. After giving birth, you must search for food, avoid danger, and teach your cubs the skills they’ll need to survive as the last remaining foxes on the planet. This is a game about survival against the odds – surviving environmental disasters, surviving humans, surviving a dwindling food supply.

As the description makes clear, Endling is not a game to play to escape the harsh realities of our world. It is full of pointed commentary about pollution and the environment, and the destruction wrought by mankind’s actions, and it mostly works. After you’ve customised your fox cubs, there’s genuine tension about whether you can keep them alive. Soon, your family is broken up – a trapper captures one of your cubs, and you must balance tracking them down with keeping the other three alive. The narrative, as you get progress, is conveyed via scent memories (there’s no dialogue to spell things out), and although the final twist in my playthrough felt a little forced, I was emotionally invested.

The gameplay is simple enough to grasp. Venturing out at night, you can sniff to find scent trails to follow, ideally catching your prey, but you also have the option to hide or run. Things grow tenser as time passes – you need to venture further to find food, guarding your cubs as you do, and you need to ensure you’re back under cover by the time the sun comes up. You rinse and repeat, getting closer to the trapper each day – it’s a simple premise, one the game never branches from, but it works.

Herobeat Studios did a fantastic job conveying this narrative about the environment

   Endling also benefits from looking gorgeous, with a blocky art style that’s a feast to look at. From the opening cutscene, depicting the fox’s escape from the burning forest, the game is never less than stunning, the bright aesthetics a real stark contrast to the depth of the storytelling. It’s also effectively coupled with a drama-laden soundtrack, with low-key minimal tracks (and the ever-emotive string section) supplementing some great sound design. The noises your cubs start to make when they’re hungry or in danger are heart-breaking.

That is not to say that Endling is without its flaws, not least the fact that the gameplay doesn’t really live up to the promise of the storytelling. It’s a fairly repetitive set-up of foraging for food, and I was a little fed up of it even before the game’s short runtime (maybe four hours at most) drew to an end. The narrative aspects really landed, but the game aspects didn’t. I also didn’t like the game limiting my exploration – clues as to your lost child’s whereabouts are only revealed on certain days, meaning I was at times stuck in certain areas until the game actually let me progress.

These issues did not impact too much on my first playthrough, in which I was engrossed in this tragic tale and trying my best to protect my children. Herobeat Studios did a fantastic job conveying this narrative about the environment (particularly without it feeling forced in the most part), and slightly repetitive gameplay doesn’t lessen the impact of a surprisingly poignant indie game.