Not every game is designed to make you feel good. Some titles, in fact, look to put you in moral situations that will feel as real as issues you face outside of gaming. Endling: Extinction is Forever is a new game designed to make players come face to face with the impact of humanity’s industrial impact on the environment. We know climate change and the destruction of ecosystems is dire, but playing this title helps to send home the emotional impact we sometimes try to ignore when truly, we cannot any longer. Here’s my review of the new game for the Nintendo Switch.

The concept of Endling is quite emotional. As we all know, climate change is a vastly dire scenario playing out in real-time, impacting major elements of our world. In this game, we see some of that play out in a fictional – yet entirely realistic – situation where there is one mother fox left on the planet. With three cubs to care for, your goal is to traverse a world absolutely altered beyond repair by humanity to survive. As you can imagine, it’s nearly impossible, yet this journey yields valuable insights into what we do to the environment around us as a human race.

Endling is not quite a point-and-click game but offers some traversal elements on a linear pathway map surrounding your fox’s dwelling. During the day, you’ll head out to find food and discover new elements of your home. While doing so, you can see just how awful things have gotten with a major corporation and its factory nearby. It’s honestly hard to watch it play out, but a lot of important things we should all be aware of are tough to swallow. At just under 5 hours, the experience is well worth your time and made me think about these issues in a new light.

Eco-conscious gamers won’t necessarily learn anything new here, but they will see a narrative-based experience highlighting the damage of climate change and humanity’s destruction of natural environments. That alone is a new way in which video games can help us address issues we’re seeing in our real world. The team at Handy Games really nailed the goal here of raising awareness of environmental issues. They also did so with wonderful graphics and visuals. This title fits right at home with the artistic “cozy games” we see gaining popularity over the last couple of years.

The game does feature puzzle elements but you won’t find yourself stuck for too long on an element. Endling isn’t necessarily a hard game, but I wouldn’t go so far to call it easy either. The game doesn’t allow you to breeze mindlessly through its progression, especially considering the subject matter. Instead, you come to feel for the mother fox and develop a kinship and fondness for the fox cubs. I think a lot of games require dialogue and text to help you invest yourself in the experience. Endling uses neither and instead goes for visual interpretation of what’s occurring. This is highly effective in the best ways possible.

Overall, this isn’t the feel-good game you turn to in order to escape the reality of today’s world. In fact, it’s the opposite: A major investigation into the living things being eradicated due to human impact and industry. That said, I found it to be incredibly impactful and influential on my mindset in the days after playing. With a short run-time and great visuals to accompany a meaningful story, I think Endling: Extinction is Forever is one of the most thought-provoking games of 2022.

Let us know in the comments what you might think of Endling: Extinction is Forever if you have played it.

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Endling: Extinction is Forever

$29.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Incredible storytelling with minimal dialogue or text
• Visceral visuals and wonderful colors
• An important message for our modern time

Cons

• A bit hard to play in terms of emotional stress