Endling: Extinction is Forever is a visually beautiful game with a heart touching journey and a unique perspective. The simple controls allow you to take in the world and manage the stress of the situations without it being overly complex. The story is depressing and at the same time full of hope. The developers have done a beautiful job creating situations that make you feel attached to your fox and her cubs. Endling is a charming survival game carrying an ecological message; bringing awareness about the harm we humans are doing to nature. If you like short indie games with a fresh survival experience and beautiful animations, Endling would be a lovely addition to your gaming library.

This game offers a well crafted experience where art and music create an atmosphere that’s both beautiful and evocative. The environmental storytelling is impressive. Without a single word, it tells countless small stories that reveal themselves the more you play. Paying close attention to the details brings the world to life, and as the days pass, you see nature slowly degrade. Safe spots vanish, and natural beauty fades, capturing the effects of human impact in a way that feels real and grounded.

The game also does a great job of showing the good in people and their struggles. It’s not one-sided. You see humanity suffering as well, adding layers to the story that feel authentic. Emotional moments don’t feel forced. They fit naturally with the world around you. Even after three playthroughs, I was still making new discoveries and connecting more dots, giving Endling a lasting impact that rewards a closer look.

A standout aspect is how your actions have realistic consequences, both positive and negative, that impact the game and it's characters in meaningful ways. Choices you make feel rewarding and carry weight, creating a sense of responsibility and connection to the story.

While Endling delivers a lot of great moments, there are a few frustrations. The changing camera orientation often makes it hard to keep track of where you are in relation to the map. As more obstacles appear and the environment becomes more dangerous, navigating in and out of certain locations can become a real chore.

I also encountered a recurring bug when carrying food into scripted events. When a scripted event would trigger, the mother fox would drop the food, causing the kits to try eating it during the sequence. They would then get stuck in the eating animation, making it impossible to feed them or use their skills for the rest of the day, which was a troublesome setback.

Additionally, death can feel a bit punishing on days with purple scent trails. These trails are crucial for progressing certain story elements, but if you die, you’ll have to follow them all over again at a slow pace. This can be especially tedious when you’re eager to advance and find yourself retracing steps repeatedly.

Despite some minor hiccups, Endling remains a powerful and memorable experience. Its storytelling, atmosphere, and depth make it an adventure that’s absolutely worth diving into. I will never forget my cubs—Tod, Copper, Speck, and Blue—and the journey we shared.

Frustrating, annoying, pointless.

The game is pretty and the animals are cute. But that's the only good thing I can say about it.

If you are expecting casual gameplay to match the cuteness, you will be sorely disappointed. This is a "survival" game, in that you can randomly bump into stuff that will one-shot kill you. Which will cause you to reload to the last save, which will inevitably involve repeating meaningless tasks to get to where you were before. Which might cause you to die again if you don't know what to do to avoid death.

The game does a horrible job of explaining itself to you. Half of the game I didn't even realize there was a map of the world. Not that it's especially necessary.

Controls are absolutely miserable. Half of the time they don't respond. You need to somehow position yourself on the exact pixel for certain actions to be activated.

Are you expecting a story about humanity's role in causing extinction? You'll get a very tiny sliver of that. It's really a story about hunters killing animals. Hunters are bad. That's the message. The gameplay expresses this message and only this message. There is no complexity and no variety.

I got nothing out of this game except a few hours of frustrating gameplay. Skip it, please.