What will happen if you cross and mix up Destiny, Painkiller, and Dark Souls? And the answer is Witchfire, first-person dark fantasy RPG from The Astronauts.
Developed by the people responsible for the original Painkiller and Bulletstorm, this game is one of the most anticipated shooter releases of this year on my list. In my opinion, Witchfire is the game that deserves much more attention that it had received over the couple of years in Early Access.
And now, let us be done with the intrigue and proceed to what makes Witchfire special, and why you should try it, too.
The world of Wichfire resembles the Middle Ages, with magic, witches, one of whom had captured a nameless isle and prompted the player to arrive in the role of a witch hunter. As the game unfolds, players will have to cleanse the island of filth by shooting the witch’s servants and generals until she weakens enough to challenge and destroy her directly.
This is the gist of things, the game features a minimal plot, just enough to explain the surroundings and get you engaged. The same cannot be said about the lore, however. The objects and the environment reveal a little bit about what is happening in the world.
I’ll be happy to go over it all once the full version of the game arrives, since the Early Access is missing about a half of what the developers had in mind.
At the moment, the game has four locations (not counting the hub), each of which has its own unique style. The player will visit an island with a mysterious tower, a coastal village and an abandoned fortress city. In the latest update, the team gave the opportunity to go down into the depths of the witch mountain and explore the labyrinth in it.
Visually, the locations look just great (and do not eat up the system and FPS like modern games are prone to do) and perfectly convey the atmosphere of the dark, fantasy Middle Ages. Each level is quite extensive and has many secrets and places that open up with the player’s leveling up.
At the very beginning, I mentioned that the game is similar to Destiny. So, let’s count!
The first point is the loadout. You can take three weapons when you head out to a location, one of which will be “heavy”. The second is the abilities: a charged melee attack that goes on a cooldown after use, as well as a selection of spells that you can prepare, one of which will be the Ultimate.
The third is the movement, moving in the game is very reminiscent of playing as a hunter in Destiny. The fourth is gunplay – personally, in my opinion, Destiny is already inferior to Witchfire here, but in both games each type of weapon feels unique, with its own “character”. Even within the archetypes, the sensations from the weapons are different, the impression of “I have already played with this gun” is not created.
In total, there are about 20 weapons in the game at the moment, and quite a lot of different spells for every taste, which creates a wide scope for building, matching and min-maxing your character. In addition, you can pick up relics that will passively affect the gameplay. For example, dodging will leave behind a bomb that explodes with a delay and weakens opponents. Some equipment can be found in locations, but most of it is obtained with the help of a mystical mirror, in which we order the type of equipment we need.
After putting in your order, you go out to hunt and while you are clearing the location, the order will be completed, resulting in a random piece of equipment of the type that matches the order. Also, the progress of the order can be accelerated for coins that the player earns during exploration. My advice – at first it is better to spend all resources on obtaining weapons, this will greatly improve the gameplay, and will allow you to quickly decide on the weapon you like.
Weapons, like equipment, have three levels of improvement, at each the old properties are improved, and several new ones are added. You level up your weapon by performing the actions described in the previous level and three types of mysteries, which can be found in locations or ordered in the mirror. In addition to mysteries, various artifacts can be found in locations, which are often desecrated and will require some currency to cleanse them.
Or you can take a risk and incur the wrath of the witch, which I will talk about later. In a recent update, the developers also added the ability to create various potions with buffs that affect the next run. Recipes and resources for them can be found in the location.
What Witchfire has in common with Dark Souls is the stamina bar and roll… okay, that’s a very old joke. Apart from the choice of starting class, which doesn’t affect anything except the convenience of the initial
gameplay, and the setting, both games have a very similar approach to exploring the world and gameplay through death.
Upon dying again, you learn something new. For example, mushrooms growing in locations and which can be eaten have various effects that may not always be positive. I’m still upset about a very successful run, which ended with me deciding to try some morel, and instantly dying because I was on critical HP and without potions.
There is also an analogue of souls, the notorious witchfire, which is used to level up, buy consumables and cleanse cursed treasures and locations, and just like in soulslikes, it remains at the place of your death. Also, for fulfilling certain conditions and using witchfire, you can raise the level of gnosis, the “difficulty” of the game.
As the level increases, new opponents will appear in the locations, their number will change, more resources and witchfire will drop, and previously closed places and location bosses will become available. Each boss is unique and requires some time to understand what to do with it at all, before pouring lead rain on it.
Witchfire is also a roguelite. By killing groups of opponents in locations, players will spawn large crystals and receive Arcanas that enhance abilities. Initially, the gameplay is quite leisurely, but having collected the appropriate Arcana, the player turns into an ubermachine of death, rushing through locations and destroying enemies at a glance like the Doom Slayer from DOOM Eternal.
Note that Witchfire does not forgive mistakes. When you receive a large amount of damage, pick up corrupted items and so on, it fills up the Calamity scale, triggering a random hard event. Naturally, it will end either in your death or in victory and continuation of the exploration.
Though no one prevents you from turning tail. There will be about 25 seconds before the Calamity event starts, and it is just about enough to leave the location. Witchfire doesn’t go out of its way to mock you as some roguelites do, and everything depends solely on you and your actions.
Yes, the enemies hit hard, stamina evaporates at a glance, but over time you will get used to Witchfire’s ways and figure out the way things work. Then, the game changes, and what you were afraid of before turns into a fleeting problem. Every excursion to the locations differs from the previous one, and makes you want to return again and again.
To sum it up, Witchfire is an extremely successful mix of several genres, the only downside of which is the small amount of content in Early Access. There is also a high entry threshold, since the first few hours could be quite painful due to the unfamiliarity.
I want to believe that Witchfire will receive more attention. Despite the sensational trailer at Game Awards 2017, the game very quietly released first on EGS, then on Steam, and just as quietly is making its way towards the release. Otherwise, I can’t find anything to complain about. As a person that spent thousands of hours in Destiny, who loves soulslike and roguelike, I have found the perfect game for me. I highly recommend Witchfire, and I hope you like it as much as me. Deus Vult.
