I’m not going to lie: after a couple of hours with Witchfire, I wasn’t having a very good time. This dark fantasy first-person shooter from The Astronauts (of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter fame) is tough and relentlessly aggressive, and during those first two hours, I was put to the sword. Literally and figuratively.
If you push past the game’s obtuse opening, however, Witchfire will eventually reveal itself to be a fine game-in-the-making. It looks good, it feels better, and it has some of the most atmospheric level design that I’ve encountered before in the genre. There’s greatness here, but both player and developer are going to have to work for it.
Witchfire’s challenging first impression
The onboarding isn’t brilliant, and my first hours with the game involved a lot of painful trial by bullet. There are several systems that you’ll need to get to grips with, and while they are explained to an extent, you’ll still need to join the dots together yourself. I can feel the influence of Dark Souls lingering in the background here, in terms of both the heavy atmosphere and the reliance on the player doing some of the heavy lifting. Some people won’t like this, of course.
Another Souls inspiration comes in the gear reclamation mechanic, which lets you retrieve resources from your fallen self if you revisit the location of your last death during the subsequent run. I like this feature a lot as it gives you an immediate objective to aim for, especially if you were carrying a lot of resources during that last, failed attempt.
Witchfire is atmospheric and immersive, and it was this combination that kept me going during those tough first encounters. I wanted to know more, I wanted to explore my surroundings, and I needed to know how everything connected. It is compelling stuff, and it’s immediately obvious that the lore is deep and carefully crafted, even if the storytelling is environmental rather than shoehorned into cutscenes and audio-logs.
Dodge and shoot and then dodge again
First and foremost, Witchfire is a first-person shooter. The Astronauts is a studio that splintered off People Can Fly (their credits include Bulletstorm and Outriders) over a decade a go now, and that pedigree shines through in this new project. Your movement around the world feels crisp and snappy, and the generous jump allows you to hop up onto rocky outcrops as you evade oncoming enemies.
Like many studios with limited resources, the roguelite structure is an inviting way of optimising your time and effort. That’s exactly what we have here: a roguelite shooter that makes the most of its undeniably stunning environments and a limited pool of enemy designs.
The game’s longevity, such as it is, comes from repeat plays, a mixture of both authored and player-defined goals, and the slow grind up the RPG ladder that defines much of your progress.
It’s a good job, then, that the moment-to-moment action is polished and clearly the work of an accomplished outfit. This comes to the fore most acutely during combat wherein the gunplay is top tier. The weapons spit out bullets with satisfying precision. Heads pop, bodies explode, and the ever strengthening horde that approaches gets more dangerous with every pull of the trigger.
There are missions to work towards, but most of the time you’ll be primarily focused on staying alive. Situational awareness is key, as the AI director sends constant waves to test you. At first it’s simple enough to fend off the enemy advance, but after a time the quality of your opponents increases. Their attacks are clearly telegraphed and you’re pleasingly agile, but eventually you’ll take too many hits and it’s back to base and your planning for the next run.
A foreboding world brought to life with stunning detail
As I’ve previously mentioned, Witchfire looks phenomenal, especially when you consider it was made by a team of fewer than 20 developers. The medieval setting has you working for the Pope, of all people, who has you battling a powerful witch and her demonic minions. It’s a fun twist on an increasingly tired post apocalypse.
The visual design is strong, with the dark and moody landscape punctuated by flashes of red magic – the eponymous witchfire – a substance that must be collected and is essential to your progress. The use of red to contrast the bleakness of the world reminded me of another supernatural shooter set in the past that I reviewed a decade ago called Betrayer (although that’s where the similarities end).
Back to Witchfire: you have a base of operations that you spend time in between attempts. It’s here that you can research new weapons, level up your character, and craft potions. You must also use this base to upgrade your Gnosis, a rating that sits outside of your character’s standard abilities, and allows you to access new parts of the game while also strengthening your enemies.
There is a lot going on, and I think there’s a case to argue that some of the game’s more interesting abilities are locked behind a climb so steep that some will lose interest before they get to the good stuff.
This rogue’s not just a shooter
Witchfire doesn’t just have a roguelite progression system that glues together your various attempts to kill the witch, it also means new skills during missions. At regular intervals you’ll be invited to pick from up to three new abilities, but the impact of these upgrades and abilities isn’t always as compelling as it could be.
Some of the stat boosts offer barely noticeable improvements, however, this is contrasted by other abilities that make a big difference to your play, opening up new tactical options.
In true roguelite style, you start off the game weak as hell and ready to learn, but after a few hours of levelling up those base stats you’ll start to feel the benefit of your labour. I think I would like to have encountered more of the fun stuff sooner, but I absolutely concede that the initial challenge is by design and will likely appeal to the game’s core audience more than it did to me.
Personal gripes about the early pacing aside, I think Witchfire is in a good shape, although more content is certainly needed. It’s in Early Access on the Epic Games Store at the time of writing, and there’s lots still to be added, with several locations tagged as “coming soon” in the menus. The foundations, however, appear to be rock solid, so if you don’t mind playing an unfinished game that’s subject to change, make sure this one’s on your radar.
I’m certainly going to return to this grimdark world once it’s deemed complete, and if The Astronauts can find the right balance for players as they progress through this twisted, evil-filled world, we’ll have an excellent game on our hands. No pressure then, folks!
Witchfire is currently available on the Epic Games Store but the plan is to bring it to additional platforms. I played the game via access provided by the developers and their PR friends (thank you for that) and I grabbed the excellent screenshots from here.
