Witchfire Early Access Preview

It has been a few weeks since Witchfire launched into early access, and the game has cemented itself as a different experience than most gamers will be used to. The standard shooting fare is here – shotguns, handguns, long-range rifles, etc. – as well as a selection of spells that range from seemingly useless to god-like in certain situations. But the random unlock system, its difficulty, and the time it takes to unlock everything help Witchfire stand out from other shooters in the genre. It might not be enough to draw in the casual crowd, but those looking for a roguelike shooter will find some interesting concepts, battle methods, and unique situations, even though Witchfire doesn’t really start to stand out until players have already spent hours fighting various creatures.

Created and published by The Astronauts, the developers of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Witchfire throws players into the game without much story explanation. A brief description concerning witches and a short tutorial to teach the basic skills are all players will get before being thrust into the grind. And a grind it is, especially when starting a new game. Players begin with only a six-shooting revolver, and while decently powerful, players will become overwhelmed quickly when faced with even a small horde of rapidly spawning enemies. This is partly due to the weapon’s seemingly slow reload speed, as well as how long it takes to unlock more weapons and spells. The game’s mixture of past and present weapons with a dash of medieval themes and outfits is somewhat refreshing in the shooter genre and does help it stand out a bit.

As well as grinding for random unlocks, players will need to decide if what does and doesn’t change with each play-through will be enough to keep their attention. Everything from enemy groups to monsters to event starting locations will change each time a player enters the level they’ve chosen. It can truly feel like luck is totally for or against a player if they get a bad grouping of spawns, especially between them and their corpse, making retrieval extremely difficult or impossible. Early on, players may find that dying on purpose to retrieve their corpse and their volatile witchfire (the game’s currency for leveling) is the best option. It feels odd to allow oneself to perish in order to advance, but there are situations early on where it is the only viable means of progressing.

The gunplay in Witchfire is solid, with enough heft, recoil, and variance between the different weapons to make them each feel different and useful. This includes an upgrade system for each weapon that can drastically change how they are used. The easiest example of this is the auto rifle. When first unlocked, it acts in much the same way that most auto rifles do: pull the trigger, and the clip empties. After upgrading it, the weapon switches to having cold, heat, and overheat areas on a small progress-looking bar. The longer a player holds the trigger down, it progresses from cold to heat to overheat but does the most damage while in the heat section of the bar. It takes a few bullets to get to the heat section, and then players will need to slow their trigger pulls to keep it in the heat section as the gun deals more damage. It changes the weapon from an auto rifle to an almost semi-auto rifle if users want the most out of it. Some armaments aren’t as dynamic as this, but some users will probably be annoyed at the change to their favorite weapon.

Another gameplay aspect that will be hit or miss with players is the distance that damage falls off when fighting enemies. Close-up attacks with every weapon will always do maximum damage, but some weapons fall off very quickly, and even medium-range weapons can be infuriating with how quickly the damage dies down. It is a needed necessity based on the game’s mechanics, as it would be far too easy to sit at a great distance or on top of the mountains and snipe enemies for their witchfire essence. But even the starting revolver sometimes feels like that damage falloff happens even when enemies don’t feel very far away. Players need to be so close to enemies when starting out that it puts them at a great disadvantage that almost feels unfair at times. It isn’t as bad with long-distance weapons, but it can still feel odd when firing from what doesn’t feel that far away, but the damage numbers remain low.

Despite these gameplay shortcomings, Witchfire is gorgeous to look at. The game’s textures are top-notch, and it really looks like what most would expect a next-generation game to look like. Enemy textures are very well-made too, though there is a distinct lack of variety in the looks of the grunt enemies. Some of the witch’s minions are terrifying, such as the ghost that wanders around and summons 30+ minions when provoked, and the skeleton minions would fit in perfectly for anyone looking for a Halloween-themed game. Spell effects are excellent as well, though some are more muted in their effects rather than dazzling. This doesn’t make them any less useful, though. Weapon skins are basic, but convey a mixture of past and present styles that give them a bit of a unique look. Some ground textures tend to repeat over and over though, and it can sometimes be difficult to determine which area a player is in based on these repeated textures. The sound design also suffers from repetition, but what is there is pretty solid and doesn’t take away anything from the experience.

Unfortunately, there were a few issues while playing the early access version that caused some unneeded deaths. Getting stuck on rocks and being unable to move, getting stuck between walls, and sliding off objects and off the map were just a few of the issues encountered. Some of these will hopefully be fixed with future patches, but some will require moving-level assets that may prove more difficult to fix before the release version. These moments were few and far between luckily, but in a game with only a small amount of leeway between life and death, these small moments matter.

Genre jumping from one game to another can be difficult for even the best studios. The Astronauts has done a decently good job creating a game with a lot of replayability potential that struggles to get off the ground at the start but develops into a fun run-and-gun-and-spells first-person shooter. It’s not the worst thing for a rogue-lite shooter-style game, but some unfair situations can feel like a gut punch while on a good or great run. Fighting witches and their undead armies is still fun, though, and those looking for a challenge will enjoy the heightened difficulty that Witchfire sometimes provides.

Witchfire is in early access and available now on PC. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this preview.