Witchfire

Review

The war between the church and the witches has intensified, and the witches are taking more and more land. But only one kind of people can fight them and survive. These people are Preyers, or witch hunters if you like. As one of them, you have been given a quest by the Pope to retrieve an artifact discovered in one of the witches' occupied regions. It is imperative that you secure this artifact for a chance to tip this infernal battle toward the church and its people. Good luck Preyer, because you will need it, in Witchfire.

Witchfire is a dark fantasy first-person shooter game developed and self-published by The Astronauts on the 21^st of September 2023, on the Epic Games Store. The game is currently in early access, which means that the gameplay and features will evolve from this current to the final version of the game.

What a really impressive early access game. Sure, it has some issues, as you would expect in an early access, but boy, this is something special in the making. One of my favourite game genres is FPS, so I couldn’t wait to try this game.

After a really good introduction with a great voice-over and illustrations, you'll arrive at your base, the Hermitarium, where you can create and upgrade new weapons, relics and spells, as well as train against foes and launch a new expedition. In this early access version, there are three out of six expeditions available for selection. So far I have only been able to reach the second destination, as the game is seriously challenging. Each run will be slightly different and will be affected by the skills that you decide to upgrade at the hermitarium.  The skill called “luck” has a huge effect on your run because you never know if it’s going to work for or against you; it could make your run easy or extremely difficult. The best way to move forward is to upgrade your vitality, spells and endurance first. And expect to fail many times over before beating the first boss. 

So, how does the game work? Well, at your base, there is a portal that shows you the available expeditions. As I mentioned above, there are three, but you need to beat the first one to be able to launch the second and so on and so forth.  Even if the maps are average in size, the layout of enemy forces and chests (ammunition) are constantly changing from one playthrough to the next, making the game unpredictable and offering huge replayablility.

You can access the expedition or current map at any given time, but I recommend checking it as soon as the expedition starts. That way, you can make a plan of attack and choose your path to reach the boss fight.  The maps will show you where the enemy garrisons are as well as their strength. The garrisons with a skull are challenging; the skull with small horns is stronger, and the one with the ram’s horns is very difficult. And then you have the boss fight, represented by a skull with a cross on its head. The map will also show you ammo chests as well as events, which includes things like rituals and curses.

The beauty is that you won’t know what you are going to face from one expedition to the next, nor how hard it will be or where things are located on the map. But that’s not all! You also have to worry about the Warden of Death, which will move around the map as it sees fit. If its light catches you, a wave of demons with freezing arrows will be unleashed. But the worse that I’ve seen so far is an event called Calamity, which is a red light with skulls spinning around it. As far as I can tell, Calamity occurs either randomly or when you make a big mess.  If Calamity is triggered, you have destroy it ASAP. Otherwise, especially if your skills are low, you are dead as a dodo!

As you kill enemies, you’ll acquire Witchfire, which is the currency in the game. You also have Witchfire shards of different sizes, which some enemies will drop when killed, and you can also find them in chests. When you die, you’ll lose all the Witchfires you have acquired from killing enemies, but you’ll keep the shards, which you can convert at your base and use to upgrade your skills.

In terms of upgrading your weapons, spells, rings, relics and fetishes, you can upgrade them three times. You need incantations in order to upgrade, and these can be created at the Hermiterium.

A few enemies that I have encountered so far jump from far away toward your spot, and one way to avoid them is to dash at the last second to avoid being hit. In my case, I have a poisoning orb each time I dash. But I also have a good endurance score, so that I can execute it nicely on the first expedition. Need to have better stats, though, on the second expedition.

After more than 20 hours of gameplay, and having restarted several times, the more I play Witchfire, the more I love it. This is not an easy game, but it’s really rewarding, and I love that all my playthroughs are different. There are glitches, but it is an early access, after all. The graphics are great, the aim is solid for weapons and spells, the dash is tidy, and the atmosphere is dark and scary, (you can even hear the tree branches creaking as they move in the breeze).  As for replayability, this game hits the mark from the get-go. It's a fabulous game so far. Hopefully, it will get better and better.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Witchfire Epic Games Store Page