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Witchfire is an upcoming game from The Astronauts and it is supposedly inspired by some of the old-school arena shooters like Painkiller. Unfortunately, the game missed the mark on that one but it still has a lot of fun to offer, albeit in its own genre and atmosphere.
Gameplay
It becomes clear the game is actually nothing like Painkiller from the moment you enter your first battle. In the old arena shooter, you are only armed with the eponymous weapon at this point but it gives amazing killing capability and creative ways to utilise it, making you the dominant force on the field and the enemies little more than cannon fodder. This feeling of power is retained throughout the game if you play your cards right, no pun intended, as your arsenal grows and allows you to kill the hellish forces in new and creative ways.
With Witchfire, it is the opposite. In the beginning, you get a revolver and it is not a weapon you mow down hordes with. Instead, it is outranged by literally every enemy you encounter and to add salt to the wound, the player's weapon range is heavily restricted. If the revolver lists 15 meters in the range stat, with 40 damage, the moment an enemy is 15.1 meters away, the gun will do four damage instead.
This is incredibly frustrating as you are learning the game and frankly, it doesn't make sense. It is counter-intuitive and illogical when a revolver is heavily outranged by a bow and arrows.
Such drastic penalties for using certain weapons are probably a sign that the devs tried too hard to differentiate the pistol from the rifle as well as their respective playstyles.
Once you get in the rhythm, however, it becomes a more hectic and exciting gameplay loop as you are zipping around the battlefield, engaging enemies in ranges that favour you and not them. That said, you will have to encounter each new enemy type more than once to figure out all their kinks and this leads to repetitiveness, which is a theme that is seen throughout the Early Access.
Currently, there are two maps that you can enter expeditions on, with each of them having a main boss that you eventually have to overcome. A total of six is planned for the full release but even with these two, there are tens of hours you will spend while dispatching enemies and looting the chests.
I wouldn't call all that time in the same place super fun because it is always the same map, the difference is that enemies, loot and environmental effects are placed elsewhere each time you go back to the base and then again to the battlefield. Repeating the battles is the only way to "progress" as you get new weapons and perks for them, better stats and spells to help you as your grind progresses.
Essentially, Witchfire plays like a single-player extraction shooter but if you die, you don't lose the gear, only the currency that is used for most progression. In that sense, it can be defined as an "Extraction Dark Souls with guns".
Story
As for the story, you are given an introduction on how Christian forces are more numerous than witches but are still losing ground due to their magical powers. You are one of the Preyers, supernaturally powerful witch hunters who embark on these journeys alone. Beyond that, I didn't encounter much storytelling, be it direct or environmental, with the game's atmosphere being the only one that attempts to carry the storyline.
The premise is pretty cool but it doesn't feel like the game leans into the storytelling enough to utilise that potential.
Graphics and performance
Witchfire's overwhelmingly grey areas may turn some players away but frankly, I can't call it a bad art style. It is meant to be depressive to illustrate the dire situation of the war with the witches and the art team nailed it with the overall feeling.
Even in Early Access when bugs and bad optimisation are expected, the game ran buttery smooth on my system which is nowhere near the top end of the PC builds, with a humble Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and RX 5700 XT GPU. This is probably thanks to the game not actually using too many assets since so much is recycled with the aforementioned repeats in gameplay.
As for the graphics quality, the charm of the art style is predominant so you don't get much time to closely inspect the enemies during the hectic fights so it all works fairly well together.
Enemy designs are pretty cool and they are easy to identify at first glance, giving you the instant information you need in order to decide what to do next in battle.
Verdict
Witchfire has a lot of cool concepts and when the gameplay works, it shines. When it doesn't, it is as frustrating as a mosquito in a sensory deprivation chamber. Storytelling starts off really strong but then disappears. The atmosphere is fantastic but overwhelmingly monotone. Weapons are creative and fun but immersion-breaking.
For every positive, there is an obvious negative but it still manages to provide fun times, albeit nowhere near as much as the game's potential promises.
So should you give it a shot? I have a feeling the game will often be hit-or-miss. If the annoyances I listed above don't bug you that much, you will have a blast with Witchfire. Otherwise, your excitement will be tempered at best and non-existent at worst, should the frustration take over.
In my own experience, it started as the latter, slowly shifting towards the former which is a good trajectory but the question remains - do I really have to go through infuriating experiences before the game becomes good? League of Legends has already filled that particular cup for me but if you have the capacity, go for it.
