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Oct 14, 2024

Witchfire Hands-On Preview - An Extraction Shooter With a Dark Souls Attitude

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Witchfire is the second title from Polish studio The Astronauts, and it's yet another example of this small team's undeniable talent for crafting gloomily beautiful atmospheres. From the moment players are dropped into Witchfire's Shrouded Hermitorium–its own Firelink Shrine–the game's foreboding, mysterious tone leads curious players naturally from one moment to the next. An eerie passage demands witchfire currency to open up, while strange symbols on the floor call for players to increase their Gnosis level. Each map is littered with secrets and interactions, and a player's success in Witchfire will largely be measured by how much of its world they've uncovered.

In gameplay terms, Witchfire is an extraction shooter where a roguelite upgrade system underpins each expedition, while meta-progression and hub interactions are distinctly soulslike. The gameplay loop generally involves visiting a chosen location, defeating packs of enemies to obtain a series of roguelite upgrades known as Arcana, then either challenging the area's boss or scurrying home with accumulated witchfire to level up or spend at the vendor. Game Rant spent time with Witchfire's newly updated early-and-mid-game content while focusing on the high level gameplay of tackling bosses, trying out various builds, and getting a feel for its interwoven progression systems.

The FPS Witchfire is still in Early Access, but there is a lot that players can do and a lot more projected content on the way.

Of course, the most important aspect of a game that's all about running around and shooting things is that running around and shooting things feels good. Witchfire's gunplay is certainly one of its strong points, with an arsenal of powerful, responsive, and distinct weapons, while the movement system is equally tight and responsive. Players can double jump, slide, and dash, and dashing is incredibly important mechanically. As players kill enemies and avoid taking damage, they build up a Focus meter. Once it's maxed out, performing a dash will reveal floating sigils near enemies that, when shot, will stagger them momentarily. This system rewards skillful gunplay and movement, and its use or neglect during a fight can rapidly snowball the encounter into frustrating failure or resounding success. Combat in Witchfire is active and acrobatic, with off-screen enemy attacks telegraphed by helpful markers indicating it's time to dodge. Any damage taken is a significant setback due to limited healing sources, forcing players to be strategic in every engagement.

Witchfire's selection of guns ranges from hand cannons and shotguns to assault rifles and sniper rifles, while a third category of special Demonic Weapons acts as somewhat of a heavy weapon slot with a limited ammo stock. In addition to guns, players have access to some heavy and light spells that can turn the tide at a moment's notice or interact with the player's build in useful ways. A hard-hitting melee ability is also on the cards, typically one-shot killing trivial mobs when it's off cooldown. From moment to moment, Witchfire feels a lot like playing a Warlock in Destiny.

Perhaps even more important than leveling, progressing each weapon's Mysterium is the greatest power boost in combat. Each of Witchfire's weapons has a series of tasks that players must perform to unlock their potential, or Mysterium, and entire builds can be founded on these weapon characteristics. An innocuous machine pistol can become a decay-applying tool of destruction that causes shootable cysts to form on enemies which explode and spread to nearby enemies, while a hand cannon might start firing bullets that lodge into enemies and explode upon reloading.

As mentioned, Witchfire offers players a few ways to increase their power. The most immediate form of progression is leveling up using witchfire, which is dropped on death and can be retrieved in a future run. Players can choose one of six Ascension Attributes to increase upon leveling, with stats like Vitality adding extra health points, Endurance increasing stamina, or Metanoia increasing witchfire gains. Each time players level up, the Witch shuffles around her defenses and enemies get stronger. It seems a bit counterintuitive, but we found that refraining from leveling up while focusing on unlocking our weapons' Mysterium was a sound strategy.

The Gnosis level is something that players will need to increase in order to progress through the game, essentially a "world tier" system that introduces new types of traps and enemies, while also giving players access to new features. Reaching the next Gnosis level can unlock a helpful vendor or a Prophecy system that lets players choose the order in which Arcana upgrades appear during outings. Gnosis also has benefits in gameplay: hidden chests and paths may open up if the player has a sufficient Gnosis level. Again, this is another system where leveling up immediately might not be the best course of action. It might be worthwhile to hold out for Witchfire's Research system to finish passively acquiring new gear or for the next Mysterium to be unlocked for a favored weapon before opening the door for tougher runs.

In this Early Access build, we were able to explore three locations for our runs, but several more are planned for the final build. First up was Wailing Tower, a small island with a colossal tower at the center. This easy area serves as a bit of a tutorial for the gameplay loop with straightforward sight lines, simple enemy encounters, and a clear, central objective with the tower. This contrasts with the second area, Scarlet Coast, which was a much larger-feeling coastal region with a central forested area, mountains, a decrepit fishing village, and shipwrecks. Lastly, we visited Irongate Castle, a more distinct region that takes place almost entirely within a sprawling castle. Visually, Witchfire looks more like "Dark Souls with guns" than any other game to invite the comparison.

Enemy encounters start off simple and ramp up reactively as players grow in power. At the low end are simple threats like woodsmen who crawl toward players, exploding on contact, or basic melee opponents attacking clumsily with farming equipment. Some enemies come equipped with ranged weapons like bows, guns, or grenades, greatly complicating a crowded fight. Swordsmen are the first tough opponent, with teleporting abilities and extremely aggressive lunging attacks that bring to mind Dark Souls 3's Abyss Watchers, while a Warden miniboss patrols some levels and can be a devastating encounter unprepared.

One of the first bosses is a variant of the swordsman, known as the Shieldbearer. His base move set resembles theirs, but his arena is also routinely filled with weaker mobs to harass the player. On top of this, he summons a bubble that harms the player if they're standing outside of it, forcing them to risk standing in a small bubble among the horde of mobs. It was an intense, well-designed fight and had us optimistic about endgame boss fights.

Overall, Witchfire looks like a promising roguelite extraction shooter once players get all the wheels spinning. It's an unforgiving game that demands a Soulslike attitude to appreciate, but its top-notch gunplay has us optimistic about its future.

Witchfire is in Early Access for PC on the Epic Games Store and is now available to wishlist on Steam.

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