Witchfire Steam Charts & Stats

Blend the death / rebirth / get-your-stuff-back-before-you-die-again souls like mechanics with Destiny-like gunplay and you're about there. Like Hades? That devilishly addictive push through unlocks one death after another? Then you'll like this. I used to write about videogames for a living. I made it a point never to leave to reviews on Steam because it was what I was doing most of the day anyway. I'm writing one for this game. I picked up on Witchfire about 8 years ago when the team release first screenshots. It immediately had my attention with its stark gothic aesthetic and photogrammetry built environments. The dev team is made of - get this - 8 people (I think it's become 12 recently). My hat is truly off to them. Not only have they committed to a project of such length, but also they've also faithfully kept up with their ever well written blog on their home website. Many would say "give the Astronauts more staff, more studio" etc. But like that small coffee shop you love that you would prefer remained a best kept secret, I would hate to mess with the clear cohesion in this team, serving up some hot coffee of their own. Because this game sings. The combat mechanics are simple to pick up. I mentioned Destiny - the gunplay is almost a carbon copy of the feel. Not to mention the Destiny-like palm strike melee of the Wizard class. The devs admit themselves they were fans of Destiny. So when such mechanics are "ripped off" so well - its impossible to be mad. Stamina is a resource to be kept an eye on, especially in the most intense of encounters. It is not plentiful so, unlike DOOM, we can't go dodge crazy. Enemy attack patterns must be learned and moments picked carefully. One wasted dodge could mean the last mistake you make. At witch point (see what I did there) all your loot and XP currency remains while you get booted to the hub area. It could well have been a near perfect run. One sneaky balls up round the corner and you're back home, cursing, rushing to get back through through the portal to redeem your efforts or it's all lost for good. That is if you can survive the trip back over there. Ammo, healing potions and use of table turning spells are all also limited resources. To the impatient, on first impressions this may seem like a throttling of player agency. It is the opposite. While combat is simple to pick up, the skill ceiling is very high indeed and it all comes down to a mastery of timing as to when each skill is used. Mastery of each area leads to unlocks of new areas. Even then - places visited are not over and done with. New doors and dungeons can be unlocked, each with their own challenges and unique loot nestled within the whole wonderful mess I've described so far. The devs made the right choice going early access. From the looks of the level select area, we have about two thirds of the game playable right now, that more than earn the asking price. The most recent being a very Destiny-like dungeon that challenges us to use a resource for ammo and health pickups, or skill your way through, piling up the same resource to open new doors. I bet Bungie are mad they didn't think of it first. Frankly, this level, The Witch Mountain, should be incentive enough to push through all the prior content. And you'll do it with a smile. Every time you'll go back. And every time, you'll want more. This was one of those rare occasions where a game that came on my radar so long ago finally came to be in my hands... and it wasn't some twisted morphed, downgraded scrape of what we originally saw. This is the result of what a small passionate team can do when they're left alone to cook. No investors, no publisher demands, no deadline. Just passion and a clear accountability to minimum acceptable standard. The freedom to say "it'll be ready when it's ready"... Like in all games, no doubt, some realities of development have led to sacrifices. But from one design improvement to the next, the Astronauts have done a stellar job hiding these in the finished product. Don't let the budget cutscene on the store page put you off. Don't let the early access price put you off. You like rogue-likes, you played a ton of Destiny before it got awful. You like From Software Games... You'll like this.

Really enjoying it so far. It would be great if we could increase the number of bullets we can carry, maybe through research or some kind of upgrade system. It would give us a clear goal to work toward and help ease this pain/limitation

This game has great combat and interesting mechanics, would highly recommend

Honestly, I just don't enjoy it that much. There was a short burst after I got some power on the second island and I thought "Yeah alright, this is pretty good....". THe first 2-3 hours were fine, I honestly just kept playing to see how much better it would get. It got better. But it never got better than that. The weapons are "OK". Magic is kinda interesting. This might be a game where you need to spend 20+ hours to really understand it, and appreciate it. Set up your build, upgrade everything. But 12 hours is all I think I'm giving it. (Probably closer to 8, I leave games open in the background alot)

Honestly, I dont even need to write up how good this game is because in a year or two, this is going to be one of the most copied games of all time. Witchfire represents a distinct step forward in roguelike FPS games, extraction shooters, and generally fantasy shooters. The world in incredibly rich and deep. The gameplay seems simple at first and slowly opens its gaping maw to show you how insanely deep it can go. The graphics are rich and stunning. It runs like a dream and has extensive NVIDIA and AMD frame generation methods to keep your FPS at 144. Playing with friends is an absolute hoot and the game is beautifully crafted for multiplayer co-op. With that said, ITS STILL JUST AS GOOD SINGLE-PLAYER. This to me is the true hallmark of a dev team that knows what they are doing. Stop thinking about it. If you have even the slightest inkling of interest from the screenshots and trailers, dump whatever is in your Steam cart and buy this instead. $40 may seem like a lot for early access, but this game is more complete than most 1.0 or even 2.0 releases Ive seen, and it will undoubtedly go up to $60 once it hits its full release. This is the best surprise banger I have picked up in years and Im pretty sure it has no more than a dozen people on the dev team. Reward good games. Buy it. Buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it Buy it. BUY IT

This game has massive potential. The gun-play scratches that destiny itch that Bungie forgot about and the MOBS/Bosses are challenging but fair. Unfortunately updates are slow to roll out and bugs are present. DEV's if I could have one MAJOR request please add a multiplayer co-op component with a co-op centric design. Have the locations co-op locations separate from the main core design. This game could be 11 out of 10 if i could go on hunts with my friends!

I want to like this game but the difficulty spike is just unbearable. End game is just "how much artificial difficulty can we shove in here" It stopped being fun after the 15 hour mark.

This game is a perfectly accurate simulation of a witch hunt: being that the witch does not actually exist and you instead spend your time systematically eliminating entire populations.

I'm a sucker for pretending to be a set of eyeballs on the end of a gun, and in my time of barrel-gazing, I've learned that knowing when to cut is just as important as knowing what to add in the first place. Protracted stints of exposition, lengthy gun-drawn (safety on) scenery-chewing, and frequent/ pacebreaking wait times betray the core tenets of the genre. "Momentum," or a shooter's ability to achieve and maintain a "flow state," is a *powerful* avenue for conveyance of player power and agency, moreso when it is a result of interlocking systems that work in tandem and don't *disrupt* said Momentum. Witchfire, for any small complaints I might have about difficulty spikes or any jabs at it being ""derivative"" in certain ways, is *very* good at training you to use a big (varied, interesting) toolkit efficiently. "Derivative" might actually be more unfair to Witchfire than I mean to be considering - again - the best examples of the genre (*ahem* Witchfire) iterate on the good and trim the bad. The gunplay is Destiny gunplay, out of the dev's own mouth, but Destiny gunplay was the "good" from that game, with long stints of downtime between missions and an obnoxious gear score system (not present here) the bad. Every weapon is essentially a Destiny Unique that refines its functionality as you level it, from machine pistols that reload on post-kill dashes to snipers that hit *everything* in your scope when you get a critical hit. Spells meant to be interwoven into combat - down to a charged melee strike - recharge with damage output instead of any sorts of convoluted resource management ala Eve hypos or magic bars and *also* level up/ gain new functionality. Even the stamina bar - power-limiting and even frustrating if done poorly - rewards flow and momentum: an undamaged bar and a dash while facing an enemy reveals a meticulously-feedbacked little dopamine orb you can fire at that stuns *almost anything* and pops like a lootbox. Speaking of feedback, there's like, *so much* feedback, dude. Heads burst like party poppers, gun Foley/ design is *incredible,* and every chest you unlock or boss you kill is a cascade of rumbles/sound cues, meticulously crafted just like a group of interns did for Destiny back in whenever the hell that was first released. Gouts of flame shimmer and growl beautifully while every lightning bolt arcs and whines as if from Zeus himself, particle effects *exploding* with rock-solid framerates. Diagetic text cues for objects, enemy spawns, or nearby quests are "written" in the corner in cursive as if your scary little guy were discovering things with you. No great game is without its flaws, though. Difficulty spikes are sometimes *brutal,* and every jump in "Gnostic" level bumps threat level worldwide and can dramatically alter enemy pools, specific level challenges, and my patience in a given session. Systems are sometimes poorly conveyed, and this includes challenges/ obstacles that required 15 hours of encountering them to intuit how they should be solved (though most are low-stakes and miss-able BESIDES SOME CATACLYSM EVENTS). The game is loudly unfinished, and I hit *many* walls in my time with it so far; to its credit, there is a lot of game here already and devs are quite active. Incredibly optimistic for the future of this game, and wholeheartedly impressed that such a tight experience could be crafted by such a small dev team. This is the good shit, halcyon days shooting, and a surprise classic I'm excited to drop another 20 hours in when it's feature-complete.

Been following the development of this silly little game for basically a decade at this point and finally caved in, not being able to wait for full release. But by god, it did deliver! [h3]The Good[/h3] - probably my favourite gunplay in any game ever (i have weird taste tho) - understated but absolutely gorgeous environment and level design - tight movement - great progression system that doesn't feel overpowering, i would say its 70% knowledge and skill and 30% upgrades - tons and tons of secrets - really good optimization, runs like butter - well designed and juicy ui - recognizable and varied enemy design - no bullshit, just challenging gameplay [h3]The Bad[/h3] - story is kinda bad, bit cringe at worst (but hey, they bother you for like 2 minutes with it and then its irrelevant) - cutscenes and boss introductions are kinda meh [b]But the best part[/b]: It's hard, it's challenging. In many different ways. They want you to figure stuff out by yourself. And while it might be frustrating at first. Throughout all my runs I started understanding the mechanics and puzzles more and more and it was really rewarding. It really doesn't hold your hand and rewards you in a way that most games just don't do anymore these days. Because it wouldn't sell well, because most people don't wanna or aren't able to engage with this depth. 9.5/10