We thought the project was buried until it reappeared at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2023. Announced in 2017 during the Game Awards, the Polish title had been rather discreet, its only real jolt having been to shift its early access date from 2022 to early 2023 and then to a “later date”, which was more worrying than reassuring. After six months of information dearth, witchfire therefore comes out of the woods, and the studio The Astronauts confirms an arrival date in early access, exclusively on the Epic Games Store.
Immortals of Aveum, more fun
The first trailers of the game already demonstrated a very artistic direction dark fantasyand a combat system allowing to alternate between spells (of two types: heavy and fast) and firearms of the Victorian era, which could suggest that we would be dealing with a Painkiller Spanish inquisition sauce. Nay. Adrian Chmielarz, one of the founding members of The Astronauts studio, insisted that witchfire will be much more than just “magical-FPS“: “The last trailers were very combat focused and I think they gave the wrong impression that witchfire was a non-stop action fest. This is not the case. Sure, some fights will be incredibly intense, but there will also be times of quiet exploration, planning, reflection. In this respect, the game is closer to souls that of doom, For example. That’s why the start of this new trailer is a bit slower. We may slow down even more when it’s time to show off the launch trailer.“. Let those who were waiting for a Fast-FPS go their way.
In addition, special attention has been paid to the history and mythology of the title. Chmielarz said in an interview with Epic Games News: “Even if witchfire is above all a shooting game, we invest a lot in its universe and its history. I think it improves the experience, even for people who claim to have no interest in the games’ stories at all.“. And from the lore point of view, Mr. Chmielarz does not take things lightly, since he himself wrote a short story entitled The Preyer, available in free access on the official website of The Astronauts. The least that we can say is that this one is not in Calais lace, but rather in the Torquemada style wood fire.A good appetizer for who would like to set foot in the world of witchfire.
witchfire will arrive in early access on the Epic Games Store on September 20, 2023.