It’s been close to three years since developer Astronauts released their first-person shooter Witchfire into Steam early access, and they’ve just rolled out the game’s 0.9 update. I got the chance to try the new build a few days early to see what’s added, what’s changed, and how the overall game is shaping up now that the full release is just around the corner. Here’s what I thought of The Revelations update.
Witchfire’s 0.9 Revelations Update
This update is a mix of refinement and new content added to the established gameplay loop. For those who’ve played Witchfire through previous patches, this is a good one: the final location, now called the Marshland, is finally available, completing the game’s full roster of maps. No more placeholders for what’s coming, as it’s all laid out now as your Preyer looks over the horizon at the Hermitorium.
It’s bleak and damp, as you’d expect from a place called the Marshland. Ruined religious structures enveloped by thick trees and foliage. A nice ray of light for a sunsetting sun but some weird dark spots that made me second guess if it was intentional or not. It’s a wide map with a series of locations where you can pick up quests and events, or take out batches of enemies for temporary upgrades.
The new enemies here aren’t overly challenging, but they are annoying, to say the least. Mostly because of the mosquito-like creature that buzzes around, fires projectiles, then charges head-first at you the moment you look away. There are also floating suicide creatures called Carriers that charge and explode on top of you, and another type that repeatedly slams the ground to dish out AOE damage.
The most painful addition to the new map is an enemy called the Lament. It doesn’t attack and doesn’t really do anything, it just muffles your ears with an annoying cry, masking the audio cues you didn’t realize you needed for a smooth fight against the things that actually hurt you. You have to track down the specific Lament that’s locked onto you to get your hearing back, and that’s a pain to navigate.
I probably owe the many Laments I’ve killed so far some thanks, because it made me realize just how sharp and precise the audio design is in this game. With my hearing out of the picture, I started getting hit a lot more often. I’d miss the audio cue warning me a shot was about to land, or that an enemy was danger-close, or that the clanking of armor was getting louder. These small audio details fuel a lot of my enjoyment of Witchfire, and it sucks when they’re taken away as I feel crippled.
The new map provides a different kind of challenge, one where you have to fight through all the distractions while maneuvering to deal with bigger threats like the Grenadier or a swarm of melee enemies closing in. Working through the map felt like a lesson in setting priorities for better outcomes in a fight, which I enjoyed as a nice change of pace from the other maps.
The map’s Pacing
Marshland also surprised me with how its main objective was presented. The first time you set foot on the map, you’ll naturally find yourself working towards figuring out how to gain access to the Cathedral, the central and and prominent structure in the map as it’s the only section locked off at the start. From there, you’re guided through a series of objectives, moving from one area of the map to the next until you eventually gain access to the inside. The way they handled objectives felt better here, as it gave the sense of being guided to different parts of the map, similar to how Velmorne starts off limited by locked paths before slowly opening up as you explore each section and acquire the keys for each one.
Marshland was the piece that felt missing when going through the game’s previous progression, which I got the chance to try the Webgrave update before its launch. This added piece completes an almost finished picture of a Witchfire playthrough as reaching over level 50 feels more natural, since I didn’t feel the need to grind to hit certain milestones early on in the game’s progression. By the time you reach Marshland, you’ll likely also have access to the game’s last map, the Witch Mountain, and while you can’t yet face the Witch herself (still unavailable), the playthrough now feels complete, and at this point, it’s all about refining what you’ve built for the final fight and any endgame content left untouched.
The Narrative element
The 0.9 update brings the game’s first real injection of NPCs and story. It’s basic at best. We get short cutscenes of a weird creature called Mesel scurrying away behind the floating mirror. After a few runs, it warms up and befriends the Preyer, sharing some non-voiced dialogue, with the Preyer mostly responding with “…”. Despite the dev’s first wave of adding storytelling and narration, the Preyer remains the silent type.
The bigger surprise comes right at the start of the game, as this update gives players their first glimpse of the Witch herself (picture above). She makes a brief appearance, dressed in red and fully voiced during the tutorial of the game, then disappears, never to be heard from again. It’s a nice addition, but a strange one too, since the Witch to me has always felt like a boogeyman of the world since the start of early access as how she appears was left to our imagination: residing on her mountain, radiating her influence over the area, and populating nearby lands with her forces. I enjoyed the mystery, and I’m curious whether Astronauts will have the Witch show up more before the eventual encounter on Witch Mountain.
Other narrative elements come as a small injection to add more world-building and context to the Fallen Preyers, spirits that assist the player in their mission to hunt the Witch. This patch lets players explore each spirit’s past as you get to know what happened to them once you’ve completed their mask and delve further to their story when exploring specific maps. These are simple side quests, as it’s just a matter of returning to its location on different parts of the map multiple times, with some visits interrupted by an ambush, and others rewarding you with nothing more than a chest full of loot.
Not necessarily my favorite addition, but it does give the game more personality and a bit of life, which is likely the goal.
Should You Play Witchfire’s 0.9 Update?
Even on a second playthrough, with me knowing pretty much what to do up to the new map, Witchfire was a blast thanks to its build variety since I approached leveling a bit differently this time, which led to some interesting combinations. Combat is still the top reason to play this game, and it’s a tough one: dying sends you back to homebase and strips you of all your accumulated witchfire, the resource needed to unlock new areas, level up your character, and more. It’s a fusion of roguelike and Destiny 2-style gameplay, which involves the player switching between a primary and secondary weapon, flinging spells when off cooldown, and dashing or sliding away from danger to avoid getting overwhelmed.
This game is all about running the same maps multiple times, since progression is really about raising your Gnosis level, the game’s difficulty tier, and doing so unlocks more character progression and secrets, events, and more on each map. There are multiple layers to why you revisit each map repeatedly, and I love the joy of slowly uncovering each secret as I move up, which also makes the game harder overall awhile opening it to further customization. In this patch, once you hit Gnosis 5, the difficulty ramps up nicely, but so does the grind for the next level, since moving up at this point is where it can feel grindy for those struggling to enjoy the thrill of exploring the game’s secrets. I haven’t reached the new Gnosis level cap, which is now up to seven. As of this writing, I’m one level away from it but enjoying the climb as I think I can get what I need after a few runs on the other new vaults and clearing others I’m familiar with.
The option to crank up the difficulty at your pace is what keeps pulling me back in after multiple runs: what you do on the map, what Gnosis level you’re at, and the current state of World Corruption in that run all shape how things play out. World Corruption isn’t new for Witchfire vets, but it’s updated now to be player-controlled, meaning it’s growth is based on what you interact with in the world. Doing interactions like forcing a locked chest or accepting “gifts” from the witch slowly makes the map harder, and it’s fun system that can be reset to regular levels by doing a bell cleansing event that requires you to take out five waves of enemies.
There’s a lot to play around with in the 0.9 update, and it only reinforces what I already felt about Witchfire. It’s a fantastic shooter that borrows elements from different genres to create a familiar gameplay loop that challenges you and pushes you to experiment with your build. More weapons added, new spells, updated systems, to a new addition like the garden system in the player hub, there’s so many systems working with each other to make it the way it is today.
At this stage, it’s so near-complete that it feels almost awkward to recommend it with 1.0 so close. It wouldn’t hurt for newcomers to wait a little longer for the full experience, but you also won’t feel cheated playing it now as it’s already a chunky, polished game for an early access title.
With where the game’s at right now, it’s amazing how much they’ve been able to change in three years of early access. Witchfire has earned the benefit of the doubt with this 0.9 update as it’s the clearest sign yet that the game is ready to stop being a work in progress. A bit more polish, a proper finale, and a few more layers of endgame content sound like the perfect way to cross the finish line, and i’m eager to see 1.0 in all its glory.
Have the game and is eager to give the latest update a try? Witchfire’s 0.9 update should be live today.
About the Author – Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.