The Astronauts announced today during Summer Game Fest that their upcoming roguelite dark fantasy shooter, Witchfire, is hitting Early Access on September 20th.
Originally slated to release into early access last year, Witchfire comes to the Epic Game Store this fall, bringing the new first-person shooter from the developers behind Bulletstorm and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Set in a dark fantasy world, Witchfire portrays a war between witches and the Church in an alternate reality. Players will tote powerful guns and harness spells to take out the dark enemies in their path.
"The last few trailers were very combat-focused and I think gave the wrong impression that Witchfire is a non-stop action fest. It is not. Sure, some fights will be incredibly intense, but there are also periods of quiet exploration, planning, thinking. It is much closer to Souls in that regard rather than, say, Doom. So that’s why the beginning of this new trailer is a little slower. We might slow down even more when there’s finally time for the launch trailer"
While the full game will have a massive story, the early access launch of Witchfire will focus mainly on providing a "polished and atmospheric" experience and then building from there.
Via an interview with Epic Games News, Creative Director Adrian Chmielarz confirms that new story will be added throughout the early access process as it works towards its full release. However, a short story talking about the game world is available to check out for those who want to dive deeper into Witchfire's lore.
“The thing that excites me the most in video games is the idea of experiencing different worlds. To be a space pirate, a detective with supernatural powers, or a Church’s witch hunter. It doesn’t matter to me if the game is focused on the story or on the mechanics— I need its world to feel like a real place. So even though Witchfire is obviously a shooter first, we invest a lot in its world and lore. I believe this enhances the experience even for the people who claim they don’t care about the stories in games at all.”
With a team of just ten developers, The Astronauts is building the upcoming roguelite shooter in Unreal Engine 5. You can check out the latest gameplay trailer in the embed above.
