I've always loved games like Painkiller, but every time I play it, I always think the same thing. Damn, I wish this was a linear, story based shooter instead. This gives me those same feelings.

You had me at "working for the Vatican"

Been following this game for years now. They said they were studying up on Destiny's gunplay and I sure as hell can see that was no lie. The game looks like it can be fun and a huge pain in the ass at the same time. Hopefully by time it comes to Steam it won't be a beta anymore.

I remember watching Witchfire being announced a decade ago, it looks vastly different from the moody fantasy shooter it once was.

This reminds me of Darkwatch. That outlaw/vampire gunslinger vibe will always be cool to me

Pretty happy to know that when this comes out of early access it'll be released on steam too simultaneously, so looking forward to the full release. The game looks gorgeous.

looking forward to getting this on steam a year from now.

I love the look and Atmosphere this game is giving off from the footage shown here. I kind of wish it was a campaign rather than rogue like though. Don't get me wrong I enjoy a rogue like as much as anyone but the concept of this bleak destroyed world where you're sent in to clean things up whilst being ill prepared sounds like it would make for a really strong narrative.

"Alot like my real biological father, it came out of nowhere and tried really hard to win me over." ^ Still my favorite Gman line

Looking at visuals, yeah I can really see the Painkiller influences! It feels like 'Old Monastery', 'The Palace', 'Cathedral', 'Orphanage' and 'Castle' all being put together and mixed with new environments.

I think a good way to improve the level scaling/ enemy intensity is to "borrow" the idea of a difficulty timer from Risk of Rain. Have it so that enemies and encounter rates start off at level one when the player first enters a map, then the longer the player is in the zone before leaving slowly increases the difficulty. This helps the player feel like the upgrades they're getting are worth it because they'll be able to survive longer.

Just want to drop a couple quick points for some common issues and questions I'm seeing in the comments... 1. You can individually turn off every UI element in the game, including damage numbers and health bars. 2. All of the weapons start weak and end up GOATED at tier 3. ALL OF THEM. Pick what you like the best and go shred some zombie ass. 3. Enemies' health and damage output do not scale with your level as I've seen some in the comments suggest. As you level up, messages will appear on the bottom of the screen telling you that new enemy types or traps have been added to the battlefield. These enemies are harder to fight and have more powerful move sets, but that is all. Stay at level 14 until you feel confident taking out the current foes, then make the leap. I do think this needs to be better communicated to the player at the start, though. Doesn't help that in the EA we have no other sink to throw our Witchfire in, though it sounds like that will change in full release. 4. Calamities will not be that big of a headache for you if you learn what is causing most of them. Don't pick up cursed items/chests, activate traps, or try to fight the Warden and your early runs should be fairly Calamity-free (but you'll be farming them once your gear is all leveled up lol). 5. Ice Shield is OP as hell, Gman. You crazy. You can whoop both of the EA bosses in less than 20 seconds with it and it's a get out of jail free card any time a Calamity hits.

I really liked the old gameplay trailers, they showed a lot of promise. Gave the vibe of a moody and atmospheric survival horror mixed with clear traces of People can Fly's style. I play this video, see the damage number prompts, enemy lifebars, and just think "... oh no..."

The rifle is great when it’s upgraded. First upgrade massively increases damage on the first shot on an enemy, second upgrade adds an AOE explosion on headshots, and the third upgrade amplifies the effects of the explosion

This is absolutely the type of game I would enjoy in coop with a friend but never play alone.

I found the scoped sniper insanely strong and actually preferred ranged enemies spawning because of that. My one biggest complaint is visibility. There's moments when you have no stamina plus like 2 other effects going off and you literally can't see anything for multiple seconds

The game is so addicting. Also the Main looks like Chakan the Forever Man with Corvo's mask.

Man I remember seeing this thing at the E3 2017 (I think) conference when it was announced and it looked awesome. I forgot the name and always wondered if it had released or not like I didn't heard any news about this until now and God, it looks amazing. Hope it releases on physical when it's out of early access.

I remember seeing that first trailer. It still looks amazing. Especially all the plant life and foliage. The animation for the enemies was pretty fantastic as well.

Never heard of this game before but I'm hyped now! Hopefully they will implement some of the level scaling/progression issues you've mentioned as it is a crucial aspect of "roguelikes"

You can really see The Vanishing of Ethan Carter’s art style and environment design in Witchfire. The beautiful, somber isolation, only more gothic. Definitely on my list!

Great review, fair and honest! High praise for Witchfire and hope they keep up the progression!

The visuals and sound design are so on point. This is exactly what also attracted me to Hunt. Bro devs rly need to keep putting those games out, this art style has so much potential, im tired of "cOoL anime" characters everywhere i need some gritty diabolic shit with ugly cultists with pitchforks to look at.

Love the aesthetic of this game, and the environments. Almost seems like a FPS version of Bloodborne

Man, have to appreciate your editing. Class act Sonny Jim.

Really awesome concept for a shooter and I'm always looking for more Sp FPS games. I hope you do a follow up vid on it when it launches fully.

Growing up I had a weird fondness for games like Painkiller/Serious Sam, and Witchfire does give me those vibes. I look forward to what future development for this is going to bring. They have a really cool concept to say the least.

Welcome to the beautiful magic of roguelikes! Where it's less about your in-game level and more about leveling up your own skill as a player, no matter how many times you die!

Don't make my mistake in this game and spend your first few level ups on the "get more XP" stat. Between the difficulty increases when leveling up, and the fact that decreasing your spell cooldowns is the only way your stats directly affect your offensive abilities, you can easily get yourself stuck grinding the equipment research timers. I'm almost level 30 and still haven't beaten the first boss. It didn't help that I ran into some bug that caused the calamity with the Wretches to occur over and over, sometimes within a minute of starting a run. I was just doing endless corpse runs until I got the "keep your XP on death" perk, which meant I leveled up a bunch more, making things even harder. Also I was like level 9 before I noticed the potion brewing station. The game is really fun, but I still feel like a chump for paying $40 to play test it.

Some good tips I've discovered playing the game is that the luck stat only really shows promise at around after level 15 where you might get 4 supply keys from enemies per full run and maybe 1-2 health drops. Also the smg pistol has a decent upgrade where when you kill a enemy then dash you refill your ammo. There's also a fetish that makes all elixers full heals if you don't get hit so it makes the healing stat worthless.

Great video man, looking forward to play it when it launches on Steam, someday in the future :D

Once it's officially released I'll be picking it up

Can’t wait for this to come to consoles. Absolutely gorgeous vistas.

Looks great Sir. Thank you for all that insightful commentary.

I remember watching splattercat cover this and was surprised after watching your video that they didnt lean more into that era of weaponry as well as a seeming lack of a sword.

Remember seeing this game in game informer in 2017 and being super hyped for it

i was hoping this game would be a first person "path of exile" type ARPG from the earlier gameplay ive seen but done right. The way the abilities work with the monsters feels very arpg. maybe in further development theyll really come into their own

I've been following this baby since it was announced. I'll wait for the full release, but is looking mighty interesting. Just to clarify in case someone is confused, the guys working on Witchfire had nothing to do with Outriders. After escaping Epic post Gears: Judgment, the team split into three. Most Painkiller folk went to Astronauts (these guys) and Flying Wild Hog (new Shadow Warrior games).

I can see they were inspired by dark souls when it comes to the XP mechanic and the death mechanic. Nice to see the formula work for different types of games.

I was just wondering about this game. And the Gman hits us with a new vid today on it. What a legend.

Yeah I've been intrigued by this game for a bit now and it's good to see confirmation of what I'd feared before diving in. Rogue-lites(likes?) are always a tough thing to balance, and it looks like it's a little too far on the frustrating side, for me at least. However that's just numbers, they can be tweaked, and if the combat and engine are good, which they look like they are, there's a lot of potential here still. Thanks, it's what I wanted to know!

This game is so good. Love it! It's great to see how other people like different guns in this game. For me the crit pistol and no scope rifle are OP. With those I don't have a problem with the archers or musketeers at all!

The bolt action does get multiple buffs, snd I’ve found it to be really good. The first buff does extra damage to enemies over 75% health. The second is an aoe effect when you land a critical hit dealing the damage done to the one enemies to all enemies in the area.

Handgunner was originally used to refer to the first gunners, as in when guns shrank down enough from cannons that they could be wielded by hand. At least that's what I learned from Medieval Total War. So that looks about right.

i played for like 3 hours struggling with the starting pistol completely unaware that you could unlock other guns. I got bored/frustrated with doing piss damage and decided to come back after an update. Good to know theres other guns.

Can't wait for it to be complete so I can pick it up on steam!

The ice heavy spell actually blocks enemy bullets which is super useful

I always love how you can tell what movies and shows Gman has been watching through his editing. Army of Darkness is awesome!

This game looks right up my street! I am looking for spooky themes FPS games. Already got Painkiller and Darkwatch lined up.

I love this artstyle and setting so much, so fucking cool.

Good gunplay combined with badass spells used with your offhand has great potential for fun

Looks promising. I absolutly loooved Piankiller back then and had lot of fun with bulletstorm so this is a no brainer for me to give it a try.

I can't stop playing either. And my playing session was too long today... It shot up my nervous system and I'm still feeling enraged. Edit: The environments are extremely well-crafted! It looks amazing for an indie game. It's inspiring stuff for a 3D amateur like me.

Kudos for Ash Williams f-ing the line up :) Legendary Bruce and the movie. (and polish devs of this game ;) ) Thanks for bringing yet another pearl in to the sunlight for us, waiting for steam version though.

A lot of this reminds me of Shadow Warrior 2 except that had a more of a mix with melee, magic, and guns with the player while most enemies were all melee focused with ranged enemies being slow at shooting you. Not to mention SW2 was more crazy with it's upgrade where I used the triple barrel shotgun with the perk that fires all 3 barrels at once killing most enemies up close religiously.

It looks like a fun game. When it will become available on Steam, I will put it on my wishlist.

Hey, your "new" outro is awesome!

Great review! Definitely picking this up...as a complete edition with atleast 75% off!

You cheeky bastard, you did both videos!😅😅

Both the submachine gun and the bold action rifle get INSANE ifyou level them up. The first one automatically reloads if you dash after a kill, the other get AoE damage in a huge area.

The text about levelling up and "Additional powers will be available in the future" makes me think that, alongside stat increases, levelling up your abilities will also grant you new powers. Personally, I think it'd be cool if levelling up Endurance let you tackle and knock enemies over with your dash, or gave you a 'Trepang2' slide that knocks enemies around. If they're going to make sliding a mechanic for one of the power-ups that lets you reload, then they might as well make the most of it. I can definitely see the reasoning behind the Ascension Shrine giving the witch more tools as you level up. As your levelling up increases your power LINEARLY, making you better at playing the game as you're already doing, the game increases in strength LATERALLY by throwing new obstacles at you that function differently to those you've faced before, like the Sentinels and Gatekeepers; as strong as you've become, you can't level up your gaming literacy and so these new threats test you in that regard. The problem with that logic is that it falls apart in the face of Ascended and Elite enemies, which are just the same challenges you've faced before but tankier. There's no way to increase your weapon damage or ammo capacity through Ascension; functionally, all these Elites do is make you waste more ammo on them, even if you never miss your shots. In contrast to the lateral power increase of other obstacles in the game introduced through Ascension, Ascended and Elite enemies are a linear scale, which really does make levelling up feel pointless. Lateral scaling introduces new ways to test your improved strength and capabilities, while linear scaling just nullifies the benefits you've acquired. Also, I hate it when games include an upgrade choice that allows you to get more of the resource you need to upgrade. That's annoying. I home in on that for maximum efficiency and it leaves me weaker for the challenges ahead. I absolutely think the early game needs balancing. It's nigh impenetrable and it's a massive uphill climb to actually get to a state that's playable. Maybe make earlier enemies less numerous. Maybe give the player the Cricket as well as Hunger starting out to make ammo less of an immediate issue. Just give new players more of a cushion. Honestly, I think ranged enemies are less bothersome for their range than they are for their coverage. Far too many area-of-effect enemy attacks cover far too much of the limited ground and enemies like the Handgunner and Grenadier fire way too often in a short burst or cover too much ground with their explosions; you're basically guaranteed to get hit by an attack that you really should've been able to dodge. Personal preference but I wish the environments had a bit more colour to them. I know this is a dark fantasy but that doesn't mean everything has to be brown or grey. Heck, at least provide some carpets or tapestries for Irongate Castle. Also, I think it'd be neat if they gave the Witch a voice. Same for the Preyer. Instead of text narration in the bottom corner like I'm playing 'Zork', the witch could taunt you as she calls calamities upon you. "I hear you messing my beautiful weeds, Preyer..." or "Oh? What is that click click click I hear? Would that be the empty magazine of a defenceless Preyer? Why, I think it is!" All in all, I can see the strengths of 'Witchfire' and there's definitely a really fun game in here. It's just that too many design decisions, born from the mindset of a punishing and gruelling 'Dark Souls'-inspired dark fantasy, get under your feet. (Also, Gman, you should check out 'MEATGRINDER'. Extremely short but extremely sweet)

I am playing it right now and loving it. U should really use the rifle, when upgraded it sends aftershocks with decay if u hit headshots. Nice review btw.

The increasing difficulty seems pretty normal for rogue likes like the binding of Isaac. I think it's pretty cool as long as it's adding new more challenging enemies and events and not just bumping their stats. You still get that sense of progress because the early trash mobs are still around for you to gloss over to put things into perspective, and eventually the new enemies will also become trash mobs once you level up and improve.

those homing arrows looks rad!🔥

Damn. I bought this game day one and returned it after an hour of gameplay. Watching this review makes me want to give it another chance. Thanks gman

Honestly glad to know the game scales with the player, because getting better gear, spells and stats already is the player putting themselves ahead, and the last thing I want to play is a game where I outlevel the content and breeze through everything.

I got hyped separately twice over this without realising it was the same game so your comment about it changing it's identity is on point.

The graphics of this game look insanely beautiful. Too bad it's not actually released yet. See you guys on steam.

7 years ago I saw an Australian video game reviewer get excited for this game. Now 7 years later my favorite Australian game reviewer is finally reviewing it. God bless you all from down under, your sacrifices will be remembered.

oh my god man you are missing out with the cricket auto pistol. having all 3 upgrades makes it so that you never have to reload and dashing and getting kills increases its damage turning it into a chainsaw. pair that with some stun spell with a low cooldown and you can beat every encounter without an enemy even being able to attack. its fantastic!

This looks like its absolutely my jam. Looking forward to its console release.

Good review. Enjoyed it

Witchfire is definitely brings me back memories of both Painkiller and Bulletstorm. Crazy to imagine that it’s made by the same team.

Looks like an insanely good FPS rougelike. The trinkets, spells & random upgrades in the field give me notes of Vampire Survivors particularly stuff like the lightning bolts & iron cross lightning “turret”

Was super excited, but early access. I'll keep waiting.

Game looks great, Running on an I7-12700H, 16Gb RAM and an RTX3070-Ti (MSI GS66 Stealth) running on an Aftermarket Samsung 990 Pro 2TB (awesome SSD!) with Ultra on and Quality DLSS and the game runs like butter, I cannot wait to see it completed!

It looks so different from what I thought it would be from the first reveal

Definitely looks like a souls-like difficulty/progression system

The Batman and Robin cuts were a good chuckle.

Had no idea this was even out 😂 EGS strikes again. Ah well. Maybe I'll pick it up if it shows up on steam or something

I dont mind the game scaling its difficulty through conceptual challenges like adding elite enemies or new Calamity events. My only issue is the regular enemies having scalar difficulty like increased health or more damage when you level up.

This looks really good and these devs absolutely know their stuff. I look dorward to playing it when it's out of Early Access and not on a shit sandwich storefront.

Good comparison, the mill actually reminded me so much of the Army of Darkness movie. 🤓😎

I really hope they polish this game into something phenomenal. Just the basic description you gave at the beginning made me say “ I NEED THIS”

Man I forgot about this game, was hyped at the time

I found the researching pretty quick myself.. just from wanting to see what all was around my little hideout.

I have to say Witchfire is damn good looking. The environment is so well detail, it looks like a BIG fight took place against humans and monsters, and obviously, the humans lost. Also, not to sound like a jerk, but I enjoyed the idea of discovering things on your own, gives you a sense of accomplishment. It feels like you found a new thing to help you and the feeling is so satisfying.

Omg that game. The more I see of its gameplay, the more I want to buy it and dive into depressive anxiety :D I mean : it looks absolutely gorgeous, it is readable, pleasant to the eyes. The bestiary seems amazing, the progression hardcore af ! I don't know... as it is still in EA I may wait a bit ; but it seems like an absolute banger from my perspective.

Waiting for the full (steam and non EA) release. Seems to be super fun, addictive with an amazing art direction. A good alternative to Vermintide 2.

I’ve got about 25 hours on this masterpiece in the making an lemme tell ya summthin. Each weapon is fantastic. All unique and viable. The Cricket gets a upgrade where if you dash after you kill it auto reloads. Yo end up pin balling an back line of archers with never having to reload. I’m level 126 and all the spells are very rewarding if you build around your weapons for the run. The bolt action really shines after it’s second upgrade where you get critical hits that send blight shockwaves out. Each weapon feels a bit off till you get those upgrades rolling on and the training wheels come off. My main gripe is I run out of ammo after killing 3/4 of the maps enemy camps and I’m forced to exfill. The enemy variety is constantly rewarding but does plateau in difficulty. As you become op. Yeh you still get one shot at times but if you arnt dashing constantly and utilising the surprising freedom of the maps verticality you arnt gaming right. I love it. And I need more. The hand cannon alone is fantastic. Each critical hit rewarsds your next reload with super charged rounds so you can wipe multiple mid tier mobs like a Clint Eastwood Witcher.

another phenomenal achievement

Same with me, the more i get angry at something in game, frustrated etc. often the more i come back to play, to get through challenges and play further and further, i dont know why that is, but those games are the more memorable for me as oposed to easy or empty games, looking nice, but delivering nothing memorable and i often even forget that i once finished them long time ago, cause well at the time either that game was the only one new out and it didnt suck, but nothing special, so i did finish, but as time passes i forget and just few days back i watched a video about some weird forgotten games, and there it was an RPG that i did play back in the day, but i totally forget it even existed. Wasnt bad game but nothing special, so i did forget. So if a game makes me to this, that i need to come back and play and get frustrated but one to play along even more, those games often stick with me i think for the rest of my life.

Looks fun. When is the steam release?

You can cheese the fights easily by getting behind cover and let them come to you. They'll either come one by one around at you, or they'll all just leave you be and stay back waiting for you to go to them. You then just pick them off with the rifle one by one.

dropping a video 3 days after cyberpunk? where does this guy find the time!? 🙌

it looks quite good. been looking forward to this game on the side for a while now. unlike many people i don't really care much if something is only on epic games, however since it is in early access ill just wait for the full release on steam.

Roguelike? Ah shit man, was hoping for an actual game with a story to go with that gorgeous looking gameplay and setting

I'd wait till they release it on steam 😮

This really surprised me. It's really solid what it has to offer.

I remember when this game was announced years ago. Took them long enough.