Witchfire early access release date confirmed for September 20th

thesixthaxis.com:

Witchfire has a release date, albeit an early access one, with The Astronauts confirming that the dark fantasy shooter roguelite will be available from September 20th on Epic Games Store. Witchfire was first revealed six years ago with its announcement at The Game Awards 2017, and now at Summer Game Fest 2023, we get a release date, of sorts.

In an interview with Epic Games News, Adrian Chmielarz, Creative Director and Co-Founder of The Astronauts said, “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. 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.”

Witchfire seems very different to The Astronauts’ previous title The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. In our review for that, Dave wrote, “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter might be less involved than a lot of mystery games, but it is by no stretch any less fascinating, beautiful or immersive. Its haunting