Back in April of this year, The Astronauts released a trailer for Witchfire during a time when game journos were very active in the sense that they couldn’t complete a tutorial or let alone finish a game to write up a full review. The devs revealed alongside that trailer that Witchfire is a skill-based game, piquing the interest of many fans. Fast forward to now, and some fans don’t like the demo’s bright lighting nor the gameplay mirroring Destiny.

The most recent trailer for Witchfire is a test video, and as its name implies, it is an internal demo showing off different systems and mechanics. In other words, the test demo isn’t a full representation of the final game.

Nevertheless, many fans believe that this test demo is an indication of where the game will head in the foreseeable future. With that said, you can be the judge courtesy of The Astronauts:

As you can see, the video has a significant amount of dislikes, although they aren’t as high as the likes, the number of disapproval is noticeable:

Comments falling in line with the above dislike ratio see people saying stuff like “good luck with your looter shooter guys.” Other people are calling Witchfire a “Destiny clone” saying, “Well that was underwhelming, unlike the first teaser. It was speaking “quake” and “painkiller,” and now you telling me “borderlands” and “destiny?”

Seeing disapproval from the fanbase, one of the devs took to the comment section to address as many problems as possible. Here’s the long post explaining the internal demo and what the actual game might be like when complete:

“Fear not, we’re not making Borderfire. The problem is, we’re sharing various stages of development with the public — but our work instead of looking like a real “work in progress” (i.e. no textures here and there, glitches all over the place, etc.) gives out the vibe of an almost finished game. Like: this is what we want in the final release. But that’s not the case, including this very video. As an example, the colors are too happy and bright, it’s just what we use at the moment before we focus on the proper “dark” atmosphere when Unreal Engine 4.24 comes out (it has a completely new lighting model, so it’d just be a waste of time to play with it now).

 

There are also multiple other issues not clearly seen at first glance (e.g. knights are too small and move too slowly, HUD is already outdated, etc.). We might dedicate a post one day to explain how it all works, but for now: the teaser video is still our target. Not that the game will all take place in a gloomy sandstorm, but that it is a DARK FANTASY shooter. Stick with us for a while, and you’ll see how it all progresses towards that goal.

 

To hijack this comment for some other stuff others mentioned: health bars and damage numbers are here to stay. They’re in every Soulsborne ever made and no one can say they ruined the mood. They offer a gameplay information (like your gun’s damage fall off or which target to prioritize) we feel is important to decision making. Having said that, you will be able to turn it all off in the menu, and we also have a couple of surprises in store, too.

 

Finally, is Witchfire a looter shooter? It’s not possible to answer this with a simple yes or no (e.g. the “looter shooter” term itself means different things to different people), so we guess we know the subject of our next blog/dev-diary update. If you need a quick and dirty answer now, then no, we don’t call it that, as in our heads the core value of the game is the challenge it offers, and the loot – that does exist – is merely a tool.”

As a summary, the team did not touch up the lighting for the internal demo test due to Unreal Engine 4.24 being right around the corner. In other words, it would be a waste of time to “fix” the lighting since the new build of UE has a new lighting model.

As the game progresses, enemy models will become the appropriate size, and they will pose a threat in a skillful way.

Loot will be in the game, but it will not pave the way to victory but act as a means to “synergize” your skills, weapons, and movement. Also, hit numbers can be toggled on or off, and the HUD will change too.

In short, what was said in the April update still applies to the recent build of the game:

“We’re trying to avoid calling Witchfire a looter shooter, because we feel that it often suggests a game that’s more about the loot than the skill. The game we’re trying to make is not going to play itself for you as soon as RNGesus blesses you. Our loot is about inventing synergies and amplifying your skill with the loot but you’ll still need to keep hitting those shots while controlling the chaos of events unfolding with your movement, positioning and abilities.

 

Think Dark Souls. There’s loot, and you can even farm certain areas for more loot and exp, but at the end of the day there’s enough skill checks in the game that you feel you truly earned that ending.”

Finally, folks unaware of how the game once looked, the older 2017 teaser trailer sits below: