Witchspire – Setting The Table
To have a feast, the table must first be set, and upon this unique, magical table, do we begin our journey. Developed by Envar Games, which one might consider one of the three prongs of the trident of the broader company Envar, Witchspire is an open world survival crafting game that stands on its own two feet in a market that had reached the point of oversaturation long ago. Based in Sweden, though with presence across the globe, Envar themselves are a company of at least one hundred and ninety workers. These workers are divided into three different categories within the company: publishing (though I was unable to find another game published outside of the very focus of this review: Witchspire), outsourced work, and game development. Though unsure as to whether or not they might agree with me given their industry pedigree, I feel as though it is the duty of the game to make the person forget they are playing an amalgam of code and pixels being rendered upon a screen–to sometimes enrapture, sometimes frighten, and sometimes indeed delight the player such that the lines between what is and what is not blur. While I do delight in the world of Witchspire, I believe in its current state it fails to satisfy the onerous burden of making the player forget they are indeed in a world that does not and could not exist. Now, with our table set, let us begin with our first course: the appetizer.
Witchspire – Appetizer
Immediately upon entering the world of Witchspire, you are presented with options to tailor-make the experience to fit your own, specific desire or a choice between preset difficulty settings. Furthermore, you have the ability to customize your character with a myriad of different features: voices, hair, coloring of hair, etc., and what I once thought was important, you are also presented with a choice of faction, each with their own unique quote, flavor text, cosmetics, and wand. One would presume that this has implications upon gameplay and not purely superficial. However, and perhaps this is when the magic already begins to fade, there is seemingly nothing truly unique about any of them, and you are quick to displace starting clothing and weapons with stronger replacements that help facilitate an easier gameplay experience. It feels as though we are better off not choosing anything at all if what is ultimately there is so shallow. After being dropped into the world, the visuals to my eye are striking. Rendered in what is undoubtedly some form of Unreal 5, luminescent flowers dot a shattered landscape, with broken plots of land and spires littering a starry sky. This opening sequence is a microcosm of what can be expected of the broader experience. With firm assurance does the game plant the flag of its visual identity into the ground, and never once is it betrayed or placed alongside something that it has no business set against. Stark hues of purple and red lure the player into the world with an undeniable charm, yet I do wish that there were some form of hdr support to really help the already rich color pop. I had noticed brief stutters in this introductory segment, which did not extend to the broader game post-tutorial. I had started to fret that the seemingly comprehensive opening shader compilation step had either missed some shaders or there existed traversal stutters within the game, which, unfortunately, are almost omnipresent in Unreal 5 titles.
Entering this beautifully fractured world, we find ourselves being spoken to by a rather ethereal voice known as, if the subtitles are to be believed, Witchspire (the titular!). There are also no true survival mechanics that exist within the game. You do not need to eat, drink, or sleep, which I feel lends itself to a lack of mechanical baggage, making the experience a lot smoother overall, avoiding an unnecessary degree of friction. We are then later presented with my favorite of the two decisions I could make thus far, and a genuinely impactful choice: the creature we shall bond with and indeed what I feel to be the main course of the feast that is the experience of Witchspire.
Witchspire – Main Course
This is the real selling point, the bedrock upon which I feel the edifice of the game is built: the bonding and companion system. An almost pokémon-like catch-em-all, where each of these beings have two unique skills and an ability tree that improves their fighting prowess as they grind through levels with you. There does exist a problem with this system, one which has nothing to do with the system itself. These creatures often find themselves either clipping through the ground or trapped against some bushes and rocks due to some faulty pathfinding. Needless to say, this dispels any illusion of immersion within the world as you need to unsummon or switch them out with another companion for them to return or just have them blink back to you using the arcane magics of the game trying to keep them close to you. Do not take this derision as indictment, for this is, after all, an early access game. But I am charged with offering a window into the product as it is, not as it will be. But outside of minor gripes like targeting, pathfinding, and only being allowed to have one bonded companion in combat with you at a time, I do believe that this system is quite brilliant. Even a touch like being able to rename them, personalize them in effect, invites the player to live alongside these animals and treat them as you might a beloved pet.
In fact, when fighting a later enemy by the name of Al’uunian Golem, I was quite saddened when the Locto I chose at the start, who now went by the name Robert Blin, was slaughtered by a giant laser produced from its chest. You can even command these pets to aid you in mini-puzzles, which open doors from the ones I had seen. I truly hope this puzzle aspect of engagement is expanded upon more in the future because it can make for some genuine moments of bonding with the creatures that accompany you. Another facet of their aid is that of assisting you with both crafting and progression. The spinner, for instance, cannot even be utilized without the aid of either a Lamloof or a Shardling. Without either of these amongst your repertoire of animals, you cannot attain cotton for hearth progression, a pivotal aspect of personal development within the game. The very nature of the game is that of companions buttressing the efforts of the player. From small things like expediting crafting to things as large as enabling progression, the main course of the feast that is this game is most assuredly the creatures you can bond with. However, it is far from a perfect system, and it is impossible to avoid bugs in the process of interfacing with it, which brings us to the final course of our meal. One we can call the buggy dessert.
Witchspire – Dessert
When you open the game, it begins with a disclaimer that there are bugs and balance issues to be expected over the course of development, yet I find this does not quite capture the full breadth of what is to be expected. I will state for the sake of the undoubtedly hardworking team, whom I respect a great deal for the great product that they are continuing to update even now, that quite possibly I was dealt a bad hand when it comes to what I presented with over the course of my playtime. It felt that every hour played was marred by numerous forms of strange inconsistencies or bugs that once even resulted in me even having to exit to the main menu because I was stuck in the build menu. I quite enjoy the building within the game, and it is quite easy to correct mistakes as well, with a full return of invested materials, but being trapped within that menu is not quite my idea of a joyous endeavor. As mentioned previously as well, creatures clipping through the environment would occur to me even with my very own Robert Blin as we were engaged in combat or just traversing all sorts of different environments.
Another great complaint of mine, and the conclusion of this dessert, is that this a very interesting world from the perspective of its lore and the beings that dwell within it, but I find that the story definitely feels like an afterthought. It, much like the combat system, is entirely serviceable, but at no point feels the need to distinguish itself or experiences a desire to stand uniquely on its own.
Witchspire – Conclusion
In conclusion, the table and the process of it being set was executed by those with industry pedigree, and I do believe it was done wonderfully. The appetizer warmly welcomed the player to the world of the feast, with a bold selection and color palette that led to a main course that was truly inspired, if a little flawed, but the entire feast finds itself marred by the dessert that blights an otherwise enjoyable meal. With all this in mind, I would still genuinely recommend that people who are interested in open world survival games try this game, but I do think that overall, despite moments of brilliance, the potion that is this game needs a little more time to brew to smooth over some of the rougher edges. These rough edges prevent the player from truly immersing themselves within the world, and as a result mean the product as it stands does not deliver to me what is the core conceit of gaming: to forget one is even playing a game.
