WitchSpire Combines Gothic Open World Survival with Creature Collection and Astral Projection Building while Avoiding Tedious Grinds and Hunger Meters
Initially, WitchSpire may appear to be a picturesque craft game. In fact, with its whimsical art design and focus on building a magical domain, many would assume it is a casual experience with no consequences, although below the surface of a fairytale presentation, it is a highly effective open world survival game with a creature collection feature, combat that is better than it has any right to be and surprisingly some of the worst aspects of other survival games are absent here entirely.
The game is in Early Access and has been designed to incorporate the base building of other survival titles with monster collecting found in more recent hits, with a richly gothic fantasy theme thrown into the mix. We have here some of what works, what does not work, and whether you ought to be picking up your broom and joining in.
The game will likely appeal because it has the core survival mechanics, though it manages to avoid the tedious, unnecessary upkeep that usually plagues the genre. You are not given any thirst or hunger meters to constantly monitor as it slowly depletes your health, rather when you harvest resources for items and supplies, the player character receives a buff in stats, making the collecting directly rewarding.
It really is quite generous about using magic for streamlining the grind here as well. There are not any tasks where you have to swing an axe mindlessly at trees for hours at a time because you have a way to conjure resources with your sorcery and your entire inventory as well as your storage chests are linked to your crafting stations through magic so you do not need to spend a whole lot of time managing what you are carrying to craft a simple potion or weapon. It really is a survival game that takes your time into consideration.
A main attraction for WitchSpire, it has got to be its familiars feature. There are dozens of magical creatures scattered around the handcrafted map to both defeat and then capture. Upon defeat of the creature, a spirit form will hover for a limited time, allowing you to form a bond with the entity in a high pressure, exciting way which can feel almost desperate if you take too long.
Familiars will be a part of the player progression instead of just some pet to watch around the base, and will join you in combat, will help manage the player base as well as have skill trees of their own to discover. WitchSpire does a brilliant job of appealing to the collector within the player by adding rarity levels of all the creatures ranging from commonplace and poor to legendary with ultra rare shinies thrown in as a bonus if they already exist within the creature. Searching for the rarest, most perfect familiar could potentially be the most addictive part of the game.
WitchSpire also does a better job than it ought to in combat. It has a teleport style dash which allows for really smooth dodging of attacks to the effect of making the player feel like a spell slinging acrobat as they fight, the weaponry in the game comes in a variety of different wands and spellblades which include the usual light attack, but unique heavy secondary ability, so depending on your opponent and type of enemy, you will have to swap out weapons often during a fight. Furthermore boss battles feel punishing, not like a test of simply trying to deplete a large health bar.
"The minute the game really opens up is when you can finally access your flying broom. The perspective of the whole map suddenly changes."
When it comes to the travel mechanics of the game, this is also very enjoyable. Although you are able to run, after a while you will be given the ability to get on your own flying broom which controls very nicely and does not punish for low stamina by simply having you fall to your death, but instead reduces your flight speed to normal speed until stamina regenerates, though access is unlocked by region by completing certain objectives in open world, which makes it rewarding to explore each biome before getting your hands on a broom and zooming to a farther region.
If you are at all a builder, this is certainly a game you will want to get. WitchSpire is able to solve the issue that most base building games have a frustratingly difficult camera angle to place your structures at, by having the player character astral project while they construct their structures, so the player will control their detached body and fly around at free range to place roofs, walls, and any other decoration right where you want it to go. The snap features are clean, and the choice of gothic construction architecture allows for truly stunning witch cottages to be built without fighting the mechanics.
Despite its huge potential, the game bears all the hallmarks of an Early Access title. Poor onboarding the game rarely explains you where specific crafting materials are or how particular game mechanics actually work. If you are the type of person who prefers to have these things explained clearly it can become extremely frustrating being lost in the opening hours.
Progression also has massive level gating. If an area quest tells you the level to be, it means the level required and nothing less, enemies one hit kill anything below these parameters and it makes for some really annoying mid game grinding when you are blindly hunting for exp to continue.
The UI also needs an overhaul. The hot bar used during combat can feel clunky even when using a controller, inventory management is just a nightmare when your bags start to fill with dozens of identical crafting materials and the story is fractured and hard to piece together, with no quest journal the overall aim becomes lost at times.
Pc Version Tested.
Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from Devs
