I am once again asking you to ignore Epic Games Store exclusivity, and please play Witchfire - because there’s still nothing like it

Witchfire Is nearly one year old, and though a lot has changed since it first hit Early Access on the Epic Games Store, it remains one of the most interesting genre mash-ups you can play today. The game’s latest update - which is live now - further cements its status as one of the most unique shooters in the space.

Ahead of today’s launch, I played a few hours of a build of the game running this latest update. Dubbed The Wailing Tower, it’s Witchfire’s biggest ever since its release last year. The main addition here is the game’s first new area, which has quite a different vibe to the existing map.

I am a big fan of Witchfire; so I was excited to get my hands on what The Astronauts told me would be a major update. This was, in fact, an accurate description. Most of my time with the build was spent in the new area - the eponymous Wailing Tower, but the systemic and mechanical changes here affect the entirety of the game.

I was a little disappointed by the new map, however. Though it does have distinct narrative theme from the rest, it retains the game’s autumnal aesthetic and somewhat muted colour tones. This is among my favourite looks in games, so this shouldn’t be considered a complaint, but I did go in expecting something, well… a little different.

The new area has a couple of interesting fights, including one big one - as you’ve come to expect from Witchfire. And, like all the others, it also hides some secrets (though I didn’t seem to find many compared to the original, launch map). Perhaps I wasn’t quite perceptive enough, or perhaps The Astronauts has gotten better at hiding them. After playing over a dozen hours of the original map, I sort of began to see the patterns, but I’ve yet to get the same feeling from The Wailing Tower.

Outside of all the new content - including new enemies, weapons, skills and so on - the update’s other major addition comes in the form of a massive rebalance and overhaul to the in-run flow. This so-called Arcana 2.0 touches every moment of the in-run power progression. I played the launch build last year, and checked in on Witchfire a few times since, and the difference is immediately clear. Now, the game feels much, much better.

I initially started off with a new character, because I remember how brutal the early game was at launch. Those early hours have been made more welcoming, which was a little surprising to see. The challenge is certainly still there, but the transition from calm to chaos is smoother. In particular, Witchfire is now more eager to equip you with powerful spells and unlock passives early and quickly.

Whereas I avoided fights I knew could end my run in the launch build, this new flow actively encourages you to seek out the challenge. A number of the random encounters have been lessened, too, which was a major contributor to difficulty initially.

I wouldn’t call Witchfire easy now, but the challenge was clearly front-loaded back then. This latest build spreads it out a little more evenly, and the wider array of options at your disposal simply means you have more ways of solving problems. I never really ran into situations where I was forced to extract because I simply exhausted all available options. Before, that was a key part of the loop. The cadence of the whole thing is just better now.

Where all the changes really get interesting, however, is in the late game. On the one hand, the smoother initial curve means you’ll get there far quicker, but it also means there’s a side of the game you may not expect to see if you’re entirely new to it. Your homebase now has more rooms to unlock, and there’s an NPC you can trade with. This effectively creates something of an economy in Witchfire, which is a feature it really needed.

The developer provided some high-level character saves during this preview window, which really made me appreciate a different side of Witchfire. Playing with a level 80+ character is an act of juggling powerful options to survive against powerful enemies, which creates its own challenges, and they’re quite different from that initial fight for survival. More money, more problems and so on.

More than anything, though, returning to Witchfire really reminded me why I love it, and highlighted just how underrated it is among shooter fans. Perhaps that’s a side effect of being an Epic Games Store exclusive (though not for long). Store preferences aside, Witchfire’s successful marriage of roguelites, extraction games, RPGs and shooters is quite something to be hold. If you want the thrill of extraction games with the surprises and scares of roguelites, and the satisfying combat of great shooters, there’s really no other game that does it better.