After a year of Epic Store exclusivity, the Witchfire Early Access has been released on Steam with a further 9-12 months expected before a full launch. While some may scoff at such a lengthy spell before full release, there is plenty of content to get your teeth into in the current build. Given the high difficulty level of the game it is also going to take most players a considerable amount of time to even scratch the surface of what there is to offer. Whether this difficulty appeals or not depends on what you want from a game.

If there’s one thing that immediately stands out, it’s that Witchfire already looks fantastic, the various environments benefiting from a dark and Gothic aesthetic that perfectly suits the medieval vibes of the game. Guns have a good feel to them with weighty sound effects and an atmospheric ambient soundtrack filled with chants provides the backdrop. While each area can feel a little constrained, the overall enemy variety is good, with most of them being forms of demonic knights or skeletons, but presenting a challenging mixture of ranged opponents and those that like to get close up and dirty. Mobility is the key to success and it is not unusual to get wiped out in short order if you get stuck.

To traverse the environment and engage in combat you have a double jump, a dash and a slide. Taking full advantage of all of these is necessary to survive and it may be worth rebinding some controls to suit. I changed dash to double tap movement buttons which felt far more intuitive to me than the default setting. Double jump can be particularly useful for finding a good camping spot to pick off enemies, but even this approach isn’t foolproof as teleporting melee enemies can easily reach you if you stay still for too long.

There are a range of classes that are suited to different approaches, from close up shotgun carriers to those more focused on magic and sniping from afar. Regardless of the class you choose you can change up your loadout as you unlock more weapons and I tended to switch between a bolt action rifle and a shotgun to cover most eventualities. As you use a weapon you can also unlock upgrades that give it unique abilities. Such upgrades do take a considerable amount of grinding, however, so it is tempting to stick to the same loadouts throughout.

As you progress through the game you can also unlock a powerful demonic weapon that has more scarce ammo and various equipment that can provide further bonuses, though a lot of these are gated behind levelling up your character.

Your central character level can be increased through the witchfire that you collect from foes and crystals. This works identically to the classic souls mechanic from FromSoftware titles with it being lost on death unless you return and collect it. Unlike the Souls games, though, Witchfire has a central hub and portals to different levels that you gain access to as you complete each one. There are extra areas to return to as you gain greater knowledge and earlier levels can be used to grind for levels and resources.

Alongside your character level you can also increase the Gnosis stat, but this is a double-edged sword. It opens up further areas and equipment but increases the difficulty of every level and it is easy to find yourself overpowered if you rush this process.

The overriding impression of Witchfire is that it is a very difficult game. Ammo is relatively scarce, enemies are plentiful and hard hitting and it is easy to find yourself dying in short order. The roguelike aspect does enable you to slowly improve and develop your character but until it clicks you will find yourself repeating the same starting areas over and over. Once you get past these and unlock more weapons and locations it becomes a much more engrossing title though so persistence does pay off.

If you’re up for the challenge then Witchfire is an Early Access game worth getting onboard with, but if not then you might want to wait for the full release to see if the developers fine tune the balance a little more.