Witchfire release date announced, new trailer released

As part of the Summer Game Fest, The Astronauts (from people who’ve previously worked on Painkiller, Bulletstorm, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter) has confirmed the early access release date for Witchfire, the highly anticipated dark fantasy shooter, and it’s coming on September 20th, 2023.

Speaking with Epic Games, Adrian Chmielarz, Creative Director and Co-Founder of The Astronauts said: “The thing that excites me the most in video games is the idea of experiencing different worlds. To be a space pirate, a detective with supernatural powers, or a Church’s witch hunter. It doesn’t matter to me if the game is focused on the story or on the mechanics— I need its world to feel like a real place. So even though Witchfire is obviously a shooter first, we invest a lot in its world and lore. I believe this enhances the experience even for the people who claim they don’t care about the stories in games at all”.

Chmielarz also confirmed that while it’s early access the focus is on a polished and atmospheric experience, and that further story features will be added as time goes on, and there is extensive lore to the game, with a short story already released called The Preyer.

Discussing the latest gameplay trailer Chmielarz said: “The last few trailers were very combat focused and I think gave the wrong impression that Witchfire is a non-stop action fest. It is not. Sure, some fights will be incredibly intense, but there are also periods of quiet exploration, planning, thinking. It is much closer to Souls in that regard rather than, say, Doom. So that’s why the beginning of this new trailer is a little slower. We might slow down even more when there’s finally time for the launch trailer”.

Chmielarz also told Epic Games that “I genuinely don’t think anyone outside the studio understands what Witchfire really is. That’s expected, we’re not really showing a lot, are we? But that will change soon and I think people might be surprised with what they’ll see. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s still a dark fantasy first person shooter with guns and magic. But I think the way we went about it is relatively unique. Hopefully, we chose wisely, and players will like it. We’ll see soon enough, September 20th is not that far away”.

Witchfire is coming to PC early access via Epic Games Store on September 20th.