Witchspire Preview

Developed and published by Envar Games, Witchspire is a new Early Access open-world adventure. In this survival craft experience, players will embody a witch — male or female — who is on a quest to save the world from the spreading corruption.

I'm an enormous fan of witches, fantasy, and magic, so Witchspire quickly became one of my most anticipated titles, and that was before I found out it has creature collecting and co-op. I was particularly interested in the new approach to the former, as the animals work like active pets.

While there is a story, it's not very in-your-face, and I took my time to get used to the gameplay before I focused on it. Disembodied voices occasionally accompany the player by narrating information about the main plot and offering insight about where to go next, but I put them on the back burner for a while.

Since I wanted to play around first (mostly because I was excited to be a witch), I spent a good while trying out the battle system and foraging. It occurred to me that I probably have spent thousands of hours in my life just farming resources in games, and although it doesn't get boring to me, Witchspire breathed new life into it.

It's always satisfying to hit an ore vein or boulder, but I had never yeeted magical pickaxes at them and watched them be torn into bits. The only thing better than that was chopping trees down because if I angled myself right, with just one of the big blasts, I could take down several trees.

Aside from various resources found everywhere, there are also tons of creatures populating the world. I appreciated the way they were spread out, which made the world feel less empty, a common issue I find in the survival genre.

Similarly to Palworld, players will have to physically battle the creatures in order to capture them. While every victory assures a drop of the special dust that can be used for crafting, it doesn't mean you'll get the pet.

I enjoyed this feature because it gave me a good reason — aside from farming for resources — to engage in it. Additionally, it’s much more exciting when it finally drops, inspiring a similar feeling to looting dungeons in MMORPGs.

Aside from just looking adorable — which they do a great job of, thanks to the varied and well-done designs — the creatures fight alongside the player. Pets can be commanded to use abilities, but they also automatically battle.

Creatures can also offer a hand at home, where they can be assigned to the various machines! I loved seeing Lambloof running in the wheel like a little hamster whenever I crafted items on the Spinner.

One of my favourite aspects is that you get an achievement for every single creature you catch, because it makes it even more satisfying to collect them all. Don't worry if it sounds grindy, either: there are many ways to make it easier to catch them.

For my starter, I chose Locto; his kit consists of a blast of fire and an air assault, where they'll drop down fireballs from above the enemy in a straight line; the kit is very AoE-heavy. It was satisfying to use, especially whenever I would play on keyboard and mouse; unfortunately, the controller doesn't feel as comfortable.

It's not only combat that felt a bit clunkier — menus were a nightmare to traverse. It was too frustrating to sort inventory with the controller, so I ended up giving up and playing at my desk instead.

Aside from creatures and their abilities, players have several other ways to fight. Players have two weapons to choose from (and several variations between them): wands and spellblades. As they level up and unlock more crafting stations, additional tools will become available, like scrolls.

These hold spells within them and can be used on the battlefield, kind of like a craftable ability. Scrolls also work for more than combat, as there are some utility ones; my two favourites were one that teleports the player back home and another one that sprouts trees.

Once I had my fill of gathering resources and creatures, I set my eyes on the main quest. It's straightforward: follow the lead left behind by the other chosen ones and listen to the disembodied voice's suggestions. They will usually guide you towards a hearth left behind by the team or a new boss to fight.

Naturally, as players do this, they will uncover new areas, which means more resources and creatures. While exploration is usually one of the weaker parts of survival crafts because once you create your base, you don't want to leave it, Envar Games cleverly fixed that issue by allowing players to have multiple homes.

I'll be honest and admit that I spent most of my gameplay with just hearths, as I'm not a big fan of building. I just collected resources and asked my wife to take over that job instead, but I don't view that as a negative: for those who don't care about homes and decoration, not having to do it by force might just be freeing.

I was a tad disappointed to find out that I needed a specific item to make hearths, but only six hours into my experience, I already had three of them. The building works great, thanks to the imaginative mechanic of astral projection, which allows a lot of freedom of movement (though you can't move anything once you've placed it down, which is a bummer). The capability to have several homes also opens up the ability to come up with creative ways to use that, which is a nice breath of fresh air.

My bases mostly consisted of a main hub, where I had tons of chests and workstations, and then glorified teleportation hearths elsewhere. This was mostly spearheaded by the inability to relocate items and buildings, as it gave me a sense of anxious commitment, so I just barely ever placed anything down that wasn't essential.

While I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Witchspire, there are a few holes here and there; the game is in an uncomfortable middle ground where fans of the open-world survival craft genre might not enjoy it as much, and it might not have enough to keep the rest of the community interested. Some aspects also need some polish, such as the building feature and quality-of-life aspects that are lacking, like the ability to sort inventory items into chests.

Of course, the title is still in Early Access, so there's still time and room for improvement. If you thought this sounds like fun and would like to support the project, Witchspire is available on Steam!