Witchfire Promises A True Successor To Painkiller

Developers, The Astronauts, recently announced Witchfire at the end of last year during the Game Awards. It was exciting to see a brand new rendition of the frantic, old school, one man army style shooter that focuses on a single player narrative. We’ve seen the return of DOOM, Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam and Wolfenstein in recent years. Witchfire will soon be on that return-to-glory list.

Witchfire Promises A True Successor To Painkiller
It may be hard to believe but The Astronauts’ last game was the critically acclaimed The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. This was a completely different kind of game that involved a slow pace, intrigue and puzzle elements. To see the team now working on a frantic and frankly, badass looking shooter is absolutely a surprise. But in a recent blog on the official The Astronauts' page, we’re told it’s all in the name. “One of the reasons we called the studio The Astronauts was to emphasize the journey to new places. After we made an innovative – we think – narrative game, now we want to make a shooter unlike anything we’ve done before. Can’t wait to bring you along on the ride with us!”

Witchfire Promises A True Successor To Painkiller - Solid world design
Check out the gameplay footage in the video below. Anybody could be forgiven for thinking Witchfire looks like an extra shiny new version of Painkiller. That’s no coincidence. The three co-owners of The Astronauts were once the three co-owners of People Can Fly. That means the top people at The Astronauts once worked on the likes of Bulletstorm and – that’s right – Painkiller. This means Witchfire is in the good hands of a team experienced with building visceral shooters.

In the same blog, The Astronauts are very clear in where the project is at right now. They warn us that no answers can come forth just yet as there are still many ideas and elements to Witchfire that may not make it to the final game. “But really, not much to add. The game is nowhere near complete, it’s going to be a long time before it’s ready. It’s not like we’re secretive for no reason. Simply, things change, and there’s no point in announcing a feature that may be killed or a lore element that will morph into something barely recognizable. As soon as we feel 100% confident about the features and the world, we’ll resurface with much more info.”

Witchfire will be powered by Unreal Engine 4 and is currently only announced for PC. We have no details on time of release just yet other than the fact that, according to The Astronauts, 2018 is going to be a very busy year for us.”

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