Witchfire - Webgrave Update Preview

Terrifying. Punishing. Beautiful.

Written by Dallas

Posted on: July 28th, 2025

Developed by The Astronauts

Published by The Astronauts

Update Released on July 28th 2025

(PC - Steam and Epic Games Store)

Witchfire has been on my radar for quite awhile now, it was one of those standout trailers from a showcase YEARS back. I initially stayed away from it due to its launch into Early Access. Now I don’t have an issue with that strategy, hell, I didn’t even have a problem with its Epic exclusivity window. No, I stayed away because this was from The Astronauts, the developers behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, which if you don’t remember, was a GORGEOUS walking/narative experience as well as their debut title. And here they were, making this dark fantasy genre-breaking shooter?! with the same gorgeous fidelity that they brought out in their debut title. So, I sat back, I said I’d wait till it launched into 1.0. “Let them cook” as the kids say.

How quaint. Prologue starts you off with some seriously cozy vibes.

— I must put a disclaimer here, that this is an early access title, so without doing research of my own into past updates, I don’t know what’s been here before and what’s a new offering, I can only share my own personal experience with the game during my time with this preview build. —

Well it’s 2025 now, it’s been in early access for a couple years now, it also made the jump to Steam at the tail end of last year. And it’s on its way to a full release early next year. Ok so now with it RIGHT around the corner, why did I jump in prematurely? 2 reasons. One, the changes made over the years have been literally game changing, and the community seems very supportive of them, and with the release so close, it is nearly feature complete. And two, with this preview event, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I was ready to finally play it, I waited long enough right? So I said hell, why not. AND MAN AM I GLAD I DID! This is a video game, and a damn fine one at that.

Velmorne is such a cool place to pull out a gun. Love it here.

Now, with my limited knowledge of Witchfire prior to this preview, jumping into the latest update I had to get accustomed to the system’s mechanics which are introduced in a pretty decent onboarding process. Everything is presented to you in a “quest-like” system, which presents what to do next with checkboxes in the top left of the screen. What I do appreciate about this, is that it acts like guiding hand without ever holding it. The Astronauts clearly know how to respect the players intelligence.

[EDITORS NOTE: This Prologue is a new onboarding tutorial added with this update]

After awhile of going through the tutorial and exploring the games first region. I felt comfortable enough to dive into the new region, the highlight of the new Webgrave update, Velmorne. And WOW. Let me get this out of the way, I’m a sucker for this Middle Ages-esque aesthetic. I feel like I was dropped into A Plagues Tale for a moment, which is a huge compliment I must add, as those games are also drop dead beautiful and handle their environment extremely well. Except now I’m here armed with guns and magic, thanks to its alternate world/history timeline, and laying waste to some very capable enemies.

A rosary workbench. Truly revolutionary. Level up your prayers!

Speaking on the enemies, they are no joke! During my time, I experienced them flanking me, coordinating placements, moving up while others hung back and laid suppressing fire, etc. I did know difficulty was part of Witchfire’s MO, but eesh, I was quickly humbled! It definitely helps that I’ve been playing and getting into soulslikes recently as it does relate back here. Now I’m not gonna go out and say that this is a soulslike just because it’s hard, I just want to put out there that difficulty plays a big role and is your motivator to improve your stats, guns, equipment, and even your rosary! (never thought prayers would actually help me).

Witchfire almost feels like a new genre, it takes inspiration from so many different titles to create something new and unique. It’s part roguelike, you jump in and repeat the same areas (with changes made) to gather items, currency, and knowledge in order to progress. But at the same time you’re not here to die, you want to get it and get out! Which brings about the extraction side of the game. Portals are on the map, some with timers, others stagnant, and some with unlock conditions. More often than not, you’re gonna end your run booking it to one of these portals with either success or failure. And then you have its soulslike inspiration from the difficulty, obtuse guidance, secrets, and lore building throughout its world. It all comes together to make a highly enjoyable and addicting experience.

I’m very impressed with this team and what they’ve crafted so far. They’re aiming for a full release in 2026, but I don’t know if I can stick by what I said earlier and wait for that 1.0 release. There’s so much content here already and it’s refined and polished to the point that it’s hard to say oh yea this is early access. I’m always one to be a bit cautious and skeptical of the Early Access model (yes, I’ve been burned before) but some teams know how to make it work, work with your community, and output a brilliant product. Supergiant showed us this with Hades and now with the sequel. And now The Astronauts are amongst them as a dev team who knows how to use this model to their advantage and put out a game worthy of your time and money.

God I hate spiders. And these are some of the worse to ever grace my screen.

So yea, I think I’m gonna keep playing. And mainly just to see the dev process, what feedback they get, what they change, what needs to be balanced, etc. I know this Webgrave update is coming with a host of reworks and retooling already, and it’s in my opinion that whatever they did, worked, because I’m enjoying myself immensely with the preview build I had on display. And this build was actively being patched throughout my time with it as well, fixing any issues I imagine other creators and press may have had. When this update launches, which if you’re reading this means it’s live right now, than I’m almost certain that patches and hot fixes will be implemented post haste if any issues arise from the public release.

Ok ok ok, final word, I’m impressed and there’s no other word to describe it. Whether you jump in now with the Webgrave update or you wait until 1.0 in 2026, Witchfire is worthy of your time. It’s now one of my most anticipated releases for the new year, and while it’s still early, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it get some nominations come award season. As it’s clearly in a state that not even other full releases have achieved. Really a work of art, from an extremely talented team.