Witchfire Is So Good It Has Me Rethinking Early Access Games

Early Access video games have been round for some time now. The development of launching a sport into Early Access to permit curious of gamers to take a look at an in-progress sport and get their suggestions for 1.0 continues to develop. But figuring out what I’d be enjoying is unfinished and will change has all the time stored me at an arm’s size from these video games. I even skipped Hades II’s Early Access interval, regardless of adoring the primary sport and figuring out developer Supergiant Games is sweet for its in-development phrase. 

I’m beginning to marvel if I’ve been throwing a moist blanket on any such launch after enjoying Witchfire, an Early Access sport that has me hooked. I began it yesterday and have already got a dozen hours in it. It is improbable. But Game Informer Editor-in-Chief Matt Miller has been singing its praises alongside hundreds of different early adopters for years now; I’m not saying something shocking right here, and if you wish to examine why this sport is sweet, there’s a lot of nice writing on the market for that. 

Having put apart the mouse and keyboard that management my Preyer’s arsenal of destruction, I’m caught fascinated about what number of different video games I’ve dismissed sight-unseen as a result of they’re in Early Access. I do know I’m checking Witchfire out years into its Early Access life at this level, which started in 2023, however I’m bewildered by simply how a lot is right here, and the way a lot of it’s so polished, too. 

I’m nonetheless overwhelmed by what number of methods and synergies are at play in Witchfire – numerous construct varieties, leveling and development methods, weapons, magic spells, enemy varieties, biomes to discover, and managers to combat. I’m not even certain what I need to see in a 1.0 construct; if the model of Witchfire I’m enjoying proper now launched right now, I would not query a factor about all there may be to do within the sport. That makes it all of the extra thrilling {that a} 1.0 launch is occurring this 12 months, promising much more to come back for this so-far glorious FPS roguelite journey. 

I’m certain there are examples of Early Access video games which can be considerably extra feature-lite, and to be clear: I believe that is okay. I simply know I’d quite watch for the complete 1.0 launch at that time. But there are additionally in all probability simply as many feature-rich Early Access video games I’d probably get pleasure from as a lot as The Astronauts’ shooter, the place I’m left questioning how the sport is not a content-complete 1.0 launch. 

I suppose that is much less a dive into the gamut of Early Access video games and their position in sport releases (usually within the PC ecosystem) and extra so an admission of me being plain ole foolish. Of course, I try Early Access video games occasionally for work, however previous to Witchfire and out of doors of labor, I solely performed 1.0+ releases as if Early Access was a black mark unworthy of my free time. But I do know all too properly how sport improvement works and the way Early Access permits builders to perform targets they might in any other case by no means attain. Games like Hades would possibly by no means have been the success they’re if not for what Supergiant realized throughout its Early Access interval: understanding what its gamers like, love, dislike, and hate, and shaping the sport into one thing each events get pleasure from. 

The identical goes for Witchfire, and there is a world the place I may need missed the enjoyable and excellence that’s this sport had I brushed it off as simply one other Early Access launch. The potential of at some point testing its 1.0 launch was all the time there, however that potential has now metastasized into an exciting pleasure – anticipation for adjustments, an eagerness to dive into what’s new, and a newfound enthusiasm for a sport I virtually ignored.  

If you are like me and have not given Witchfire a go but, it is out there in Early Access on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. In the meantime, you may learn our preview right here to study why it is certainly one of our most anticipated video games of 2026. After that, learn in regards to the Webgrave replace that added a brand new area, new enemies, and extra final 12 months. 

What are a few of your favourite Early Access video games? Let me know which of them I want to take a look at within the feedback beneath!