Thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring the video. If you want to set up your own website (and get a discount while doing it), hit this link for more info: www.squarespace.com/skillup

@93836

9 ай бұрын

Rogue LIKE. Not rogue “lite”.

@gustavoraddatz

9 ай бұрын

Hi, any news on the bg3 review?

@mdruffy235

9 ай бұрын

@@93836 Rogue Lite seems more applicable for this one, so far.

Early access can be such a double edged sword I think. You can feel like you've played your fill of a game before it's done and then when the "full version" comes out, it might have massively improved and have lots of new content but you'll feel kinda weird going through bits you've already done or seen in a half finished state or whatever.

@reheyesd8666

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, not to mention the risk of devs not finishing the game. Sure you get the game at a cheaper price but I just don't think it's worth the risk of a) scams and b) not wanting to play a game you have already finished. Early access kind of work with repayable games like builders etc

@premc8071

9 ай бұрын

Look at Gloria Victis, they announced closing servers and permanently putting the game to sleep

@themediater

9 ай бұрын

Unfortunately these days you run the risk of the devs not having finished the game regardless of whether it's early access or not (I know it's not a recent phenomenon but feels like it's getting worse and worse)

@A5tr0101

9 ай бұрын

Classic case of this for me is the sons of the forrest

@tiimhotep

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, I think BG3 hit the right balance of showing us a good amount but not everything. Hopefully these devs can strike the right balance as well.

I actually can’t wait for the full release of this game because it looks fucking awesome

@rhodan74

9 ай бұрын

Often times you can't really get a feel for a game when watching footage. Not with this one. Every shot, every dodge, every enemy is pure fire :)

@Baddknewz

9 ай бұрын

I’ve never played a game like this but man does this shit look epic af. Might have to check it out frfr

@dragonriderabens9761

9 ай бұрын

I’m just waiting for the Steam release

@m1ichi

9 ай бұрын

I'm happy to wait the 12 months for the full/steam release, it looks great and will probably be exactly what I'm hoping for come release

@DirtyJeffery

9 ай бұрын

@@dragonriderabens9761the developer is fully owned by Epic so it may never release on Steam. I’m unaware of any announcements saying it will or won’t though.

Bro, Austin, your reviews are so good man!

Personally I think randomly generated levels only really work in non 3D games. Remnant 2 is the best example I've experienced yet of really REALLY good random generation in a 3D game and even that one started feeling copy pasty quite fast. But I've never had that problem with a top down-like game. I just don't think we're at a point yet where randomly generated 3D levels can feel even nearly as good as handcrafted ones.

@watsyurdeal

9 ай бұрын

Not to mention how hard it is, even in top down or side scroller style games it's hard to make good procedural generation. In a 3D space it's almost unheard of if not impossible. It can maybe work if there are rooms, but in a open space? I don't think it'd work so well.

@fus132

9 ай бұрын

Random terrain is certainly possible, Hyper Light Breaker is aiming for procedural islands and multiple biomes, with POIs being hand-made but still placed by the algorithm. Examples of this what are out right now would be the Space Engineers and No Man's Sky. Another way would be to just have a tile-set of rooms, with doors acting as attachment points and let the algo make a level out of that, Warframe does exactly that, outside of "open world" segments.

@epicnab

9 ай бұрын

I agree. Whenever I hear "procedurally generated" I know it's going to be the same 10-15 rooms again and again, stiched together in different ways and everything starts feeling very samey very fast.

@isaacarz-gromov8733

9 ай бұрын

Had you ever heard of DRG(Deep Rock Galactic)? It absolutely nailed procedural generation in 3d.

@user-lz5vh9bb5w

9 ай бұрын

@@isaacarz-gromov8733 Yeah I've played it and it's an amazing game in so many ways and would recommend it to most people, but I honestly think my argument still works for that game. You can absolutely feel the copy paste nature of random generation in it as well. That being said, DRG does have the advantage of being set in caverns and not open air environments. It's easier to hide the procedural stuff in a setting like that.

Love the idea of persistent overworld map so I can master certain combat scenarios, but POIs should be randomized to keep runs feeling fresh. Also agree on the run-to-run diversity feeling lacking and needing a bit of a punch to feel worth chasing. Great preview and looking forward to the full release.

@tawoorie

9 ай бұрын

static map in a rogue like setting sucks, ac valhalla forgotten saga dlc showed that well

@Ryan-nm8pw

9 ай бұрын

I've played the early access, it really does feel amazing. Learning the map becomes a key part of progression and it's easily one of the best parts of the game so far.

In the end, it's only on the Epic store, so I don't really mind waiting until the full release and a Steam version at the same time. I see that as a win-win.

@Greippi10

9 ай бұрын

Same, I heard about this game on a podcast and was very interested until I saw it was only on Epic and for 40€ too. It seems my patience was a good thing.

@engineerskalinera

9 ай бұрын

I really hope this game comes out on Steam. I would really like to avoid installing Epic Games if I can. There's a reason the US government doesn't allow the launcher to be installed on computers with classified information on them. It's CCP spyware.

Say what you want about Bungie, but Destiny's gunplay feels amazing and i'm glad other devs are inspired by it.

@Harvester88

9 ай бұрын

It’s one of the only things I missed about it.

@Jdemonify

9 ай бұрын

and some point the raids and mechanics. but yes gun skill gameplay is top tier

@e2rqey

9 ай бұрын

That's really the core of Destiny's appeal imo. They made the act of shooting stuff so damn satisfying. The entire rest of the game is just giving you reasons to shoot stuff. I'm glad they tried to emulate Destiny's weapon feedback and handling. But tbh, Witchfire's guns don't feel anywhere near as good as Destiny's. It's not even close. Part of the issue is the way they've designed their enemies. The guns feel way too weak relative the enemy. The feedback isn't really their either. It's definitely not an easy bar to reach. Destiny is basically the gold standard for gun feel and feedback. It's amazing that they have so many guns, and all of them feel great to use. Even the worst feeling gun in Destiny, is significantly better than the majority of guns in other games.

@lewis18051

9 ай бұрын

@@e2rqeyalso the sound effects of the guns in Destiny is always amazing! Many people don’t realise or forget how important the sound effects of weapons are, it’s one of my complaints with Warframe the lack of different sound effects on weapons I think Outriders has the same problem!

I feel like an obvious fix to the gameplay loop here is to make the difficulty scaling disentangled from the upgrades. I was actually extremely on board for this game before that was mentioned; it sort of defeats the whole point of a roguelike to me, far moreso than the lack of procedural generation or mid-run experimentation. Roguelikes are the games that can really make me feel like a speedrunner, improving not just in the normal way of learning new strategies to clear enemies quickly and more efficiently, but also gaining mechanical benefits to aid in doing so. The addition of an in-game timer in some games just adds to this. In fact, reducing the random elements sound like they will aid even further, as I can memorize precise routing, learn optimal terrain to take advantage of, and I don't have to reset runs based entirely on bad drops very often. However, scaling difficulty being tied to run-persistent upgrades completely kills that feeling. If there's an increasing force always working against me, I can't see the improvements that would be the entire point of this kind of game, and it would just feel like a slog. I would love to be able to clear the original set of enemies with upgrades from 15 hours of playing, doing so with incredible efficiency and alacrity, just power-stomping them. The current system reminds me of open-world games that scale difficulty of all enemies as you get stronger, including the mooks from the starting area, which totally harms the feeling of progression. I don't know how they would make it work narratively, but I would love a system like Heat from Hades to add in more challenge for extra reward. Maybe the Witch's strength waxes and wanes, and the Prayer is choosing to go in at times where her forces are weaker or stronger?

@ryo-kai8587

9 ай бұрын

Exactly. Having differing difficulty can be very good, but scaling that's directly tied to progression can make it feel like you didn't actually get stronger. I grew up with JRPGs where level scaling was not a thing, and every part of the game serves as a milestone and point of reference for just how much you've grown. This makes your progress and increase in power tangible. With scaling done wrong, the damage numbers get bigger, but that's about it; essentially only your new gear, build synergies and passives matter, while your level often seems like little more than "numbers are supposed to increase over the course of an RPG, right?"

@sirzebra

9 ай бұрын

Having played for 20+ hours, i can tell you scaling is indeed a problem as it is now. You're robbed of the early game experience if you have a few good runs and end up in a way more difficult environement without having learned the basics, i feel the rate at which the world / content inside a level changes should be halved at least for the first zone. The foundations are strong tho, could be a very unique and interesting game down the line if they manage to balance it properly. I dont think the devs want to give the classic "getting stronger as you go" feel as it is implemented now, it's more about having always a good challenge, even if your character is indeed doing triple the dps. It's quite strange for now, but defenitetly has a lot of potential, wait and see !

@ryo-kai8587

9 ай бұрын

@@sirzebra I get that, and I also get needing more refinement and balancing. Remnant II is a good example of a game that's consistently challenging; When you enter a new zone, it scales to your level, then stays static unless you reroll the entire campaign. This means you can actually get stronger while exploring the zone. If you feel the need to grind a little to get the edge needed to clear it, you can. It also makes it easier to breeze through while revisiting that zone later if you want to make sure you didn't miss anything. Once you move on, though, the next area scales again so you can't outlevel the new content from the start. It works in that game pretty well, so there are always ways to balance it to work with a specific project, and I hope the Witchfire team can find that equilibrium for their game. It looks promising, but I probably won't pick it up until it's be refined a bit.

@sirzebra

9 ай бұрын

@@ryo-kai8587 that remnant system could be very good here, allowing maps to "soft lock" around a bracket of levels could be the sweet spot. You'd have tough difficilty at the start of each level, but could revisit older ones with a real se'se of how much power was gained (even if it barely enough to explore the latest unlocked map) You could then allow "Always on scaling" for older levels as a newgame plus feature instead.

I think level dependent enemy difficulty is cool on paper but doesn't translate well in gameplay (at least not right now). I'd rather have difficulty based on the class/type of items I have. For example, I leveled up 6 times and already had much higher level enemies stalking the map whereas the research was terribly slower to catch up and items were still locked behind a timer. I shouldnt be able to kill legendary enemies with just two guns and a basic spell. The item rank should be equally rewarding as I face more challenging enemies.

@ringo1m

9 ай бұрын

well I made a mistake of having a really good run with a huge amount of witchfire (30k) and level up 5-6 levels from like 6 to 13 ... the game has become completely unplayable after that. Forced to start with new game feels really bad. Imagine you're trying to do a boss run, and while you're fighting the boss the witch decide to call in calamity, you're now fighting the boss, who spawn minions, while having calamity spawn even MORE minions that does absolutely nothing to improve the gameplay. A couple of that and I just decide to call it quit xD

It looks incredible, but definitely see what you're saying about the gameplay loop. Gotta be honest that I would love seeing a version of this as more of a traditional type RPG rather than a rogue-like. Those kinds of games are just more my preference and it looks like it could go either way.

I hope they nail this one because personally, the concept and aesthetic is incredible.

I want more skillup reviews especially if that means a lot more Austin reviews too... keep it up guys!

I like the static maps, it allows for learning the land gaining advantages from knowing it. I ran the first map more times than I can count so I could level up and more importantly try to get optimal temp buffs to take on the boss. Great game, just the right amount of difficulty for me.

@JovianStone_

7 ай бұрын

Same here, and now I've done the same with the second map. I've got everything unlocked and maxed out, more than 2 million Witchfire gained, and I'm still not bored

I agree, it's got s bright future

Such s bright future ahead of it. Can't wait to see where it goes!

Can't wait for this game. I don't mind waiting six months or a year for the game to get itself right. Thanks for the review!

@blokin5039

9 ай бұрын

Preview

@reblaw89

9 ай бұрын

Sad for us, it's confirmed the wait will be around a year for full release.

@_holy__ghost

9 ай бұрын

​@@reblaw89thats good news, it means they actually have time to implement feedback. 6 months is nothing in dev time

It has s lot of potential!

Love love love having more reviews, especially since Austin is such a great reviewer

I much perfer persistent upgrades to "scrambling" as he calls it. Much more satisfying knowing your work will pay of, rather than being shafted on the regular by RNG. Looking forward to this!

"It's got an intriguing Vanhesling inspired -" Say no more you've sold me

Early access is such a mine field, I plan to wait and see how they react to feedback and adding content before diving in

@BiigDaddyDellta

9 ай бұрын

It's supposed to be. They want feedback and criticism, so the final product can be as good as it Caan be.

@EastyyBlogspot

9 ай бұрын

@@BiigDaddyDellta I had a quick look and they have put out quite a few updates already which is cool, i do not expect them to keep that pace up but still it is a very promising early sign

Wonderful insight as always Austin. Will be interested to see how this game lands in 1.0

I disagree on the maps being monotonous. Much like Hunt: Showdown, the map being the same makes it recognizable. You start to learn the environment and when stuff like the calamity occurs, having the ability to know where you need to go and what the strategy is helps a lot. I think the balance is perfect.

Game looks sick, and the fact that the devs seem to be open to community feedback as you've pointed out gives a lot of hope that they'll be open to some of the suggestions you've made.

Its great to see small, indie Polish studio reviewed here. Even if its not yet recommended, I'm glad that Witchfire is being noticed.

@JAN0L

9 ай бұрын

Speaking of small Polish studios this channel should definitely cover Against the Storm. A great mix of Rougelike and survival city-builder. They've been killing it in the Early Access.

Sounds like they've got a solid base and seems like this has big potential. Hopefully they get the sales/resources to make the improvements and changes. Love the setting and style.

Honestly, I would've loved if this was a straight up single player shooter. The gunplay looks great and the spells actually look super creative and fun.

great review! only tested w/ upscaling though? interested to see the raw performance of the game. well done austin!

I think non-procedural levels could actually be a good thing, if they find other ways to mix up runs. For example certain areas in the map could change, like what was once a flat plain would not how a small village or camp in it, or a once navigable canyon is blocked off, taking familiar hand crafted areas and twisting them to be interesting. I gave two full geometry examples, but there are a lot of other options, like making an area have some kind of blight in some runs but not others, or localized weather events, or a million other interesting twists on the same spaces.

Looking really solid, hope they can iron out those issues. Another great review!!

Hey Austin & ShillUp, I'm really digging Austin's contributions to the channel. Keep it up. You're doing great. Thank you for continuing to publish quality video game content. XOXO, Ian

@chronodis

9 ай бұрын

ShillUp?

The game's aesthetic looks reeeeeally cool, can't wait to try it out when fully released

Really good review. I agree that the fun bit of a roguelike is the crazy synergies you can get going during a run. Sounds like it's missing the mark right now for me, but I hope they get things figured out!

ty. will keep my eye on this for now

have s great day everyone!!

Austin is sounding more and more like ralph as the reviews go on. Loving it! If these are his first fortes into reviewing then he's got a bright future ahead!

@Skegfromcraigslist

9 ай бұрын

It’s eerie how much they sound alike. Not just because of the accent but their cadence, rhythm of speaking and general phrasing. I thought this was Ralph for a solid few minutes

@Greippi10

9 ай бұрын

He has learned from the best!

was waiting for someone to review this

Will definitely check this one out, not quite yet, mostly because this year is soooo loaded with other stuff, but as soon as I'm free this will be next

Another great review from Austin!

What factors do you consider when deciding which games to review? As in why this one?why not another bigger or smaller game?

@15:30 It is $39.99 USD on my store (USA). Looks like a very fun game. I would say it is probably worth the buy-in if one is interested in providing feedback and plans on purchasing the full game at release anyway. I will probably pick it up over the winter after a few updates and other releases out of the way.

It's a game to keep on the radar for sure, the aesthetic and the gunplay look very impressive. It's going to take time for them to adjust the progression and general loop of things, but I'm imagining that it will be a pretty good time when it goes 1.0

are we not getting this week in videogames today?

got s bright future

@itsgonnabeokay9341

9 ай бұрын

"a" is near "s" so it's understandable

@elizacevert4017

9 ай бұрын

@@itsgonnabeokay9341 not reslly

@AmbitiousPanda

9 ай бұрын

@@itsgonnabeokay9341no excuse, ppl need to grow a brain

@mechanicalmonk2020

9 ай бұрын

​@@itsgonnabeokay9341in a text message, yes. In a KZread video produced by multiple people for a large KZread channel, no.

@chaserseven2886

9 ай бұрын

The grammar goons are at an all time high

I got the game after this review! 5 hours in. The gameplay & setting are worth your time. I personally like the static maps. I do get what Austin says about individual runs not feeling varied. I’m liking it. If they deliver updates as promised I’ll be very happy

Great review. I think this game looks like it has a lot of promise so I will definitely keep my eye on it. The environs do have a Dark Souls / Van Helsing look to them as well, but I also picked up on some Path of Exile vibes too (and that's cool). I'm also encouraged it runs well on a 3060, which is what I have in my laptop.

This kind of reminds me of Darkwatch from the PlayStation 2 era. If it has that same aesthetic, I think personally I’m gonna love this!

Another great video from Sustin!

Looks like a game with great potential. Nice review/preview Austin

Never heard of this. Looks promising

I am so hyped for this game. Funny enough, even though I love typical rogues, the tweaks the Astronauts have made to the formula is exactly what I want from a game like this: let me unlock and craft a build outside of the dungeon, and then let me throw myself at a brutally difficult gauntlet where my knowledge, build, and skill carries me through. Seems really cool to me, even if it does lack some of the typical roguelite formula. Thanks for the review!

The portals sound like they COULD be a cool idea, if they weren't just randomly placed. Make them after a boss so you can't spam them and will be potentially suffering in resources. Currently it sounds like it provokes the old adage "given the chance players will optimize out the fun."

@sirzebra

9 ай бұрын

if you had played the game, you would understand their actual placement gives them the double edged sword feel : sometimes they are so easy to reach you feel like you should continue further (and risk it all falling in the wrong ambush) and other times you really want to leave but will have to face a tough fight just to manage to extract. Frankly, it's one of the few things that really clicks as it is now. Difficulty is steep and extracting in itself passed the first few xp levels is not something you'll abuse easily.

It seems like this game would hugely benefit from having a procedurally generated dungeon type thing, maybe with some modifiers or temporary loot you can get for leveling and farming the currency/mats, then using that to go into the open world area and fight bosses for more major upgrades.

This looks like an amazingly fun concept. Will definitely pick it up when its finished and on steam.

Man, Austin's enunciation has improved so much since his first review. Absolutely fantastic improvement all around over such a short time

Yes king, I was hoping the team would drop a review for this one. Looks so beautiful, but there were definitely suspicions.

For me, the calamities are really sucking the fun out of this game right now

@braydensearle

9 ай бұрын

The warden could spawn on a calamity instead of just having the single event. So many ways to fix this game.

@branjeff1

9 ай бұрын

The Calamity needs more variety, booking it to the tornado to shoot swirly skulls once every 5 minutes gets old fast. And wasting your ammo to kill enough mobs to stop it sucks. The minibosses that can spawn are a good step, just need to have some variation with the tornado

I might get this just because how it looks. I really dig it!

did the first level, loved it, put it aside for the full release - cool

You guys should make a follow up vid in the future

I used to be incredibly hyped for this game, ever since they announced it, kept looking forward to it for *years,* long after everyone else forgot it existed. Then one day they announced the game would be a "roguelite", and my hype completely died right then and there, and never came back. I'm sad to say that nothing I saw or heard here changed that.

My theory is that Austin doesn't actually exist. It's Skillup changing his voice slightly.

this game sounds very interesting and im one of the people that never liked rough lites much. i like the idea of carrying over most abilitys and unlocks. i hope they can make it work

Another banger by Austin. Love to see it.

Sort of surprised to find out its a roguelite having not heard about it since its original (and fantastic) trailer. I kind of figured it'd pseudo open with Doom Eternal like levels. Not against the idea of non-procedural levels (Risk of Rain 2 handles that well enough) especially if there are maybe alterations to the landscape like outposts etc.

honestly, this game has me so intrigued. what a bummer it isn't on steam :(

Will wait to see of the full release is good and will then probably wait another month at least.

Bungie's influence on gaming - shooters in particular - is unrivaled. They were the first to give us so many things and I love that a developer like this isn't trying to shy away from their influences.

anybody got the song name at the beginning? I need to find a 10hr version

That smg looked so good to use 😮

I love the way they changed the rogue-like formula here unlike the reviewer. Its great really and feels fresh. I love to learn the layouts of the levels and use it to my advantage for example. I love there are lots of permanent stuff to unlock. Give it a shot, the gameplay the action is superb. Definitely one of the best fps games out there even in its early access state.

Witchfire feels like you’re running around a destiny patrol zone trying to find relic iron. The shooting is great, but everything else gets old so fast.

Everything needs a good foundation to grow properly. If we go by games that were in early access for months/years (like Hades and, recently, Cyberpunk 2077) then got released in an amazing state, Witchfire may be something great in the future

Honestly no clue why they went in the Roguelike direction. This looked like a very promising campaign back in 2017. It used to look dark, unsettling, mysterious. I feel like these elements have all been toned down and I'm really sad, not what I was expecting.

This is the first time I’ve even heard of this game and I’m already obsessed

does anyone know if the final will game come to Steam ?

Man i really need to finally get that new PC/Laptop. So many cool games only on PC.

I'm probably gonna wait for this game to (hopefully) arrive on Steam, not because I'm adverse to EGS but I'd like to have most, if not all my games in one library.

I think this looks absolutely amazing and I’ve been wanting to play it since it was announced.. what? 3 years ago? But I’m very happy this is an early access title and I hope can improve on the flaws and listen to the players.

This might be what I’m looking for. Downloading it now.

Does Austin have a new/better mic? Sounds cleaner and like there's more quality to your voice Thanks for the review!

Can't wait for it to be released on Steam

can u tell me the name of that beautifull dark, wild west music? Or where can i find it?

Dude, Austin is such a talented critic.

LOOKS AMAZING! If they can give it legs for long replays, I am in!

Thank you Austin! :3

Been waiting on this for YEARS

I'm pretty confident is the knowledge that this one of the first builds that is being reviewed, there has been SIX patches since that have made a HUGH difference in early game difficulty

I much prefer hand crafted levels to generated ones so this is perfect

I dig the look. Gameplay seems legit. I'm interested.

I was curious about this one

Dis is like my dream fantasy game come true - the look, the vibe, the gunplay it's all I ever wanted. Now just need that Hades level of level/stage progression - hopefully they tie up the story and progression in a good way and make some optimizations, my gpu is old school gtx 1650 ti : (

Looks really cool, hope they land a good release

Thanks, Austin!

You're doing a LOT better with your video titles. Good work!

Looks good. I'm happy with the fact there is less rogue lite crap. I like keeping at least some of the stuff I unlock.

do maps HAVE to be procedural to be considered a rogue like? I know something core to te the gameplay needs to be randomized but maps?

Sometimes early access can be a gamble, but one thing is for sure and that’s the simple fact of early access being only but a slice of the games full potential pie of content to offer. This game looked so dope in the trailer and gameplay looked amazing, I hope full release brings something more worth while. 🤞

This looks awesome and I’ll be keeping it in mind if it ever gets a console release.