Unforetold: Witchstone
- January 25, 2024
- Spearhead Games
- 2h median play time
"Unforetold: Witchstone" is a non-linear RPG set in the reactive world of Kalsundia, where every choice matters and impacts relationships and outcomes. With classic turn-based combat and stealth systems, players can shape their own journey and character in this open world filled with milestones and opportunities. Development has been paused indefinitely, so the game is being sold in its current state with no future full release planned.
Reviews
- The game has a unique influence system that allows players to interact with NPCs in interesting ways, providing a lot of potential for creative gameplay.
- The art style and world-building are praised, with many players expressing excitement about the game's lore and setting.
- Despite its issues, some players found the game enjoyable and fun, highlighting its potential to become a great RPG with further development.
- The game has been abandoned by the developers shortly after its early access release, leaving it unfinished and unpolished.
- Many players reported significant bugs, crashes, and performance issues that hindered gameplay, making it frustrating to play.
- Refund requests have been denied for many players, leading to feelings of being scammed due to the developers' lack of transparency about the game's future.
- story36 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 75 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The story of the game is praised for its intriguing concept and worldbuilding, with potential for depth as the game develops. However, players have noted issues with quest tracking, stiff character interactions, and a lack of meaningful consequences for actions, which detracts from the overall narrative experience. While the non-linear questing system offers a sense of player agency, many feel that the execution is currently flawed and requires significant improvement.
“Witchstone has a great concept, an interesting storyline, and worldbuilding, with very fun gameplay for any RPG lovers. The influence system was a great thing to explore, and the classes were all good and fun.”
“Instead, focus on what's here: decent writing so far (that I imagine will get better as people point out clunkiness in the story), deep and wide systems that are already pretty functional, and will become truly unique and blend together as the game matures.”
“The gameplay is reminiscent of some of my favorite CRPGs; the non-linear questing system and story are intriguing, and the character creation is in-depth.”
“The first quest in the game is a fetch quest, and the map and journal disagree on where to go.”
“I understand that the story is meant to be fluid and isn't going to be to the level of a linear narrative, but right now I feel like interactions with other characters are very stiff, like I am just giving orders to a robot and watching those orders either fail or succeed without feeling any connection to anyone I encounter.”
“When the battle ended, I also got a notification about a potential quest that never appeared in my journal, and another notification telling me that citizens just witnessed me murder others.”
- stability23 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 78 % negative mentions
The game currently suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous bugs leading to crashes, freezes, and frustrating gameplay experiences. Many players report that the game feels unfinished and requires extensive optimization to become enjoyable. While there is potential for improvement, the current state is marked by instability that detracts from the overall experience.
“It's not too buggy, but I've had several crashes, and it's far from finished.”
“There is a lot to fix and optimize to get this to run smoothly and bug-free.”
“This game is just too buggy to be enjoyable.”
“At the current state, it's buggy and a little bit frustrating, but when/if this is fixed, it could be a very good game.”
“I've had several bugs, mid-combat freezes, poor pathing AI causing characters/opponents to get stuck, quests that don't seem to be able to complete, etc. Overall, my impression is the game could be quite fun, but it needs a lot more work at this stage.”
- gameplay17 mentions
- 65 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Witchstone is praised for its fun mechanics, intriguing non-linear questing, and in-depth character creation, appealing to RPG enthusiasts. However, some players criticize the outdated graphics and awkward gameplay, suggesting that significant design changes are needed for improvement. Overall, while the game shows potential, it feels like it could benefit from a modern overhaul.
“With all that being said, Witchstone had a great concept, an interesting storyline and worldbuilding, with very fun gameplay for any RPG lovers. The influence system was a great thing to explore and the classes were all good and fun.”
“The gameplay is reminiscent of some of my favorite CRPGs. The non-linear questing system and story are intriguing, and the character creation is in-depth.”
“The gameplay feels smooth, and I can tell the interactions are going to be impactful.”
“Game feels like it's 15 years old and not in a good way. The graphics are stale and the gameplay itself is awkward. No fixing can save this title unless they change the engine and rethink a good part of their design decisions.”
- graphics12 mentions
- 83 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews; while some praise the art style for enhancing world-building and note decent visuals that are not demanding on hardware, others criticize the overall quality as outdated and stale, likening it to a game from 15 years ago. Despite some positive aspects, many feel that significant improvements are needed to elevate the graphics and overall gameplay experience.
“The art style is fantastic and really supports the world building.”
“The graphics aren't super polished, but good enough, and it's not too hard on the CPU/GPU, which is great.”
“The good: decent graphics, fantastic combat, and the persuasion system is absolutely great.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game shows promise with its core systems, but significant performance issues and bugs hinder its overall experience. Many users feel that optimization is necessary before they can confidently recommend it, as it currently suffers from the typical roughness often seen in early access titles.
“This has the potential to be a good game, and I like the core systems (non-linear narrative, reactive factions, etc.), but performance issues are holding me back from recommending this right now.”
“But for the moment, work and optimization are needed, because like a lot of EA games at their release, Unforetold can be a little rough at times, and you can expect bugs.”
“This has the potential to be a good game and I like the core systems (non-linear narrative, reactive factions, etc.), but performance issues are holding me back from recommending this right now.”
“But for the moment, work and optimization are needed, because like a lot of EA games at their release, Unforetold can be a little rough at times and you can expect bugs.”