Coming from developer Spearhead Games (Stories: The Path of Destinies, Omensight), Unforetold: Witchstone is an ambitious RPG sandbox with a reactive influence system and a non-linear narrative, set in an unusual fantasy world featuring magic, tech and dinosaurs at the same time. And all of that is yours to explore and tinker with.
The game is currently available in Steam Early Access with the devs expecting Unforetold: Witchstone to remain in EA for about a year to collect and implement player feedback. The full version will have more classes, abilities, story content, etc.
Without further ado, let’s see what this beauty has in store for those venturing to Kalsundia on an early ship.
As any game out there, Unforetold: Witchstone starts with the character creation. Being in Early Access, the game offers a limited number of choices just yet, but you will still likely be able to come up with a character you enjoy. Dashing and charismatic Rogue, down-to-business Warrior, wise Mage? The game has it all and more.
Currently, there are three available Ancestries: Dwarf, Elf and Human, all with their unique sub-races with their own strengths and drawbacks such as increased sensitivity to the Witchstones of Kalsundia. Except for humans, of course, as the most numerous and adaptive beings who are nothing special. For a human character, you can choose your own Ancestral Abilities and Bonuses from a small pool.
The game also provides you with a number of Innate abilities that seem to remain the same for all types of characters. It is also up to you to choose a Background for your character such as Charlatan, Soldier, Noble or Hunter, providing bonus starter equipment and granting some Background Abilities such as Proficiency with a certain type of weapon.
Ideally, your Background would feed into your Archetype and create some sort of synergy. Currently, there are four major Archetypes, each with its own Specializations:
- Cleric (Sage, War Priest)
- Fighter (Blade Master, Gunslinger, Spellsword)
- Rogue (Assassin, Spellslinger, Thief)
- Wizard (Elementalist, Enchanter, Arcane Sniper)
You can also use additional Archetypes, for example grabbing a few Wizard abilities for your Cleric, effectively multiclassing as you level up.
If you had a bout with any of the mainstream cRPGs, you will feel right at home when it comes to stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and so forth. Most characteristics have their combat-related use such as Strength affecting the damage you dish out with melee weapons, as well as out-of-combat use. Wisdom affects your insight into NPCs while Charisma lets you affect various situations through persuasion or intimidation.
There are also Skills (affected by stats) that allow your character to interact with NPCs and Surroundings, such as Insight, Athletics, Stealth, Pickpocket and so on. Some things like disarming traps can be carried out by your companions, but others, like trying to get an insight into what an NPC is like? Your character’s personal stats & skills only.
Having a balanced party helps out greatly when you try to take over Kalsundia. So far, I had the most fun with the common Rogue (Thief) with some extra Charisma and Wisdom points for pure dialogue goodness.
The world of Unforetold: Witchstone has had it rough, and the same can be said about its inhabitants. The main continent, Orwindar, is stuck in a constant state of war between two major empires: Avondus and Nethick, ruled by Elves and Liches respectively.
The danger of an empire ruled by the masters of necromancy is obvious: undeath and eternal slavery, but, as it turns out, Elves are not much better. Cultured and advanced they might be, but those who show promise are forcibly Bonded to ensure their loyalty through magic. You are one such Bonded individual that can be controlled and disposed of by their masters at any moment. And your gut feeling is telling you that this moment might arrive sooner rather than later.
The only hope lies on a distant untamed frontier of Kalsundia, the source of mysterious and powerful Witchstones, that managed to win the fight for its freedom. At least, for now. It is controlled by a number of factions such as the Commonwealth, Free Legion and the Brightwind Clan, although there are others as well, including the common folk that are not a part of any faction or local bandits that are at war with all of them at the same time.
Those who long for their chance come to Kalsundia in an attempt to make it their own. And you are joining this crowd. However, before you set out to explore and strike alliances, you have to get through an intro as the game holds your hand and gives you a chance to adjust. After all, what RPG out there won’t have you crawl through sewers?
As a newcomer to Kalsundia, you are herded into a local port with the rest of the unfortunates. The first order of action is to get out and find someone who can help you remove the Bond of Compulsion. This entire sequence serves as an intro and a tutorial of sorts, as you explore the game’s influence system and how far you can go in terms of the non-linear approach.
With the port being locked up, you have to sneak your way through the sewers to emerge in the city. However, a corrupt guard stands between you and the coveted rusted bars. He asks for an artifact, owned by a local that, in turn, agrees to give the item if you convince his daughter to come home. That is the most logical way to go around the quest, but you can also steal the artifact or convince the corrupt guard to leave for a while so you can sneak through before he’s back.
Note that sometimes these types of tasks, the ones that require you to ask an NPC to do something for you, simply fail to be recognized. I spent an embarrassing amount of time interacting with the runaway daughter of the artifact owner, charming her to return to the needed location, to talk to her father, even to join my party – only to understand that I encountered a bug that prevented me from progressing. So if you decide to board a ship for Kalsundia and go conquering the frontier, save often.
The game will give you plenty of social interactions to go through, including trying to guess character traits based on your Wisdom/Insight. It is a free source of XP, and a way to increase the chance of your charms working on your target. Interestingly, just having a conversation with an NPC does not assign any “tags” to them, even if characters in question admit to being Adventurers or complain that they long to get out there, it is only succeeding an Insight/Wisdom check that marks one brave, coward, bully, adventurous, etc.
The whole sewers sequence serves as your introduction to combat which is perfectly usual and normal for a cRPG. The battles are turn-based, with you controlling both your protagonist and the party members to act. Note that you cannot directly control your companions outside of combat, but you can offer suggestions as to what they should do.
Each character has Movement Points and Action Points. As comes from the name, MP can only be used to traverse terrain: move closer to your opponent, climb ladders, run further away, etc. AP can be used to attack, cast spells, grab consumables or, if you find yourself pressed, used as an extra Movement Point. Say, your melee gets caught in a trap and finds themselves woefully away from all the action. Since you won’t be able to attack anyway, you can spend all the points on movement instead.
Additionally, if your companions die in combat, they are gone for good, so it is up to you to do everything in your might to avoid that. You can start a combat from stealth and even take out a number of enemies before the battle winds up. Unforeseen: Witchstone has actual stealth elements by marking NPCs’ field of vision and so forth, so you are not left simply guessing.
Other important game elements include inventory & party management, and this is where the game could use some help. At the moment, there is no inventory sorting whatsoever, with everything being dumped into your bags in one big pile. Update: Unforetold: Witchstone has since received a major patch that adds inventory sorting and other requested features and optimizations.
You can stuff consumables onto your belt and send some stuff to your companions, but you don’t actually get to control what they use and how they level up. The game drives the point of them being their own people home surprisingly well. A similar thing can be said about trading. Some QoL-features would be most welcome, like batch selling or choosing multiple items or even quick sell with pressed SHIFT or something of the sort.
The game really comes into its own after you board the train and leave the starting city. Whereas the beginning of your journey had a few variations but remained more or less linear, it is there that you get to flex your narrative muscles.
On your very first train ride alongside the representatives of a local faction, you get attacked by bandits. Here are some things you can resolve the situation:
- Join forces with the local faction and kill the bandits
- Join forces with the bandits
- Talk the bandits out of attacking
But regardless of what you choose, there are consequences. Are you willing to avoid the battle at this moment, surrounded by allies, only to find yourself facing the bandits alone at a later point? Or maybe your diplomacy will pay off and you’ll manage to cooperate further in the future? Are you up for taking such a risk?
This is when you find yourself in the wilderness of Kalsundia, with only a few companions, your wits and your Bond of Compulsion. It is up to you where to go and who to talk to, which faction to join up with and which to rebel against. It might be mildly unusual and even confusing to simply find yourself in the middle of untamed land, with a vague “get out there, someone might be able to help”. But NPC by NPC, rumor by rumor, you will find your way through Kalsundia and bend it to your will.
Unforetold: Witchstone is an ambitious project that has work cut out for the developers. The game aims to provide players with a non-linear dynamic story that shapes the world around your actions – or inaction. Every choice feeds into the system and affects relationships and outcomes, making it that no two players will find themselves in the exact same spot narrative-wise.
In Early Access, the game is still rough around the edges, sporting some bugs and optimization issues as well as a very basic level of QoL-features. However, it is worth paying attention to the devs’ work to see how far they will bring the game over the period of EA.
Note: Steam Early Access code was provided for the purposes of this article.
