Witchaven

Despite the fact that the game is positioned as a shooter, it has several role-playing elements, such as character development (through gaining experience for destroying enemies and finding treasures), progress in levels while increasing health, damage modifiers, weapon skills and access to more powerful spells.

The game is also focused on hand-to-hand combat, in contrast to the typical “Run and Shoot” shooters, which at the time were the majority.

Otherwise, it is similar to other FPS of its era, in which the player needs to kill everything that moves, while not forgetting to look for multi-colored keys for closed doors in order to go to the next level.

In the settings, you can choose the complexity and amount of violence.

Witchaven supports the game on a local network , on ten deathmatch cards available only in this mode. It is noteworthy that this was the first case in the history of 3D shooters when 16 people could be present in the game at the same time.

The player acts as a knight of Grondoval, who serves his kingdom - the Seniority, and is chosen by his master - Lord Verkaperon, for a mission to rid the world of the witch Illvirin.

In her lair, known as the “Kingdom of Witchaven” and hidden in a huge underground labyrinth under the secret “Isle of Char”, Illvirin conducts dark rituals in order to overcome the spatial barrier - “Veil”, which separates the reality of the game from the chaotic “Far Wastes”. If Illvirin manages to break through the Veil, her dark forces will become unlimited, and the armies of demons called by her will go to the world of people to enslave him.

Grondoval arrives at the Isle of Char in a boat, armed with only a dagger. He needs to make his way through the hordes of monsters that teem with the labyrinth of dark caves and dungeons to get to Illvirin and kill her before it's too late.

Witchaven implements ten types of knives, each with its own attack range and other characteristics. Among them are fists, a dagger, a short sword, a morgenstern , a broad sword, a battle ax, a bow and arrow, throwing axes, a pike, one- and -a-half sword and halberd .

One of the interesting features of the game is the fact that all weapons, except for fists, have some margin of safety and it is not infinite. The weapon wears out and breaks from frequent use, so you have to look for it constantly, otherwise the player risks being left with nothing.

Also in the game you can find several types of different armor (you can only wear one at a time), each with different values ​​of the initial characteristics, the number of wear points that are spent every time a player hits and a chance to completely parry the attack. A shield that has characteristics the same as plate armor can also be attacked, and helmets, in addition to adding units of protection for a time, double the damage done.

• Leather armor - 50 protection points. Loses 4 strength points with every hit on the player. Leaves half damage. Sometimes reflects attacks.
• Chain mail - 100 defense points. Loses 2 strength points with every hit on the player. Skip quarter damage. Well reflects attacks.
• Plate - 150 defense points. Loses 1 strength point with every hit on the player. Skip quarter damage. Perfectly reflects attacks.
• Helmet - 10 protection points, increases speed, doubles damage for 30 seconds.
• Shield - 50 defense points, properties like armor, attack like a dagger. Can only be used with one-handed weapons.

Fights are not limited to the use of knives, but also involve the use of magic.

There are several types of spells that can be cast using scrolls, such as - a fireball, flying, freezing, scaring, opening castles, recalling evil spirits.

The player can drink various drugs to restore life, treat poisoning, or use them to gain unprecedented strength (which increases damage), invulnerability and invisibility for half a minute.

• Blue Potion - restores 25 health points.
• Green Potion - increases strength and doubles damage for 30 seconds.
• Orange Potion - Heals poisoning.
• Red Potion - Immune to fire attacks for 30 seconds.
• Brown Potion - makes the player invisible for 30 seconds.

Other useful items are - ankhs , which give a maximum amount of health of 250 points, crystalline staves that increase armor up to 300 units, magic amulets that activate invisibility or repel magic for one minute, horns that allow you to steal the health of enemies and magic rings, giving various types of protection , for example from fire, as well as scepters that allow you to walk on water or lava.

• Ankh - gives 250 health points.
• Amulet of the Mist - gives invisibility for one minute.
• Amulet of Shadow - scares off enemies for one minute.
• Crystal Staff - gives 250 health points, 300 armor, protects like chain mail.
• Glass Skull - Adds 1 level of experience.
• Horn - steals the health of enemies and adds to the player.
• Adamantine Ring - protects like plate.
• Onyx Ring - protects against shells.
• Sapphire Ring - protects from fire attacks.
• Yellow Scepter - allows you to walk on the lava.
• Blue Scepter - allows you to walk on water.

Witchaven has a huge variety of monsters that the player has to fight with - goblins, ogres, imps, skeletons, wandering lights and dragons. Some of them are so aggressive that they can even fight among themselves. For example, goblins from different clans will attack each other if they are nearby.

The witch Illvirin is the only boss in the game, however she appears and fights with the player at many levels, escaping with teleportation when she loses. At the last twenty-fifth level, during the final battle, she, among other things, can call standard enemies for help. The game ends immediately after her death.

Together with William Shatner's TekWar, ​​also developed by Capstone Software in 1995, Witchaven was one of the first games made on an early version of the Build engine, which did not yet support sloping floors and ceilings, added by 3D Realms only in 1997 ^[2] .

Images of monsters are, in fact, figures fashioned from clay, photographed from all sides and later converted to sprites . The role of Illvirin was performed by the product manager of the game - Judy Melby. Weapon models were also created using digitization , based on samples provided by BlackSword Armory Inc.

The introductory video was made by Shadows in Darkness (then known as Animation Factory) and is their first professional work.

The official Witchaven guide from Brady Games includes original illustrations and additional material about the creators of the game.

The concept of “A brutal first-person shooter in a fantasy setting that revolves around the destruction of the witches covenant in their own den” was created after the development team visited Gen Con in 1993.

Work on the game started in 1994, immediately after the completion of Operation Body Count. At first, the protagonist , at the player’s choice, could be either a warrior or a magician, it was also proposed to determine his gender (these capabilities were later eliminated in order to create a strong male character who can use both weapons and magic). In the early days of creating the story, which was present in the advertising materials, there were three witches and each was “older than time itself”.

In the demo version of the game, which includes three levels, there were some differences from the final release. She showed only six types of weapons and as many spells. Instead of potions that treat poisoning, there were increases in armor. Also, potions of resistance to fire were replaced by potions of walking on fire. The demo told the story of witches practicing Death Magic and their plan to wake up the Isle of Char volcano, which had been sleeping for the past two centuries, in order to provoke an eruption that would threaten nearby lands, as well as, at that time, the still unnamed "Brave Intern", whose task was to prevent this scenario and destroy them.

Although the plot has changed even before the release of the final version of the game, the sequel still mentions this eruption on “Isle of Char” and speaks of the destruction of several witches - “Witches in their terrible den,” in the background. Like the official site, the phrase "Witches of the Isle of Char" in the description of the game ^[3] .

Witchaven was met mainly by mixed ratings and moderate criticism.

The popular Russian magazine Game.EXE set the game to 90%, even though the author of the article called the levels too confusing ^[4] .

PC Zone gave her 88/100 points and recommendations. “Witchaven contains a bunch of spells and phials to play with, standard network options, triggers and traps, impressive graphics - and if you're looking for violence, you'll find it here. Crazy, twisted and cruel - we like her. ”

Lee Chun Wee of the New Straits Times wrote: “I love Witchaven,” insisting that the game has “Witch Exile” graphics ^[5] .

The Polish magazine Gambler summarized with a total score of 90% ^[6] , and the German PowerPlay set 71% for single and multiplayer components ^[7] .

On the other hand, Petra Schlunk from Computer Gaming World described the game as “just another Doom clone, with excessive violence and cosmetic RPG elements.”

GameSpot's Jim Warner summed it up like this: “Witchaven is certainly not a bad game, but not great either. Hand-to-hand combat is fun in the beginning, but in a couple of hours you will start wanting a BFG-9000 for yourself ” ^[8] .

A sequel entitled Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance was released in 1996. There, the sister of the witch he killed was the new enemy of Grondovall. The gameplay was almost the same as in the first part, the only difference was in some additional types of weapons and variations of monsters.

The third game of the same series was perhaps in the plans. Perhaps only in order to fulfill the promise given in the final credits that Grondoval would sooner or later become king. But Intracorp went bankrupt and Capstone was closed before any work on it began. The game was planned after the completion of the development of Corridor 8, which was also never completed.

Around 2006, a former Capstone programmer, Forest Bird, released the source code for Witchaven and Witchaven II.

In addition, the black metal band - “Witchaven”, was named after the series ^[9] .

Techland 's Hellraid game is described as the ideological successor to Witchaven and Hexen ^{[10] [11]} .