I am repeatedly drawn to games with strong visuals, and Wytchwood was no exception. In its very first moment, you wake up as a witch, herself a plump figure with what looks like a pot for a head, in a hut that looks like it comes straight out of a fairy tale pop-up book. Everything from your bookshelf to the cauldron bubbling away on the hearth looks slightly two-dimensional, and yet the setting seems to be teeming with life.
Wytchwood reviewPublisher: Whitethorn Digital, WhispergamesDeveloper: AlientrapPlatform: Played on PS4Availability: Out now on PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
To soothe the witch’s creaking bones, you gather a few ingredients and learn how to mix a potion using your grimoire, a nicely intuitive process with simple controls even on consoles. An annoying goat turns out to be a demon that orders you to collect souls if you want to fulfil your contract with it – a contract the old lady unfortunately can’t even remember.
What she does remember, though, is how to mix potions, and how to use her witch’s eye to tell you what different creatures you come across are weak to. And so you explore a number of beautiful landscapes and…kill most of the creatures within them for parts. The witch can build and lay traps for critters, chop wood, catch pixies with a net and pickpocket people given the right tools, and much more. The materials she gains are then used to make more complicated items, both regular and magical in nature. On your travels, you will encounter different people and anthropomorphic folk that will ask you favours or swap you items you need to make something else down the line.