Witchaven
| Witchaven | |
|---|---|
Cover art by Ken Kelly
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| Developer(s) | AWE Productions Capstone Software |
| Publisher(s) | Intracorp Entertainment |
| Producer(s) | James M. Wheeler Amy Smith Boyland |
| Programmer(s) | Rafael Paiz Les Bird Joe Abbati |
| Artist(s) | Scott Nixon Ernesto Roque |
| Writer(s) | Mike Pitts |
| Composer(s) | Joe Abbati |
| Engine | Build engine |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
| Release | September 30, 1995 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter, action role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Score |
| AllGame |    |
| GameSpot | 53% |
Witchaven is a fantasy first-person shooter video game with action role-playing game elements, developed by Capstone Software and published by Intracorp Entertainment in 1995. Its sword and sorcery style story tasks the knight Grondoval with a quest to seek out and kill an evil witch in her titular fortress. The game was based on the Build engine and received mixed reviews. It was followed by the sequel titled Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance in 1996.
Although the game is considered a first-person shooter (FPS), the game has several role-playing game (RPG) elements, including character progression by acquiring experience points (gained by defeating enemies and finding gold) and level advancement with increasing number of hit points, damage modifiers and weapons proficiency, and access to more powerful spells at higher levels. The game also has a focus on close-quarters combat, unlike the standard run-and-gun gameplay of most first-person shooters at the time. Other than that, the game is similar to many typical FPS games of its era in that the player needs to kill everything that moves in his path while looking for color-coded keys to open closed doors, and eventually to find an exit that would lead to the next level. There are also options to adjust the game's difficulty and gore levels.
There are ten weapons in Witchaven, each with a different attack range and other characteristics. Among them are bare fists, a dagger, a short sword, a morning star, a broadsword, a battle axe, a bow and arrows, throwing axes, a pike axe, a two-handed longsword and a halberd. One of the game's more innovative features is that weapons are not infinitely durable. With the exceptions of the fists, weapons will break down with repeated use and replacements must be found in order to continue fighting. The player can also find different types of armor (only one of which may be worn at a time) at the time, each with various values of their starting armor points, a number of armor points that are subtracted with each hit, and a chance of deflecting the attack completely. There is also a shield that acts as a weak armor but can also be used to attack, while helmets add armor points and also double the damage the player inflicts for a while.
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Wikipedia