Unforetold: Witchstone is a turn-based tactical open world computer role-playing game (CRPG) by Spearhead Games set in a unique fantasy world designed by Ed Greenwood of Dungeon and Dragons’ Forgotten Realms fame. In it, you play a new arrival to the frontier continent of Kalsundia, where you are able to pave your own way and change the face of the world through your choices and actions.
Overview
If you have played a CRPG, particularly one based on Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), Unforetold: Witchstone’s core systems should be familiar. You use background, race, and class to customize your character, determine a few things about your initial characteristics, and use that as a baseline for the protagonist of your story and Unforetold: Witchstone is built so that it really is your story.
The game leaves you with a lot of freedom to determine how exactly you want to go through it, who you want to work with, and where you want to go. There are a number of mutually exclusive factions that you can work with and join, and also the potential to just avoid them entirely and work with the people of the land.
Current state of the Early Access
Currently, Unforetold: Witchstone features an introductory area, two towns, a few faction locations, and some smaller dungeons that feed into a variety of faction and character quests. There is quite a bit of faction conflict, though more between the minor factions and the major factions than between the major factions themselves. You can do most of this content with a single character, but quite a bit of it is locked behind joining a faction. However, there is still plenty of opportunity to travel all over the revealed region.
Not all of the class material is implemented right now. Higher-level spells are mostly absent, which means that even if you find a way to grind past the level you can reasonably get through the content, there is not much of a reason to do so.
Also worth noting is that the only character you have complete control over is your main character. Other characters follow their own path, making pre-designed choices for leveling up, and will only equip gear that they want to equip and will only use skills if you convince them. This is fairly different from most CRPGs, and while it is not necessarily better or worse, it is worth noting due to its uniqueness.
There are a number of specially designed adventurers that can join you, including some that have more detailed backstories and motivations than others. There are also a bunch of more generic adventurers that can join you, covering almost every race and class combination that you could want.
The social systems and stealth systems are implemented and fun to use, with the social skills being particularly robust in a way that is unusual for most CRPGs.
Should You Get It Now?
If you want to explore Unforetold Wiitchstone’s character builds and the different paths you can move through in the early game, then there is plenty of opportunity. There are dungeons, quests, and plenty of things you can do up through the end of the game’s first Act.
It is a bit buggy, as one could expect from the beginning of Early Access. There are some systems that aren’t quite filled out as much as they could be, and this includes their most ambitious one, the social system. Right now, non-player characters feel a bit robotic and scattered, and while it is probably not possible to make them completely organic, considering the scale and the depth of the social system, there is still some more work to be done.
Beyond that, the buyer will probably know whether they are the sort of person who likes to play games that early in Early Access. If you are, and everything I mention sounds good or acceptable, then it is worth jumping in.
Conclusion
Unforetold: Witchstone is a very promising RPG, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it develops over the course of time. If the developers can meet the expectations that the concept and content of the game promise, it is going to be an excellent game. The question remains, though, if they will be able to stick the landing, but I am hopeful.
