This single-player extraction shooter formula has a LOT of storytelling promise.

[Eternal Echo]

Witchfire is the only example of a single-player extraction shooter I've ever seen and, I have to say, a lot of the game design decisions make it excellent ground for storytelling.

This mainly comes up in regards to Gnosis progression but, even before going to Gnosis I, the levels are highly detailed with multiple paths, landmarks, and features that reward you for diligent exploration. Irongate Castle even has paths that require keys and opening them means they're available for all future runs. If only the castle drawbridge worked the same way but at least the anomalous portals fulfil somewhat the same function.

What's more, upgrading your Gnosis allows you to open locked doors, see illusions, and do more things that allow you to explore the environments further. You can find secrets this way that can tell you a lot about the history of the world, the Witch, and those who were here before you. By tying the very nature of powering up to exploration and environmental storytelling, the game ensures that the player's understanding of the world expands with their strength. They learn more about the dangers ahead as they gain the strength to meet them.

On top of all that, you still need to gather resources like keys and artefacts that help you navigate and understand this world. You get stronger, you gain the power to surpass the obstacles ahead of you, you clear the way to explore, you find more secrets, you get stronger. It's a wonderful loop that uses the extraction shooter gameplay to the fullest and it makes me wish other extraction shooters would try this instead of going multiplayer to chase Escape from Tarkov's coattails for the millionth time. The storytelling potential is immense.

Mind you, I say "potential" because, despite the preceding four paragraphs, I'm not sure I have faith in Witchfire specifically to deliver on a satisfying narrative. The atmosphere is solid but that doesn't translate to good worldbuilding. The game—and also the development logs—go on about the Witch, including how she's always watching you and preparing to counter your progress, but she's not in anyway characterised. No one's really characterised; the writing is purely functional to serve the typical shoot-loot-extract grind. By all indications, all I can see the story doing is having the player go through everything step by step, kill the Witch, and go home. There's nothing wrong with a standard formula but I wish I could envision a future where there's stuff to find and learn and interact with on the island that enlightens the player's understanding of how things came to be this way.

I think it'd be nice if the Witch had voice lines, like if she invokes a Calamity. I've suggested this before and folks said this would take away from the mystery but... what mystery would be taken away from? We don't know anything about the Witch except that she's powerful and watching you. What exactly would hearing her speak in echoing booms across the blood red sky as a demonstrating of her overreaching power spoil? Her dialect? That's not a spoiler. I think people say "mystery" when they mean "expectations" and, while I can understand that folks would like to know nothing about the Witch until they see her, I think we could do with some breadcrumbs and buildup for anticipation to the final showdown.

TL;DR: The single-player extraction shooter formula has a lot of storytelling promise but I'm not sure that Witchfire will realise it.