Witch House Looks Like Gothic XCOM

Supernatural crimes? Turn-based tactics? A detective main character who sounds like when he says he wants a whiskey on the rocks, he means jagged shards of gravel? Gee, Witch House, it seems an awful lot like you’re trying to get my attention.

Witch House takes place in the prohibition era. More specifically, it’s set in 1926 in Miskatonic Valley, New England. The place is, of course, haunted, because come on: it’s called Miskatonic Valley. Hello there, Lovecraft throwback.

Anyway, a lot of bad stuff is going down. That’s where you come in:

“The stars are aligning, hastening the arrival of a dark hour that thins the veil between worlds. Mad scientists toil to open trans-dimensional portals, while sinister cults conduct occult rituals to unleash horrors from another space and time.”

“Agents of the Armitage paranormal investigation agency have been recalled to Arkham, from fields diverse as exorcists, magicians and mobsters, in a bid to unravel the coalescing forces threatening the stability of our civilisation.”

You’ll lead teams of paranormal investigators on missions through spooky mansions, ancient ruins, and Beyond (whatever Beyond is, it will probably involve a proliferation of tentacles) in an effort to foil countless dark schemes a-brewin’. You can fight, sneak, or do some combination of the two. It’s your call.

In the process, you’ll build up characters of different types, acquiring not only new skills and abilities, but also “personality traits and secret histories.” INTRIGUE.

Witch House is on Steam Greenlight right now, but if all goes according to plan, it’ll enter Early Access later this year. I’m glad that the developers seem to be taking things nice and slow, because “XCOM meets X-Files meets Darkest Dungeon” is a pretty killer idea, but it’s still looking a little janky right now. Here’s hoping time and maybe a few dark rituals get it into proper sleuthing shape.

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