Witchaven

Witchaven (usually pronounced /ˌwɪtʃˈheɪvən/ wich-HAY-vən) is a dark fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Capstone Software and published by Intracorp Entertainment in 1995.[1] Its sword-and-sorcery themed story tasks the knight Grondoval with a quest to seek out and destroy a lair of witches in their titular fortress, fighting hordes of hostile monsters along the way.The player can drink various potions for restoring health, curing poison status, or gaining supernatural strength (increased damage), invincibility or invisibility for a half minute.In Witchaven, the player is cast in the role of Grondoval, a hardy knight in service of his homeland Stazhia, been chosen by his master, Lord Verkapheron, for a mission to rid the world of the threat posed by the evil Illwhyrin.In her lair, known as the realm of Witchaven and hidden in a massive subterranean maze under the forbidding Isle of Char, Illwhyrin performs sinister rituals seeking to lift a dimensional barrier, known as the Veil, that separates the game's universe from the chaotic Nether Reaches.[10] The concept "violent, first-person action game set in a fantasy universe ruled by a coven of evil witches who must be eradicated from their lairs"[11] was created after the team attended Gen Con '93."[14] Along with William Shatner's TekWar, also made by Capstone Software in 1995, Witchaven was one of the first games released to use the Build engine, which did not yet allow sloped ceilings and floors, a feature that 3D Realms added later in 1995.[16] Generic enemies are actually clay-made models, first photographed at every angle, then turned into computer sprites; Illwhyrin was played by the game's product manager Judy Melby.The demo version's story told of a group of "Death Magic" practicing witches and their plan to activate the volcano of Char that has been dormant for two centuries, causing it to erupt and threaten the surrounding areas, and the yet-unnamed "brave Stazhian" hero's quest was to break this curse by vanquishing them.PC Zone% gave Witchaven a score of 88/100 and recommended it as "packed with lots of spells and potions to play with, the usual network/modem options, triggers and traps, impressive graphical effects - and if you're looking for gore you've found it.