Dog Witch was provided by Mystic Forge for review. Thank you!
Dog Witch is the perfect example of a good game struggling to break through an oversaturated market. Developed by Heckmouse, this is a roguelike deckbuilder at heart and is brave to take on a genre that is heavily represented in the indie scene. I’m saying this without any disappointment or negativity, because Dog Witch is a genuine experience filled with a lot of love. It just struggles to differentiate itself from the growing competition.
That isn’t to say Dog Witch doesn’t offer any innovations. Playing as a doggie sorcerer is as creative as protagonists go, although there isn’t much of a story to speak of. You are a dog who flies along on a broomstick in a gauntlet of rotating enemies. Kill them, die, and repeat with more upgrades. I would have liked some lore on why we’re fighting random slimes and bees as a dog, but the cozy animations and calming music make that desire less critical.
I like how the card deck is implemented. Rather than crafting a deck that grows more bloated and complex as you progress, your doggie avatar has a limited arsenal, with one slot per type of card. There are upgrades and new tools that are available with every battle won, but they involve swapping out what you already have. I prefer this mechanic to what we usually see, as it requires more planning for the player. That upgraded spellbook that turns my spells into an automatic leeching attack sounds good, but is it better than the spell that allows me to hit all enemies at once? There are legitimate choices to be made and numerous options to explore.
One of my favorite runs combined the mentioned sweeping arrow attack, which hit all my enemies at once, with summoning skeletons that revived once they were killed, for additional damage output. I also had an invaluable ring that buffed my minions every time I applied a shield, so it made an excellent combination. I still died in the third boss fight as I ran out of steam, but it was entertaining.
Gameplay-wise, Dog Witch is pretty similar to others in the genre, although it is more of a linear boss rush than the branching paths we see in other deckbuilders like Slay the Spire. There are 13 fights in the standard mode, although an endless game mode is unlockable. After winning a fight, you get to pick new trinkets and cards, upgrade them, and so on. Each boss fight victory heals you, although enemies hit hard with little health for the player’s avatar. Enemies have a range of abilities and attack powers, and there’s some nice creativity in what monsters you have to fight, from slimes to cowboys. Dog Witch isn’t slouching on the enemy variety front! Some choices offer Cursed variants of the cards that are powerful buffs in exchange for damage, which is nice.
Piecing all this together, there is a lot to like with Dog Witch. The graphics and music are nice, the card variety is solid, and there is a fair amount of content to enjoy. So why do I feel so ambivalent towards it? That is mainly down to me playing a lot of deckbuilders this year, and while Dog Witch is a good deckbuilder, it’s fighting against a tsunami of great competition. Overall, though, it did grow on me the more I played it, so that is a plus!
Dog Witch should have a Verified rating by Valve by the time the game launches, although ProtonDB’s rating is currently Unknown.
Dog Witch does live up to its Verified rating, although I found it is not perfect. The controls all work as intended, and the game looks good on the OLED screen of the Steam Deck. Some of the text is a little small on screen, and the lack of accessibility features means we have a case of ‘WYSIWYG’ with Dog Witch’s settings. There isn’t much we can do besides change screen resolution and an overall graphics toggle between low, medium, and high, but with no indication of what is being changed. I would have liked to have more options.
Performance-wise, the Steam Deck doesn’t have any issues playing Dog Witch with stock settings, although I was surprised to see it struggle at a low TDP. Many deckbuilders I have played can run full speed at a 3 or 4 Watt TDP without much trouble. The poor performance at a low TDP is probably due to optimization before release; however, it is a minor nitpick, all things considered. By dropping the graphics to low and capping the FPS to 30, you can typically get away with a 4W TDP in most cases. For now, I recommend sticking to 60 FPS on a medium graphics preset, without adjusting the TDP, for the optimal experience.
With the stock settings in place, I observed an average power draw of around 12 watts, which translates to approximately 4.5 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED. This is still good overall, although it could be better.
Dog Witch is available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
Dog Witch is unfortunately lacking many accessibility features, and all you can really do is adjust the screen resolution and graphics. There doesn’t seem to be a way to change keys, and there is no support for colorblind users or text scaling. You can reroll a battle after death, however, which is a feature I wish more deckbuilders had.
I almost feel bad for not feeling the vibes with Dog Witch, because, all things considered, it is a solid game with plenty to offer. The visuals and music design are excellent; I really like the dog customization feature that allows me to make the avatar my own, and the gameplay is up to scratch. It may not do enough for me to set itself apart from the swathes of roguelites and deckbuilders that roam the indie PC market.
The Steam Deck's performance, while perfectly decent, could benefit from some optimization, and the relative lack of accessibility functions detracts from what is otherwise a pleasant experience. I still recommend it for deckbuilder fans because the gameplay is good.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
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DOG WITCH is a solid decbuilder packing depth and content, although it struggles to keep above the competition. Steam Deck performance is decent, but lack of accessibility options let it down.
Also, when considering the cost, this game gives you a lot for the money.
That's totally valid! Ultimately, reviews are subjective based on what the reviewer thinks and feels, and we all have differing opinions. We will take another look at Steam Deck performance though and see if that score should change!
I think this review is a tiny bit unfair. I think the combination of the art design and the music push this close to the top of the pile of deck builders. Yes the gameplay is simplistic but the upgrade mechanic is exciting and well thought out. It has a ton of re-playability, I find I enjoy it more than games like Slay the Spire and Dungeon Clawler. I find myself chuckling out loud every time I encounter a new enemy. Also I think this should be 4 stars from a performance standpoint. If you just pick up and play on the Steam Deck, the only hiccup you'll notice is that it consumes a little more battery than other deck builders. Also, I had to switch it to fullscreen in the settings to get the resolution working well.
Hey Aaron 🙂 You make fair points, and I appreciate your responses. I did feel a little bad coming away from Dog Witch with such the 'eh' state I did, as I agree that the game has plenty to like. I love the art design and I love the music both, but they're just two pieces that make a jigsaw and I've probably overindulged in indie roguelike games over the past 3-4 months. As for Steam Deck performance, I had issues with the small text and higher battery drain, but I feel I made all my points clear enough in my review. Not to disagree with you at all as we clearly both like the game, I just personally feel it's struggling a little in the ocean that is the roguelike deckbuilder market.
I'll tell you what though, I am happy to return to the game in a few weeks and see how I feel about it then? Just not right now as I'm juggling a few hats!