A new Soulslike game called Witches of the New World revolves around the events of the Salem witch trials, and it's being developed in Unreal Engine 5. Witches of the New World comes from a new studio named Horizontal Entertainment led by a Ubisoft alumni and promises exciting gameplay as well as difficult decisions.
Horizontal Entertainment is a new developer coming from Latin America. Its CEO is Adrian Gimate-Welsh, a Mexican-French engineer who worked at Ubisoft and Gameloft previously. Horizontal Entertainment hopes to focus on narrative-driven games mostly in the genre of historical fiction. It's a small studio which currently has two ongoing projects, one being Witches of the New World, and the other one will delve into the world of the Mafia in the 70s through the eyes of an undercover FBI agent. Gimate-Welsh also founded TagWizz, a Mexican developer which focuses on collaborating and supporting smaller game developers who might not have all the resources to create their games in-house.
Witches of the New World is still in development, and it focuses on Jedediah Hopkins, a witchfinder from England, who is asked to travel over to the New World to investigate strange events which transpired around the town of Salem. The story covers the aftermath of the Salem witch trials with Jedediah investigating whether the trials were the result of mere hysteria or if they were surrounded by supernatural events. After conducting his investigation, Jedediah uncovers a conspiracy of devil worshipers who are trying to take over Salem. After which it's up to the witchfinder to delve further into the dangerous plot and stop it from reaching its goal. Jedediah's weapons are a flintlock and a sword, his only protection against the forces of evil.
The studio also claims it has delved deeply into the historical background of the era. Horizontal Entertainment says Jedediah is based on historical accounts of witch hunts of the 17th century but transported into the fantasy genre context. In the same vein, the game also promises players the possibility to delve into the detailed English Puritanical society of the era. But beyond the exciting combat and the historical setting, it also teases morally complex decisions the player will have to grapple with.
The premise of Witches of the New World sounds promising, bringing a new take on the Soulslike games to fans from a studio which seems genuinely passionate about introducing authentic historical settings. There's no news on when the game will see the light of day, but when it does, it'll likely garner a lot of interest from gamers.
Witches of the New World is in development.