Witch Epoch:

In Brief:
Witch Epoch is a simple retro rogue-lite arcade shooter, which is virtually the same game as Cowboy Girl that we were given a couple of weeks ago on the 8th February, except it has a different theme and the monsters you shoot are different however, the game play mechanics of the game are duplicated almost perfectly, with just a few minor changes.

Game play is very basic; where you move the witch left and right into one of five lanes using the A & D keys, avoiding the evil red faces and picking up the Blue, Green and Yellow plus signs; however, unlike Cowboy Girl there's no target reticule appearing that indicates when you can shoot the monsters. Each level introduces you to a different monster and as you progress through the levels

Instead picking up the coloured +/x's is related to the colour surrounding the monster. When you pick up a particular colour the witches hands hold spells of the same colour as the pick-up's, and each time she picks up a different colour the spells change colour. Fire the spells at the monster using the space bar; ideally when the colour of the spells are the same colour as the colour surrounding the monster. This causes a lot more damage than if you shoot using a different colour. Once the monsters hit points are reduced to zero, you win the level and are presented with the level stats that includes the number of each coloured spell you picked up and the maximum damage caused to the monster. As you progress through the levels, they become much harder because the movement of the lanes speeds up gradually.

Unfortunately there's no indication as to how many pick ups you need to make before you can use the spells against the monsters, but they are at least several.

Avoid touching the red faces because apart from making the screen go fuzzy for a moment, effectively making it harder to see what's coming at you. If you're hit three or four times by the red faces you have to start the level again. Thankfully only from the level you died on.

Unfortunately (again), there's no save function, so once you close the game down then restart, you have to start from the beginning again.

Apparently there are more than 19 levels according to one of the Russian reviews over on Steam. You can see those HERE.

The mouse isn't supported and neither is a controller, though you can select menu items using a controller; however, as with other games by this developer, using this particular game engine, which I think is Game Maker, you cannot return to a previous menu. In game controls are exclusively keyboard controlled. As I said when Cowboy Girl was given away, allowing the lanes to randomly move at different speeds, would increase the difficulty and in my opinion improve on the game; you could have two difficulties, where the random movement could be regarded as the difficult mode. I also think the ability to use a game controller would improve the game play experience and be more comfortable to play.

The conclusion is basically the same as Cowboy Girl; i.e. Playing for short coffee break sessions, Witch Epoch is definitely worth keeping, though playing it for extended periods it may become a little tedious to play.

You can see a few videos of game play HERE, HERE and one via the Steam Store page HERE.

You can also see some Steam community reviews of the game HERE.

Controls:
A = Move Left
D = Move Right
Space = Use Spell
Esc = Return to Previous Menu
Up & Down Arrow or W & S Keys = Menu Items
Enter = Select Menu Item
The options menu enables you to toggle the default windowed mode to full screen as well as change the default language from English to Russian. You can also toggle the Music and Sound on and off. To return to the main menu press Esc. While in game, pressing the Esc key will take you to a pause menu where you can either resume the game (after a break), go to the main menu or exit the game. Using the arrow or W & S keys to select which option you want. Then Enter to activate your choice.

Notes on Security
I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using Virus Total and it found zero hits from 62 antimalware engines. You can see the scan HERE.