1666: Amsterdam Early Access Review: Ambitious Witch-Hunting Game Struggles With Polish

1666: Amsterdam, developed by Patache Digital Games and now available in early access on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, attempts an ambitious supernatural thriller that deliberately distances itself from the open-world action template it superficially resembles.

The game splits narrative across three time periods: present day, the 1990s, and 1666 Amsterdam. In the 1666 segments, players control Noa, a witch tasked with identifying and eliminating targets across the city. While the setup echoes Assassin's Creed—developed by the game's creative director Patrice Désilets—the execution diverges sharply. Rather than scaling buildings and executing aerial assassinations, Noa must move through crowds inconspicuously, eavesdrop on conversations, and gather evidence before confronting her targets. Combat remains available but uninspiring, with players often defaulting to conservative tactics with a wooden staff and dodge rolls to survive encounters rather than engaging with the game's special attacks and environmental hazard mechanics.

Eurogamer's reviewer acknowledges the game's conceptual strengths while documenting significant technical and design issues. The early access build contains bugs including geometry clipping, AI pathfinding problems, crashes, and repeated NPC models creating a city populated by visual duplicates. Character animations frequently fail to load, leaving crowds of low-resolution, expressionless figures blocking doorways—oddities that emerge from the team's apparent resource constraints rather than intentional design. The reviewer estimates the current build contains approximately 15 hours of content and was roughly six hours into the first major mission when writing.

The critic frames these issues through creative necessity: a small team executing complex design on a limited budget faces pressure to monetize through early access to fund continued development. While acknowledging the game's rough state warrants concern, the review suggests that beneath technical friction lies compelling core gameplay—specifically the investigative and stealth segments that comprise the game's primary loop. The reviewer describes discovering this "peculiar magic" after pushing past early frustration, though combat balance problems persist throughout.

1666: Amsterdam's spiritual predecessor was Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, Panache's 2019 evolution simulator. Like that title, this new project courts both fascination and frustration through unconventional design choices executed with limited resources.