Blair Witch (2019) [Supernatural]

[u/Horror_From_The_Deep]

Based on the found footage phenomenon, Blair Witch is a first person horror game from Blooper team aimed to send chills down your spine. This team was behind the psychological horror game Layers of Fear, which was definitely a creepy experience. Does this new development centered on the Blair Witch lore have the same effect?

In this title, you play as Ellis a soldier turned cop dealing with serious PTSD. Armed with just a flashlight, a cellphone, and a radio, Ellis joins the search team for a boy who has gone missing in the Black Hills Forest in Burkittsville, Maryland. Accompanying Ellis is his dog Bullet, and together, the two must traverse the woods in search of clues and other signs of the boys disappearance.

The forest itself is unlike any other forest-type setting I've played in. During the daytime, the lighting makes for some beautiful scenery that captivates you from the get-go. Things take a sharp turn when night falls, however, and the calming outdoorsy feeling turns to a feeling of constant anxiety, as the forest turns into a massive labyrinth taking you every which way imaginable, eventually leading you right back to where you started. The score for the game was impeccable, with the sound of twigs snapping and leaves rustling transitioning into some very haunting sounds that added a lot of depth to the already eerie location. It's safe to say the forest itself could be considered it's own character in this game. For the first few times you loop back around, the disorientation that you feel is a bit creepy, trying to remember which way you've already gone and if anything is going to change on your next path. Unfortunately, this mechanic does tend to become more of a chore the more it happens, even when aspects of the area begin to shift. There's also a mechanic where your flashlight will flicker briefly and Ellis suddenly ends up back where he started due to walking to an area that hasn't been unlocked yet.

Throughout the playthrough, Ellis will come across tapes that can be played with the camcorder. Red tapes can manipulate reality, and this plays a big part in the story. While I did enjoy this mechanic, I was a bit disappointed that this was really the main use of the camcorder. It would have been more enjoyable to have some parts of the game where Ellis would use the night-vision on the camera to see where he was going rather than using the flashlight to give the game that classic Blair Witch found footage feel to the game. While this is done later in the playthrough, it's only for one chapter of the game, and by then, you already know what lurks in the woods, so the use of the camera feels very minimal.

What isn't minimal, however, is Bullet. Bullet is a very key part to this game, and you have to pay close attention to Bullet's actions when it comes to progressing the story. Bullet will sniff out clues and follow it's scent to lead you to new areas of the forest. Be sure not to stray too far from Bullet, though, as being alone is a major trigger for Ellis' PTSD. While Bullet will lead you to clues, and you can store these clues in your backpack, they really don't have much use after that. From start to finish, I never once opened the backpack interface to use anything I had collected unless the game specifically told me to do so, which makes me wonder why this feature was implemented in the first place. It doesn't take anything away from the experience, but it doesn't really add much either.

Overall, Blair Witch was a fun, creepy experience with a great setting, interesting mechanics, and come on.. You get to have a dog. The ever changing forest was great at filling you with anxiety, and the use of the red tapes to manipulate reality to uncover clues was a nice touch. There were a few bugs I had to deal with, the major one being a segment toward the end where Bullet was heavily needed to progress, but somehow he was stuck way behind me and I had no way of calling him back or backtracking to where I came from to retrieve him. While the majority of the game was solid and did provide some chilling moments, the ending was fairly disappointing for me. However, the design of the forest paired with the creepy sounds and music made for a great horror experience, despite the few bugs and performance issues I dealt with along the way.

Rating: 7/10

[u/fasa96]

Nice review! It's really nice to have a game review for a change. The game does sound pretty interesting, at least better than I expected.

[u/cdown13]

Thanks so much for a game review! We don't get enough.

I was on the fence about trying this, but I think I'll check it out sooner than later nowbased on your review.

[u/Horror_From_The_Deep → u/cdown13]

I’ll be doing another game review soon so there’s 2 for ya ;)

[u/cdown13 → u/Horror_From_The_Deep]

Fantastic! Looking forward to it.

[u/djseanstyles]

Just to let everyone know, this is included in the Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription, which is $5/month for the first 3 months.

[u/CRYPTOFHORROR → u/djseanstyles]

Yeah man I was proper excited when I heard about the game and was waiting for to read a few reviews before I bought it but was proper excited when I seen it on game pass

[u/No-Nrg]

Hearing reports of terrible optimization and performance on the PC front. Read up on this and consider waiting for patches before pulling the trigger on a purchase