The developers said the demo’s lack of story was intentional. I played a brief demo, so I could be missing some important context here. Missing children are very much a part of Blair Witch lore, but a trained search party leaving behind someone to explore a wood notorious for disappearances? That doesn’t fit the formula. Frankly, the scenario stretched my faith in the story. They leave behind a walkie-talkie and a photo of the kid, but that’s all. When you arrive at the meeting site, you find a note that says the party has embarked on its search without you. He’s accompanied by an adorable pup named Bullet - a doggo you can pet - who quickly becomes an important ally for navigating through the perilous woods. The game begins with Ellis on his way to join a search party for a missing boy. Instead of following the usual group of young and foolish adults, you play a former cop, Ellis, with a troubled past. Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, the widely plan sequel to the original movie, is mercifully forgotten. It does take direct inspiration from the original and 2016 films. The game is inspired by the lore from the movies, though not in any way linked to the films. A kid goes missing in Burkittsville, Maryland, and a group of residents head into the Black Hills Forest to find them.

The premise of Blair Witch doesn’t stray far from the movies. That’s worrisome, as the developers call Blair Witch a story-driven game. Despite how well these mechanics come together, though, the bits of story shown were predictable and uninspired. Pair that with a deteriorating protagonist, and a bare-bones set of tools, and I was left shaking in my hiking boots.

Bloober team, the developers behind the superb Layers of Fear, are veterans of suspenseful horror, and the Blair Witch game taps into their experience.īlair Witch uses suspenseful environments and eerie binaural audio to make exploration an act of courage. Horror games like Outlastand Resident Evil 7 have shown us that a little atmosphere and story can go a long way, and fear can be elicited with more than jump scares and big scary monsters. Nearly 20 years have passed since the first Blair Witch movie released, and video games have come a long way since then.

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