Blair Witch (2019)

Is it better to be a nothing, or to try and fail miserably? That's the question posed by Blair Witch from Bloober Games (responsible for the sleeper hit >Observer_) with this entry into the official canon of the Blair Witch mythology.

It's 1996. A young boy disappears in the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland. As Ellis, a former police officer with a troubled past, you join the search. What starts as an ordinary investigation soon turns into an endless nightmare as you confront your fears and the Blair Witch, a mysterious force that haunts the woods...

Ellis, the protagonist, through which we see the universe in this entry in the Blair Witch saga, is an interesting character to fill the shoes of. Gone is the iron-jawed protagonist of yesteryear, here we have a complex character suffering from PTSD with only his dog, Bullet, for companionship and reassurance.

With a franchise such as the Blair Witch it's an interesting mix to add a new entry to the canon, and you could argue it's an entry no-one asked for. Although Bloober Games do have a solid track record of games production, this is a tie-in to an existing franchise and that means their hands are instantly bound by the rules established by that franchise. Blair Witch demands that it is always set in a woods, there's usually some sort of camping involved, and the local townspeople don't really believe what's going on, even if people are going missing and never being heard from again. The inaction of local law enforcement is always unsettling, always opting for a 'That's just how it is around here' approach.

The game does try to address this with Ellis still doing his duty as a former police officer, but Ellis isn't the star of this game, neither is the Witch that plagues you from behind trees, bushes, and hedgerows, it's Bullet the wonder-dog that makes all the difference.

Bullet is the one interesting addition to this game that makes it worth playing with. Bullet acts and behaves like a real dog, if there were awards for realistic dogs in games, Blair Witch would win this award hands down. But, Bullet also stands out so much with his mechanics and contributions to the action, that the rest of the game and narrative makes for a very dull affair, resulting in the game becoming more of a dog-walking simulator than a fully-fledged horror game.

Whilst this game is marketed as a horror game, and also an exclusive to the Xbox for console gaming, this is strictly a game that you only need to play if you're a huge fan of the Blair Witch franchise. The number one problem with this game is it's not scary. Not in the slightest, it builds scene competently, but each scare fails to deliver, with the Witch being scared away by torchlight. The mechanics are all there (bugs aside), but the polish of the scares fail to deliver a satisfying horror game or an engaging game overall.

That being said, the biggest sin of Blair Witch is the sheer amount of time it takes for the game to engage in any sort of meaningful gameplay. The mystery of the missing boy is the breadcrumb trail that leads us into the woods with Ellis believing he will find redemption if her were to rescue the child, but because of the length of the slow-burn approach Bloober has taken with Blair Witch it is only the real die-hard amongst us who push on through the monotony that will get any sort of real satisfaction out of the story unfolding as Ellis descends into madness... or does he?

We also need to talk about the witch, or lack thereof. Despite a few creepy voiceovers, for the most part she is reduced to a figure flashed in the dark and designed to scare us, however she doesn't really do very much, and I can't help but feel a lot of the game is padded out with wandering around the woods completely lost being the biggest sin the game offers. At one point I really felt like going into the woods in the outside world and losing myself just to feel the actual fear the game was trying to emphasise. The game causes so many conflictions because there is so much to like about it, the mood, tone, setting, production values, all line us up to expect a descent into a tale of madness and isolation, but like the original Blair Witch Project of which this game is part of the official canon, it's no more scary than a few snapping twigs outside the tent at night.

A decent game, but nothing to get too excited about. Is it worth a playthrough? Yes. Is it worth the full retail price? Probably not. I played this on Xbox Game Pass and was relieved I hadn't invested any of my hard-earned gamer budget and not being able to return the game. Others may love it, but as a whole it failed to deliver what was set up.

6/10

- Snappy graphics and moody set pieces can't save this chore of a game.