Blair Witch was a genuine surprise at this years E3. Not only did it avoid getting leaked, unlike the majority of Microsofts show, but it became the unexpected horror franchise revival no one was asking for.
The logic is that it will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original movie. If youre unfamiliar, The Blair Witch Project became a horror classic through incredible marketing – selling the idea of a documentary where three student filmmakers hiked in the Black Hills forest to investigate the legend, only for them all to disappear. It spearheaded the found-footage sub-genre, opening the gates for films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.
After the 1999 movie, the history of Blair Witch slides into awful. A sequel was quickly rushed out in 2000, while an attempt at a reboot in 2016 fell short at the box office. There was also a trilogy of PC games at the time of the original movie, but they barely connected to the concept or narrative of the movies at all.
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This patchy history makes the existence of a new title feel somewhat odd. Although, in the hands of Layers Of Fear and Observer developer Bloober Team, this Blair Witch has the best chance yet at restoring goodwill and returning some excitement back to the franchise.
In our hands-on, we were shown five disparate segments across the four to six hour experience. Set in 1996, two years after the original, you play as former police officer Ellis searching for a missing young boy in the same Black Hills forest. Youre joined by a companion dog named Bullet, who acts as a key mechanic for finding items, navigating the woods, and fending off monsters.
You control Bullets behaviour through a command wheel, whether seeking out useful items (although hell happily give out rubbish too), staying close, have him stay in position, or petting him as a reward. Hes key to your survival; with one chase sequence seeing Bullet guide you through creepy marshland as the Blair Witch topples trees around you, with death looming if you lose track of him. How well you treat and protect Bullet will have an impact on the games ending, although the developer stayed tight-lipped on how different, or expansive, these outcomes would be.
During our playthrough, Bullet was most useful during combat. Instead of traditional weapons, you use a flashlight to fend off monsters who dash between trees at unnerving speed. Bullet barks in their direction so you can track their movements and keep them at bay by shining the torch. Its unclear if these fights pan out similarly across the game, but tracking both a yelping dog and zipping monsters did occasionally feel cumbersome – something we could see causing frustration depending on how frantic later encounters prove to be.
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Disorientation, however, is largely what Blair Witch is going for. As you delve further into the forest, youll be plunged into darkness while creepy voices whisper, only to briefly awaken in a different location before youre pulled away again. While its suitably unsettling, the linear structure does nullify some of the tension in the wider woodland sections – making the sense of feeling isolated and vulnerable slightly artificial when youre essentially funnelled down a corridor.
When Blair Witch operates in tight spaces and plays to the developers strengths, everything clicks. In a later sequence youre navigating the classic Blair Witch house, solving minor puzzles with a camcorder as you follow splattered stains the naked eye cant see. Youre soon locked into a room-shifting, time-loop ride akin to Layers Of Fear and P.T., with your camera acting like a window to horrors you cant otherwise see. Its tense, suffocating, and gets under your skin – the exact ingredients youd want from a Blair Witch game.
The camcorder also plays a role in other puzzles. Unlike Outlast, you wont be scrambling for spare batteries while cowering under beds. Instead, old tapes you discover will inform you about the route forward in a similar vein to Resident Evil 7, which you fast forward and rewind to find the key moment, like the opening of a locked door, to let you proceed. The example we were shown was very basic, but hopefully later areas will allow you to manipulate the environment in more interesting ways.
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The big question is whether all these separate elements, from combat, puzzle-solving, and nurturing a companion, can come together for a unified horror experience. The franchise may have struggled to find its identity since the original Blair Witch 20 years ago, but the intriguing elements here are the most convincing reason to believe theres life in the old dog yet.
After our hands-on, we spoke to Maciej Glomb, team developer at Bloober Team, about bringing back the Blair Witch and why its their most challenging game yet.
GC: The announcement of a new Blair Witch game took many by surprise. So how did you come to work with the franchise? Did Lionsgate approach you?
MG: As far as I know, it was during early access of Layers Of Fear that they reached out to us because we knew each other before. Apparently they really liked Layers Of Fear and they wanted us to portray the Blair Witch universe in their video game, so thats how it all started.
GC: This is the first time your studio has handled a licence – how different was it compared to working on Layers Of Fear and Observer?
MG: It was [different] but at the same time Lionsgate gave us a lot of freedom in a way that we could approach the game however we liked. They gave us some directions concerning the lore and so on; what can happen in the universe and what cannot happen. But Id say they were really open for all of our suggestions.
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From the beginning we agreed that we didnt really want to make a survival horror game. We just want to keep to our style we portrayed in Observer and Layers Of Fear, so we wanted to keep it more psychological and they were fine with that. It was different for sure because you have this first party you need to band your ideas from, but it was a really smooth operation.
GC: The Blair Witch franchise hasnt exactly been in healthy shape over the past 20 years, since the original, were you guys hesitant to take it on initially?
MG: It was interesting for us in the sense you mentioned before, that this is the first time wed made someone elses IP. So we wanted to try that.
I think what really connected us with Lionsgate is that Blair Witch has similar ideas we have in our games. The whole loop idea, right? Space loop and time loops, this is something we also did in Observer and Layers Of Fear so we felt like we were pretty well matched together. Thats why we decided to do it basically. Also the fact Lionsgate gave us a lot of creative freedom as to how we want to approach the subject, they didnt block us in any way.
GC: Are things introduced in this game now part of the official Blair Witch lore?
MG: Basically how it works is we do this game in cooperation with Lionsgate, but we dont force anything on them. So if they want to take some of the things from the game to their lore, they are free to do so. Its not like every part of the game will be part of the universe.
GC: Now I fully endorse this decision. But can you explain why you chose a dog over a human companion?
MG: We did this because of two reasons. One is we wanted to achieve this feeling of isolation in the forest, so you fear about yourself and youre alone, which boosts the whole experience. At the same time we wanted to have someonRead More – Source
