Reviews

Review: Blair Witch for Xbox One

Posted on: 2019-12-10

"Blair Witch, unfortunately, is a mediocre attempt to make a compelling horror game."

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Video games based on film properties are not often that great in quality. There are a few exceptions, of course, such as Alien: Isolation and the Scarface game from 2006, but I digress. My point is that video games based on films are generally cobbled together in a fast manner to capitalise on the popularity of the property. Does this game buck the trend? Let’s find out.

 

The Blair Witch Project was one of the first to popularise the found footage horror film. It was something we had not seen before, so after 20 plus years, we get a video game adaption, and unfortunately, it’s not the best.

 

The story of the Blair Witch game is loosely based on the 90s film. You don’t play as a bunch of teenagers looking for the titular witch, but instead, you play as a former soldier in search of a young, missing child. You play as Ellis, alongside his trusty companion Bullet. But when you arrive to search an area, something is not quite right.

While on the search for the young child Peter, it is slowly revealed that Ellis suffers with PTSD. These moments are used effectively to flesh out his character while he and the player try to figure out what is real and what is part of his PTSD episodes. On this front, the story is really interesting. However, the overall gameplay is rather tedious, which is a shame.

 

The gameplay is from a first-person perspective which can craft tension in a horror game; however, the low levels of light and movement speeds that make a snail look like an Olympic sprinter make for a demanding experience. You have your trusty companion Bullet who can sniff out clues to help you with your investigation; he can find photos, tapes for your video camera and other miscellaneous objects. This crafts a good puzzle and detective scenario, but over time, these items start to clutter your inventory. This may sound like a petty criticism, but it gets worse the further you progress. Not only that but your dog companion blends into the environment; at times, I mistook a pile of pine needles for a dog!

Also, your mobile phone is your literal lifeline, where you can call your friends or health professionals when Ellis’ mental health is getting the better of him. It adds a layer of context to the narrative, but this is the late 1990s, so you can get distracted by Snake, which I played for nearly 20 minutes.

 

Visually the game looks great; it has a good use of god ray effects at the start of the game, as the sunlight slowly bleeds through the trees. On the other hand, the game gets too dark later on. Now, using darkness to build atmosphere is fine, but when it is too dark, and I end up walking in circles, that is when a game starts to test my patience. Performance, on the other hand, is a mixed bag; on the one hand, it’s fine during gameplay with a few stutters here and there, but during cinematic scenes, the framerate stutters like me when I’m over-caffeinated.

 

Blair Witch, unfortunately, is a mediocre attempt to make a compelling horror game. It has its moments, such as the narrative delving into mental health with PTSD. However, the sluggish and tedious gameplay did not push me to move forward with the game, with the needlessly dark environments. It's a shame, as the game had great potential but stumbles in its execution.

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