Blair Witch

Blair Witch is, above everything else, an adventure full of good ideas. Despite some technical issues, it is a breath of fresh air, a first-person experience that does not fall into the cliché of being a jumpscare roller coaster or a simple horror walking simulator.

Whilst a bit janky on the Switch, Blair Witch offers a decent first-person horror title based on an established mythos. And a dog!

Blair Witch on the Switch remains an unnerving and creepy experience that has plenty of interesting gameplay concepts, but it‘s also severely lacking compared to other versions.

In short, if you have the choice, choose a PC, PS4 or Xbox One version at all costs.

Blair Witch, much like Layers of Fear, offers a take on horror which focuses on a descent into insanity. It’s quite short, clocking in at 6-7 hours, but it is atmospheric, and is at its best when you plug some headphones in.

More than anything, the biggest disappointment with Blair Witch is that it somehow feels more like a game that had been made before having the IP applied to it. In the end, the story ends up being incredibly cliche and uninteresting, the setting is not all that fun or even all that frightening to walk around in, and the graphical downgrade is just another unfortunate brick in the wall that kept me from really enjoying my time with the game. If these things don’t sound like deal breakers to you, Blair Witch may still be worth your time to at least try out. Even then I don’t think I’d recommend the Switch be where you do so.

Blair Witch starts off strong, throwing its players into a setting that comes with some pretty terrifying baggage for anyone who's familiar with the film upon which it is based. It's got a handful of fun mechanics, including the absolute star of the show, Bullet, and its story comes on strong towards the end, injecting the final third with some real tension. However, this is also a game that plods along for the most part, making no real use of its spooky setting, instead hemming players into small areas and forcing them to partake in a string of simplistic and rather hackneyed puzzles and busywork at the expense of any real tension. Overall then, Blair Witch is something of a mixed bag; it's not the worst horror game we've played recently, but it also doesn't do enough to earn a hearty recommendation.

At its core, Blair Witch is a great horror game. A slow burn experience, it’s far from perfect but it has some nice ideas and an oppressive atmosphere that just grows and grows. The downgraded visuals on Switch take much of that atmosphere away, however, and also get in the way of the gameplay. If you have a lot of patience there’s some joy to be found playing in handheld mode, but otherwise you’re best giving it a wide berth or playing it on another format if possible.

On Switch Blair Witch is just as boring as on the other platforms, but visually worse. Instead of tense survival horror you’ll encounter disenchantment around every corner.

At the end of the day, this is a sub-par port of an average game. The story in Blair Witch isn’t anything special even if the main character was good, poorly programmed AI hampers innovative mechanics, the game design isn’t that thought out, and the game’s atmosphere and aesthetic are hurt by this port’s low resolution. A great set of ideas that fumble when it comes to the execution, and an adorable dog doesn’t really save it. I love the Switch and want as many games as possible to come out on it, but Blair Witch really shows that not every game should.

Blair Witch is probably best played on other platforms, where the pop-in is not so atrocious, and where the game won't break. The atmosphere during the day time is diminished thanks to the low level detail that generates only a couple of meters away. These glaring flaws hurt Blair Witch from becoming immersive, and the obtuse path to the good ending won't be figured out without a guide. There is potential here, since the foundation is solid, but this version is not easily recommended.