Blair Witch

Bloober Team makes an honorable tribute to the mythology of Blair Witch, not only by recreating its atmosphere and distinctive elements, but by building an intense and significant experience.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Blair Witch is so solid. After all its developers, Bloober Time, were also behind the very creepy Layers of Fear (not mention the frighteningly bad Basement Crawl), so for them to apply the lessons from that game to an established horror property like Blair Witch Project is clearly a no-brainer. Nonetheless, it makes for a very enjoyable — and, more importantly, very creepy — horror game, and one that any aficionados of the genre would be wise to check out.

Blair Witch captivated me in a way that no other horror game has ever done before. A brilliant story that is complimented by even better gameplay allows for an enjoyable, yet terrifying experience. It has a few issues in terms of gameplay but iron those out and it's near perfect.

Technical issues aside, Blair Witch makes for a satisfying experience with an oppressive atmosphere, an engaging plot and interesting gameplay mechanics. There’s also plenty of written plot details and collectable items dotted throughout the game, should players enjoy themselves enough to come back and attempt to figure out how to unlock some of alternative endings. Being a horror experience (and one with lots of scripted events) means that the most engaging experience will always be the first run through. At the very least, players can expect the game to be tense, well-paced and imminently memorable.

Even though I greatly enjoy the movies, I have to say, Blair Witch makes a better game than a movie.

Some technical hiccups and out of place combat isn’t enough to stop this from being Bloober Team’s scariest game to date, and the best Blair Witch entry since 1999.

The Blair Witch franchise has never been able to capture the magic of the original movie in the years since, but this may be the closest attempt yet thanks to the effective use of the a psychological focused story and gameplay that feels fairly fresh within the horror genre.

The problems that I brought up prevent Blair Witch from being truly excellent, but Bullet's glitchy moments and the performance issues are things that the developer can hopefully improve with an update, making a great game even better. Even as it is, though, I still highly recommend Blair Witch if you're a fan of horror titles.

You should not expect playful depths.

Blair Witch feels more like a tip of the hat to Eternal Darkness : Sanity's Requiem than one of the most gruesome games out there. The characters (including the forest) are pretty good, but the sub-par graphics (even on Xbox One X) are a true let down.

Blair Witch is the best Blair Witch game yet. However, its willingness to get you lost can be frustrating despite being so authentic to the franchise. Regardless, despite some uneven presentation, Blair Witch is a passionate love letter to the first and third films in the franchise. It manages to maintain its scares from beginning to end, even if it becomes a little predictable.

Blair Witch manages to offer a gameplay that has reached its limits by propping it up with an intriguing storyline, a good dose of atmosphere and a couple of interesting mechanics. However, it tends to overdo in the end and, above all, he needs a little more technical cleaning.

An interesting experience that mixes investigation, puzzles and chasing scenes with jumpscares. The forest and the oppressing atmosphere are really well handled, and we really liked the end of the game, that unfortunately, concludes an intense, yet short and sometimes too conventionnal, story.

Managing to make the forest seem oppressive and claustrophobic, Blair Witch is adept at creating a tense and foreboding atmosphere, while weaving a compelling narrative that still proves exciting, even if you've sussed out the final twist hours before the end. You'll never look at trees the same way again.

I really enjoyed Blair Witch, it caught the essence of the franchise and definitely gave me nostalgia from the movies – which now I have to watch again. Visuals look great and it plays well, although being a bit short in length I’d recommend this to any horror or franchise fan. Bloober did a pretty good job and I can’t wait to see what they have in store next.

Blair Witch might just become one of the most satisfying psychological horror experiences on consoles. Despite the protagonist's weak story, the context and sound design in the game turn into a unique experience.

Blair Witch is a decent adventure… with an absolutely perfect ending. When Bloober Team do what they do best, it turns into a horror masterpiece, but you’ll need to endure a few hours of less inspired exploration to get to enjoy this. It is worth it, though.

Blair Witch is a horror game with some good ideas poorly executed, such as the use of a video camera to change environments or the relationship between the main character and his dog.

Bloober takes the opportunity to keep adding game mechanics in its horror games, but misses in going deep in them as well as expanding the mythology behind the Blair Witch universe.

Blair Witch has got some good premises, but stumbles with a banalized plot and an overall boring and not so scary experience. Bloober Team's hand is still noticeable, but the game could maybe have benefited from a longer development time.

Bloober Team tries to mix successful elements from titles like Alan Wake and Outlast, and use the atmosphere and theme from The Blair Witch Project to create a different horror game. But the result is not as good as expected, as the game starts to get boring soon and has no true identity, with the opportunity to roam the Burkittsvills forest being the only salvage point.

Blair Witch is a successful videogame translation of what made the original film so haunting. It doesn’t move far outside the dev team’s comfort zone, but the warmth of the relationship between a man and his dog almost made it worth fighting through the motion sickness it gave me. Almost.

Because of the horrible glitches I experienced along with a confusing end sequence, I was not able to enjoy it entirely. It’s not a bad game, in fact quite the opposite. There just was no room for that much error. With only one game mode heavily focusing on story, it just has to be done right. You can complete the whole adventure in just a few hours. Is it scary? Yes, they have done a fantastic job with jump scenes and being lost in the eerie woods. I wanted to give it another try, so I started a new game. When in the first area I could not get Bullet to fetch the hat for me, I force quit the game and decided not to bother. If they ever fix the issues, I may revisit the forest and get lost all over again.

An uneven mix of tense psychological drama and buggy, half-broken gameplay mechanics but the end result is still one of the better movie tie-ins of recent years.

Blair Witch is more of an exercise in tedium than it is an immersive atmospheric horror experience. There are some clever mechanics and a ton of replay incentives yet the campaign manages to derail from its promising premise thus making the rest of the story fall flat.

Nails the atmosphere of the films, but falls horrifically flat in gameplay terms. [Issue#183, p.77]

Blair Witch is plagued by bugs and technical problems, which is a major obstacle to the psychological horror. It rarely gets scary in this predictable and fairly monotonous horror game. A mortal sin for a game based on the film of the same name.

As Ellis crushes his umpteenth fistful of twigs, you're merely reminded of a far superior, far more disturbing journey through the woods near Burkittsville. [Issue#338, p.110]