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Blair Witch Review Thread

Mista

Banned
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God is a Geek: 9/10
Blair Witch nails the feeling of the original movie, producing the same paranoia and terror as many felt in the cinemas back in 1999. An essential experience for any horror fan.



GameSpew: 8/10
Lionsgate was wise to let Bloober Team loose with its Blair Witch IP. It has treated it with respect, delivering a game that truly does justice to the source material. While its centre part lets it down somewhat, and Bullet’s pathfinding could do with a bit of improvement, it’s one of the scariest horror games ever made. And your reliance on Bullet, as well as the manipulation of found video footage, adds gameplay meat to what usually ends up being little more than a walking simulator. If you’re brave enough, you should definitely enter the woods and face the Blair Witch.


Twinfinite: 3.5/5
If you're in the market for a short adventure to tide you over for an evening or two ahead of September's big releases and its atmospheric premise intrigues you, go right ahead. However, if you're looking for the next smash-hit horror title, you're best going elsewhere.


Game Informer: 7/10
Navigating this world is more tiresome than frightening, especially once you realize that you’re not in peril most of the time. Instead, it’s more about how creepy you find wooden stick figures and walking around in the dark.


Game Rant: 3.5/5
Blair Witch is a consistently interesting horror story with outstanding audio and graphics throughout. It may not be quite as groundbreaking as the film it's based on, but Blair Witch is the next best thing to the original movie, and it's definitely worth checking out for fans of the franchise, despite its shortcomings.


GamesRadar: 3/5
A fine take on psychological horror cut down by bugs and wonkiness.


Game Revolution: 3/5
It’s a shame the pacing does such a number on Blair Witch. It deals with some heady topics like PTSD, mental illness, and police shootings.
 
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I'll wait for a sale regardless of what people think. Horror games are hard to be appreciated and the last one I truly enjoyed was Alien Isolation but that was mostly due to the atmosphere. A 5 hour game from Bloober Team does not sound too good for me.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Seems pretty solid and it's on Game Pass (which I subscribe to) so I'll definitely be checking it out. I've been in the mood for a good spooky game and it was either this or Man of Medan which seems to be getting worse reviews, is shorter, and isn't on Game Pass.
 

The Snake

Member
Sounds like Shattered Memories all over again.

Yeah, Shattered Memories was interesting but it was more like a "Look at the neat ideas we came up with" type of game. Nothing like the original leaks/info where it was said everything was real-time and the threat of enemies finding you was constant, like Clock Tower.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
It may not be quite as groundbreaking as the film it's based on

Groundbreaking? Hmm.. the film had a super interesting plot, but it got very tedious at times. I remember pressing the fast forward button quite a bit.

Navigating this world is more tiresome than frightening, especially once you realize that you’re not in peril most of the time.

That's really not fun

The reveal trailer was interesting, but it was a trailer. Does it feel like the world stops when you aren't moving. The whole discover what's wrong only works if every part of the game feels alive. I am afraid it would get a little bit stale after a while. I like it when you can stand still and the world feels like its alive in someway, shape or form. I almost bought it, but I wanted to see how others felt.
 

Vawn

Banned
Hmm 72 Metacritic. Not horrible, but I'll probably pass. There are too many better games to spend my time on.
 
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Cravis

Member
Groundbreaking? Hmm.. the film had a super interesting plot, but it got very tedious at times. I remember pressing the fast forward button quite a bit.
I agree that the movie was tedious and boring but it definitely was groundbreaking in terms of filmmaking. It basically created the entire “found footage” sub genre.
 
Very mixed views. I'll give it a go as it's on Game Pass, but the lack of sign posting and direction in game doesn't sound great.

Wondering around for ages with no clue where to go isn't scary, it's tedious.
 
Well shocking, just like Control/Man of Medan/etc., most reviewers who play on PC ignore the performance issues. I'll never understand why we keep promoting journalists when there are youtubers(karak) who do 10 times the work in a review.
 
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Birdo

Banned
It's not Blair Witch without Heather Donahue yelling "JOSH" for an hour.
 
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Looks like decent reviews. Hopefully they can iron out the bugs as that seems to be the biggest issue. I love all these day 1 gamepass games. Hopefully this is one my wife will want to watch me play!
 

Alx

Member
Navigating this world is more tiresome than frightening, especially once you realize that you’re not in peril most of the time.

That's really not fun

Funny thing is that I said almost the same thing after watching the movie. If you don't get into the paranoia, you're just watching a group of teenagers getting lost in the woods.
 
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Bugs are real. Just got mine. I'm frozen in place and can't move. Now I need to force reset the game. Ten minutes in. Excellent start ffs.

Edit, the dog wondered off thus making the game not able to start a tutorial. I restarted and I managed to make it progress.
 
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TrainedRage

Banned
Have had 0 glitches or hiccups. I don't get how all these people with RTX's are having issues. Running fine for me.

So far I like it. Too many games right now AHHHHRrrrrggg.
 
What a disappointment. The reviews are so solid, and I was excited to dive in to an Outlast-esque experience. I played for a little over an hour and got to the first night scene with the video camera. I then proceeded to walk around in circles with my useless dog. There is no map (WHERE IS THE MAP?! - the movie) and Bullet's "Seek" function either just brings me trash or leads to him doing nothing. The XBox controls are janky at best. This probably plays much better on the PC, so I'll give it a shot with that on Gamepass. Either way, glad I didn't pay for this.
 
I am enjoying it. It kind of seems Silent Hillish to me. Like Downpour or something. I bet bloober would be a good dev to make Silent Hill.
 

dcx4610

Member
Why did this have to have the Blair Witch name on it? Granted I liked the original movie but it has a bit of a taint to it these days. If this was just a scary game in the woods and a new IP, I think everyone would be fairly excited. Instead, my reaction is not wanting to play a game based on Blair Witch.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
A fine take on psychological horror cut down by bugs and wonkiness.
Read this as “wokeness” at first and thought: Damn did they reveal the blair-witch and she looked like Anita Sarkeesian?
 

Arachnid

Member
Navigating this world is more tiresome than frightening, especially once you realize that you’re not in peril most of the time.

That's really not fun
Yeah, this is killing it for me too. I'm about two and a half hours in, and I realized how relatively safe I am after the first "combat" encounter. This same thing killed Layers of Fear for me too (which I've seen praised for some reason). Once I realized you were basically just walking forward and at no real risk of dying in that game, I realized how empty and boring it all was. Turns out this is by the same devs. Big surprise. They make the worst horror games.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
I've been enjoying it so far. There's some good moments that queue you back to the original movie.

You're at a tent, walk one direction and you come back to the tent.

The XB1X version is a bit wonky right now though. The camera is really jittery and the frame rate leaves a lot to be desired at times. I switched over to my PC and the experience is exponentially better.

One thing I'll give them though, the forest is absolutely gorgeous during the day and quite stressful at night.
 

Mista

Banned
Well shocking, just like Control/Man of Medan/etc., most reviewers who play on PC ignore the performance issues. I'll never understand why we keep promoting journalists when there are youtubers(karak) who do 10 times the work in a review.
Karak Karak is the only one I take seriously. A damn well made detailed reviews and not just a damn 2 minutes reviews

You want a detailed review? You watch ACG and that’s it.
 

dok1or

Member
Big fan of horror games... I loved observer, and Layers of Fear 2, but not first one...
Tried it, and I like it so far! Great atmosphere. And dog is great...

It looks great, but RX 5700 - avg 40/45 FPS @2560x1080


 
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raduque

Member
Big fan of horror games... I loved observer, and Layers of Fear 2, but not first one...
Tried it, and I like it so far! Great atmosphere. And dog is great...

It looks great, but RX 5700 - avg 40/45 FPS @2560x1080



I'm getting 25-40fps on my R5 3600 and OCed RX580. I locked it to 30fps and got rid of the judder, so now it's smooth, but the mimum is still 25-26fps. Gorgeous game, though!
 

raduque

Member
When its night it runs @60
I noticed that too, it runs way better at night, even with tons of light sources, just during the day the lighting model is overwhelming, I guess. My CPU hits like 15-20% usage or something, it's very GPU bound.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
Yeah, this is killing it for me too. I'm about two and a half hours in, and I realized how relatively safe I am after the first "combat" encounter. This same thing killed Layers of Fear for me too (which I've seen praised for some reason). Once I realized you were basically just walking forward and at no real risk of dying in that game, I realized how empty and boring it all was. Turns out this is by the same devs. Big surprise. They make the worst horror games.
The best horror games/films normally dont have death around every corner.
 

Tiamat2san

Member
Yeah, this is killing it for me too. I'm about two and a half hours in, and I realized how relatively safe I am after the first "combat" encounter. This same thing killed Layers of Fear for me too (which I've seen praised for some reason). Once I realized you were basically just walking forward and at no real risk of dying in that game, I realized how empty and boring it all was. Turns out this is by the same devs. Big surprise. They make the worst horror games.
I liked the first layer of fear because of the atmosphere.
The chase sequences in the second game where you can die are tedious and boring.
I prefer to be immersed in the ambiance than running make a wrong turn and die.... repeat... die... repeat... pass until the next time.
It’s not survival horror, it’s a pain in the ass.
That was also that who killed outlast 2 for me ( the story was good though) and I loved the first one.
 

Mochilador

Member
Man, this game is boring. It looks and runs bad too.
Edit: goddamn, this game is full of bugs, including game breaking ones.
 
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Arachnid

Member
The best horror games/films normally dont have death around every corner.
I liked the first layer of fear because of the atmosphere.
The chase sequences in the second game where you can die are tedious and boring.
I prefer to be immersed in the ambiance than running make a wrong turn and die.... repeat... die... repeat... pass until the next time.
It’s not survival horror, it’s a pain in the ass.
That was also that who killed outlast 2 for me ( the story was good though) and I loved the first one.
I agree with both of you on most counts, but there's a right way to do it. Amnesia did it right. You could count the number of enemies in that game on one hand (encounters were just frequent enough to keep you paranoid). I also agree that Outlast 2 goes overboard with the chase sequences and trial/error (other than the Whistleblower DLC, Outlast is a pretty mediocre series in general). This game and Layers of Fear are too far on the opposite end of the spectrum though. They take walking simulation to the max, to the point where there is no real sense of danger. A lack of peril kills the horror IMO (did anyone feel any real tension aiming your flashlight at some twitchy stationary twig people for the 4th time?).

Anyway, I just finished. The story was ok though predictable, the bugs were awful and constant, and the final chapter was the only somewhat enjoyable part of the game. IMO it wasn't worth the time I spent on the playthrough. For what it's worth though, I hope you guys enjoy it more than I did.
 
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kunonabi

Member
Watched a friend play through it and eh. Felt more like a dime a dozen western horror game than a blair witch game. It had some sort of ok ideas but it never pulls it all together in a meaningful way. The awful voice acting didnt help matters.
 

Masatshi

Member
nearly unplayable on xbox one x. severe stuttering and game-breaking bugs.
thankfully I got gamepass ultimate and was able to download it on PC. runs fine there (1080p/60fps with my 1080gpu). Achievements worked as well. Finished the game in one sitting. It's short, but "good"....
 
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