Blair Witch

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Lose yourself in the Black Hills Forest, with only your dog to trust.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (79% of 8,262 reviews); Metacritic 69 on PC
Length: about 5 to 7 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Bloober Team
Released: 2019

What frightens You search the Black Hills Forest at night for a missing boy, with only a flashlight, a camcorder and your dog; the woods loop and change, stick figures hang in the trees, and things you can barely see circle you in the dark.
Content: jumpscares, violence, mental illness themes, flashing lights.

Blair Witch is a first-person psychological horror game from Bloober Team set in the world of The Blair Witch Project. In 1996, former police officer Ellis joins the search for a missing boy in the Black Hills Forest with his dog Bullet, and the woods begin to twist time, memory and his own mind.

About Blair Witch

Blair Witch was made by Bloober Team, the studio behind Layers of Fear and The Medium, in partnership with Lionsgate, and released in 2019 on PC and Xbox One, then on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It tells a new story set in the Black Hills Forest of Burkittsville, Maryland, two years after the events of the 1999 film.

You play Ellis, an ex-police officer and veteran who joins the search for a missing boy. Your companion is Bullet, a German Shepherd who can sniff out clues, warn you of danger and lead you back to the path. You carry a flashlight, an old mobile phone and a camcorder. The camcorder is the game's best idea: red-labelled tapes found in the woods can be played back, and pausing a tape at the right moment changes the world around you, turning a fallen tree back upright or opening a way that was not there.

The forest is the antagonist. Paths loop, the same clearing comes round again, night falls too fast, and stick figures and wooden totems hang from the branches. Creatures that move only when unseen circle you, and you drive some away with your flashlight while Bullet barks toward them. Ellis's memories of the war and of a past case seep into the woods, and how you treat Bullet shapes the ending.

It is a slow, oppressive game more than a frantic one. It suits players who loved the film's sense of being lost and watched, and those who like story-led psychological horror.

How to play Blair Witch

Follow the trail into the forest and use Bullet: tell him to seek, and follow him to clues and the way forward.
Use the flashlight to see and to drive back the creatures that come out of the dark.
Play the red-labelled tapes on the camcorder and pause them at the right moment to change the forest around you.
Check your phone for messages and calls that move the story on.
Treat Bullet well: pet him and give him treats; how you treat him affects the ending.