Rob Hansen

So much potential. Unfortunately it's held back by some bugginess, and a lack of action. I'm not looking for Resident Evil but something of a little more substance surely isn't too much to ask for. It's 90% atmosphere and 10% gameplay. There's a lot to like about the mechanics... Once you get through the painstakingly slow first few chapters of trial and error figuring out how the game functions. It's designed to be frustrating and make you feel like you're going mad along with the character which took me some time to realize and accept. Once I did, that became my favourite aspect of the game. I have two major gripes; first is that there really isn't much connection to the Blair Witch IP. The witch is nowhere to be found, the forest is well realized and spooky for sure but there's no real threat. The place feels mostly empty and as if you're completely free to walk around without worrying about anything getting you, save for I want to say 2 quick sections. It really misses the nightime terror of the original film. Here you spend almost the entire game walking around at night with no more than some atmospheric music. Where's the crazy witch sounds, cackling and screaming, the feeling of being stalked. I didn't get any of that. There are other characters in the beginning of the story and they just get written out almost immediately and impact nothing. The catalyst for the story (the reason you're out there) essentially gets dropped halfway through along with any intrigue and momentum that it had. Basically it's 'Blair Witch' related in name only, which is pretty brutal considering they had everything they needed to make this a killer Blair Witch game. My second gripe and this is a massive one; I encountered a bug that prevented me from being able to pick up a certain item near the end of the game, meaning that I could not progress to the end. So... Maybe the witch does show up, but I never got to see that because the game is broken. Rip. Was somewhat fun while it lasted.