After a long period IP dormancy, it was certainly surprising to see the announcement of yet another Blair Witch video game at the last E3. As of just yesterday, a few new minutes of gameplay not seen in the original E3 demo are now available courtesy of Game Informer, giving a better window into what kind of game this will be.
The Blair Witch game seems to be more mechanic heavy than some of the earlier titles, as this time around there will be flashlight centric combat with the Blair Witch’s various minions throughout the forest. The gameplay and commentary below also delve a bit into the various capabilities of the dog companion, Bullet, who seems to be much more of an asset rather than just a passive companion. Bullet’s capabilities include the ability to detect and warn the player of nearby monsters as well as fetching out of reach items. There is an accompanying ‘trust’ mechanic tied to Bullet as well, but not much details are known about it at the moment beyond the fact that increasing/maintaining it will lead to Bullet becoming much for adept at his various tasks. When I saw the initial trailer at E3, I honestly expected the dog to be a background piece, a character just there for a prologue that would inevitably get killed off. It’s nice to see that isn’t the case; dogs are cool and horror games can get lonely, so I’m sure as hell not gonna complain.
The Blair Witch game will release on August 30th on Xbox One and PC. In the meantime, you can read our thoughts on Blooper Team’s most recent release, Layers of Fear 2.