Horror is a videogame genre that the industry has perpetually exploited in every possible and imaginable way. The last few years in particular have seen a veritable proliferation of experiences aimed at frightening the public, with results that are often embarrassing but have nevertheless proved to be media and commercial successes thanks to successful streamers and youtubers. Among the millions of indie developers devoid of any creative flicker and eager only to earn fifteen minutes of glory, however, it happens also to come across talented teams and potentially capable of bringing to light products overflowing with charisma.
This is the case of Bloober Team, Polish software house that since its first production has been able to violently split the public, between adoring fans and much more critical gamers. The various works brought to light by the company have in fact always sported a splendid art design combined with a horrifying mood of goosebumps, pillars of products which, however, have always been characterized by poor and not very intriguing playful components, an exhausting dualism that for years has prevented the company from taking the leap forward that many might have expected.
But when the development team officially presented his Blair Witch during the conference Microsoft products From last E3, many glimpsed in that short video an experience that not only seemed beautiful to look at but also exciting to play. After months of rumors, trailers and various statements, we at Resources4Gaming were finally able to touch the latest effort by Bloober Team and now we are ready to give you our final judgment on it.
The forest of horrors
The current year is 1996, we are on a road surrounded by dense vegetation when a car appears that breaks the gentle silence of the area. At its guide there is Ellis, a former cop with a stormy past who has been searching for a mysteriously missing child over the past few weeks, all together with his trusty four-legged companion Bullet, a dog with an excellent nose that would be ready to follow his master anywhere. Starting from this simple premise, a journey into the heart of despair and madness will begin, a grueling race for redemption but full of sinful temptations and dangers hidden in every corner of the terrifying forest in which we will be locked up. Narratively speaking, Blair Witch is a work that sports an embarrassing string of clichés typical for the genre, a continuum of situations and events seen and reviewed in a thousand other works, with Ellis in particular representing the stereotype of the horror genre par excellence, a man whose life has been marked by all possible and imaginable traumas, with a love affair in collapse and now closed in on itself.
Yet, on the other hand, the events are followed with pleasure from the introduction to the end credits between twists, heart-pounding moments and more reflective phases. The screenplay thus manages to stand up with its legs keeping the player on duty several times with bated breath and the desire to find out how the events of our digital alter-ego will end. Yet everything did not always go as planned and on several occasions we have felt a palpable lack of rhythm, long phases of the game in which we found ourselves moving backwards from one place to another without anything really interesting happening. Precisely for this reason, the most distinctly horror component of the opera lives up and down, between moments of tension and others rather poor, all accompanied by a particularly successful final sequence where the team wanted to indulge. The real backbone of the entire adventure, however, is summed up in the gigantic forest of Black Hills, a place so splendid to discover when the Sun is high in the sky, as terrifying to explore in the heart of the darkest night, a gloomy and suffocating labyrinth where we will go through a nightmare made of flashbacks and dreamlike scenes in which reality and fantasy will merge between them seamlessly. As if that wasn't enough, the developers have also opted for a multiple-end structure where our in-game actions will have a certain impact on how our journey ends, all through a series of choices. 'other than clear and clearly distinguishable, a succession of smoky decisions that in some cases we could take without even realizing it.
Man's best friend
It is though under the more properly playful profile that Blair Witch has been able to surprise us, all thanks to a much more complex and layered game structure than seen with the previous Bloober Team productions. As easily imaginable, what stands out most of all is its own our dog, a precious ally who in-game has turned out to be a real all-round co-star, a friend to whom we will slowly but surely grow fond of. From the very first moments in-game, in fact, we will be given the opportunity to interact with Bullet in various ways, perhaps asking him to find some leads to follow or, again, of look for objects of interest nearby. Not rarely you will happen to see Bullet take the initiative, but often we will have to use the special menu to give him some commands, including the possibility of cuddling him and giving him some biscuits. While we play it will be important to make sure to treat our faithful companion in the best possible way, stroking him when he has done some action and rewarding him in case he finds out some important detail. Depending on our attitude towards him, in fact, not only will we be able to observe an effective impact on the end of the events, but the Bullet himself will behave differently towards us, perhaps remaining close to us in moments of danger or totally ignoring our orders.
Cryptic shrubs
Between one command and another, however, the game will not even disdain investigative phases in which to launch into the collection of useful documents to better understand the lore that revolves around the Black Hills forest and puzzle games of various kinds. Speaking precisely of riddles, there is in particular the presence of some cassettes marked with a red tape that can be used in conjunction with our video camera to manipulate reality. By going forwards or backwards between the recordings and stopping the video at the right time, we will be able to change the game world in real time, thus obtaining important objects or freeing otherwise blocked passages, an undoubtedly nice idea that helps to immerse the game even more. in the mood created by the development team. Finally they will not fail to make their appearance a whole series of dangerous creatures from having to face in various ways, between beings visible only through the infrared light of our video camera and fast monsters to have to hit with the light beam of our trusty flashlight, all being guided by the yelps of Bullet. The final result is a combination of pleasant ideas capable of diversifying an experience that otherwise would have been terribly monotonous, a production that never aims to surprise with particularly unique design choices but always shown to be rather fresh and fun.
Yet, on the other hand, not everything went as planned and analyzing the production a little more in depth we happened to run into some bad slip. On more than one occasion, in fact, we will have to move in relatively large areas of the forest trying to find the right way to continue the adventure, extremely nerve-wracking game phases in which the total lack of any indication has led us often and willingly to go around in circles over and over again without having the slightest idea where we should go. Worse still, the game suffers from a totally useless Game-Over structure and for one artificial intelligence of our pretty ballerina dog. Most of the time Bullet will behave exactly as scheduled by perfectly executing our orders, but on some occasions it has happened to us that it totally did its own thing, wrapping up on the spot, escaping into the vegetation or getting stuck in some corner of the map. From a more purely technical point of view, Blair Witch lives of ups and downs, with a general job that on PC never makes you cry for a miracle, but flanked by the very solid artistic direction to which the guys of Bloober Team have now got us used. The sound sector, on the other hand, proved to be of great impact, with an excellent English dubbing alongside a simply perfect sampling of sounds, a meticulous work that helped to immerse us even more in the ghostly forest of Black Hills.
