Today, Lionsgate Games is releasing a brand new Blair Witch gameplay trailer. Having originally debuted during E3 2019, we have seen very little of the upcoming take on the late 90’s cult hit film series. While still quite a short glimpse of next month’s release, today we are getting our first decent look at gameplay, the setting and more. Head below for the new trailer and more details.
The film series originally debuted back in 1999 and slowly became a smash at the box office after an initial limited release. Since then we saw a somewhat lackluster series of PC titles based on the screenplay, but the IP has remained mostly dormant otherwise. That is until Lionsgate Games and the developers at Bloober Team decided to reinvigorate the legend with what appears to be an entirely new story.
Back to the Woods:
Alongside today’s Blair Witch gameplay trailer, Bloober also dropped some details on its blog regarding the setup and story of the upcoming horror title. The narrative of the game follows Ellis, a former police officer who happens to be on the hunt for a missing person in the wrong forest. The game has Ellis exploring the haunted Black Hills Forest alongside his trustee canine circa 1996. As you might be imagining, Ellis runs in to some serious trouble when ghostly creatures and other supernatural forces begin to take shape in the forest.
Blair Witch Gameplay Details:
The first-person, horror game also features a sort of phycological element that sees Ellis slowly losing his mind as he encounters the horrors in the forest. While the Blair Witch gameplay trailer is quite short, there are some details we can pull that gives us a better idea of how this thing will actually play. The aforementioned furry friend is known as Bullet. The canine makes the perilous journey into the woods with you and appears to be an integral part of the experience. Players can pull up a rotary menu wheel to give Bullet commands including “Seek” as well as options for digging and more.
There is also clearly an emphasis on antiquated late 90’s cell phone technology as Ellis is, at least at some point, in contact with his girlfriend before his reception gets shaky. There are also several scenes with him carrying a sort of older looking camcorder — Outlast-style. That game actually used the sort of narrow, tunnel vision of a camcorder’s view finder (among other things) to enhance the tension and overall scares. And it appears some of that sentiment is being woven through the Blair Witch gameplay.
Blair Witch is set to release on Xbox One and PC come August 30th, 2019. Pre-orders are not yet available on Amazon and there is no official MSRP set by the looks of it.
9to5Toy’s Take:
While the entire thing seems like it could be a sort of vanilla version of what we got in Outlast, today’s Blair Witch gameplay trailer has restored some faith in me. There are a number of very interesting visual effects that appear to be linked to Ellis’ sanity (entire environments melt away and re-materialize in an odd and visually enticing fashion). The small taste we get of the acting looks as though it has a near-AAA vibe to it and the dog companion aspect sounds like it could an interesting wrinkle to the jump scare, phycological thriller genre. Only time will tell with this one, but hopes are certainly high.
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