![]() ![]() ![]() Bullet growls and glares at monsters, allowing me to spot them and shine my flashlight on them. I can also defend myself with Ellis’ flashlight and Bullet himself. Sometimes, I need to return to previous videos to change reality in some way so that I can advance, which makes keeping track of what is shown in each tape, and how it might be used, a useful strategy. I can run through videos, stopping and pausing, as many times as I need. If I let the video run to the point where the toy has been picked up and removed, it’s gone and I can no longer interact with it. If I pause the video when the toy is on the ground, there it is on the ground in front of me, ready to be picked up. One video depicts a child dropping a toy. Not only do these tapes contain valuable exposition, but Ellis can also use them to change reality itself. The markers we rely on to keep ourselves safe, ideas that we take for granted, like the fact that down is down and time only moves in one direction, may no longer apply.Įllis can find red video tapes shared throughout the woods. We’re in separate realities, and I only have limited control over the physical and logical rules of the reality in which I find myself. At one point, I stand beneath a tree and talk to my boss, who claims to be standing next to the same tree. Reality has warped around Ellis - the woods now have concrete bunkers and trenches, impossibly placed vehicles, and ominous black vines pulling trees down to the earth. It’s the sort of thing that might amp up the fear, if the dialogue wasn’t a little silly and the characters weren’t enthusiastically chewing so much scenery in their acting choices.īut obviously, the creatures are real, and they seem to be hunting Ellis and Bullet. They share stories of local legends and evil witches over their walkie-talkie as they search for the missing boy. Supernatural baddies haunt the woods, and the characters have recently discovered the tapes of The Blair Witch Project, the original found-footage movie that launched the franchise. That’s something we have to grapple with, and it’s part of what drives him into the forest on his own redemption arc. Ellis isn’t a good person, and he is not presented as one. We get to see the darkest parts of Ellis’s past struggles through his point of view, and it’s a vivid and shocking depiction of someone with mental health issues lashing out at loved ones and struggling with thoughts of suicide. Ellis falls off the path, and becomes disoriented and anxious. Things quickly spin out of control, of course. There is a lot of walking, and a lot of listening and looking around. The core gameplay is reminiscent of Firewatch, just in a much spookier locale. I spend most of my time in the woods walking around, following Bullet and picking up clues as I go. The game begins when Ellis joins a search party to help find a lost boy. ![]() I have a Nokia brick for a phone, a flashlight, a backpack, a walkie-talkie, and a camcorder. Blair Witch takes place in 1994, which means that Ellis is equipped with basic tools for survival. ![]()
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