A brand new gameplay trailer has been released for Blair Witch, an upcoming first-person psychological horror game from Bloober Team, the developers behind Observer and Layers of Fear 2. Announced during E3 2019, Blair Witch will be an original story set in the same universe as the popular Lionsgate's film franchise and will be released on Xbox One and PC on August 30.
Accompanied by the tagline, "Turn off the lights. Put on the headphones. Prepare for the curse of the Black Hills Forest," the new gameplay trailer offers some insight into the story of Blair Witch, as well as introducing some of the main cast. Players will take on the role of Ellis, a former police officer who has joined the search for a young boy that has disappeared in the Black Hills forest, located near Burkittsville, Maryland.
Set in 1996, the Black Hills Forest is home to the Blair Witch, and what starts as an ordinary investigation in search of a missing boy soon turns into a nightmare. The trailer opens with Ellis answering a phone call from a woman named Jess, only to respond, "this is no longer just a missing person case." Ellis is accompanied by a German Shepherd named Bullet that can be commanded to do a variety of tasks such as going out and searching the area ahead for clues or digging up buried items.
Based on the footage that's been released so far, players will have control of four main items: a flashlight, a walkie-talkie, a phone, and a camcorder. GameInformer recently released 10 minutes of gameplay for Blair Witch, which offered a little more insight into the items and combat. For example, the camcorder can be used for view footage from various tapes that can be found in the forest to help with puzzle-solving. The player will also have a backpack which is considered as a separate item from the others and is likely used to store items found in the world such as a hat or the camcorder tapes.
The new gameplay gave a great deal of insight into how Blair Witch will play and shows an impressive variety of enemies and locations including the forest, house, and a mysterious corridor seen in the camcorder "memories," that indicate there's a lot more to this game than originally thought. Bloober Team is building on the success of their Layers of Fear series and taking inspiration from other horror and adventure games such as Outlast and Firewatch, so its no wonder that Blair Witch was one of the best horror games of the show at E3 2019.
Blair Witch releases on August 30 for Xbox One and PC.