Blair Witch Nintendo Switch Review

"Witching Hour"

Campaign

July 6, 2020 at 3:24am
By Jason Stettner

This game is inspired by the film of the same name, with this narrative taking place in 1996. There’s a young boy that’s gone missing in the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland. You’re stepping into the shoes of a former police officer named Ellis, who is suffering from a troubled past. Due to these problems, Ellis decides to join the search for this young kid.

This creates some rather haunting, and definitely traumatizing moments out there in those woods. It’s quite interesting as you get to see a mix of light and dark environments. Some areas are more linear in nature, whereas others feel open despite throwing you for a loop. The story is displayed through moments you witness, and others to you produce by rewinding tapes.

That’s a very interesting mechanic of play actually, to send back time to find hints as to what’s going on here. Past that, it’s genuinely creepy and digs into a psychological aspect. The events are always challenging you as you see this individual break down across a looped forest of horror. It creeps in on you, and it’s hard to keep your sanity in check throughout.

Gameplay

With this being on the Nintendo Switch, there are some significant downgrades in terms of the visuals and some performance issues. I do actually think that the visual murkiness adds a little to the style of the game strangely. At least in a blur effect to the world, as your sanity melts down. The character model in cutscenes was rough, as was the look of your faithful dog.

A big mechanic of this is going around with Bullet, a good doggy that assists you while traveling around. The dog will keep you sane, while also being a generally helpful form of guidance. At times I did find this guidance to be confusing, but that’s also part of the confusion this aims to provide.

There’s a certain loop element that I’ve been teasing, and yes you go around in some areas which is really quite neat. This is a well laid out forest as it feels natural while also having you hit the same spots at times just to play around with you. There are some neat spots that stick out, and I think the setting is generally well done. This looks ok on a big screen, and while undocked a tad jagged around the edges.

I’d say it’s alright on the Nintendo Switch, but not the ideal combo of performance and visuals. I will also mention that it has a neat way of story delivery through calls and texts, with some other tools coming into play such as a light at certain times.

The Conclusion

Blair Witch Nintendo Switch delivers the full creepy experience, while having some visual and performance drawbacks. This is a single player experience so performance isn’t as big of a deal, but the visual aspect does make it harder to get around at times since it’s murky. I felt that added a bit to the horror, but it also detracted from what the original artist’s intention were development wise.

I think this is a fairly expansive sort of horror game. It provides a good amount of value in terms of time and the setup of this world. It might also take you longer than anticipated due to how fast you move through areas, and deal with the problems around you.

It’s not directly something with conflict, but there are moments where you may need to defend yourself. It’s a dark forest out there, and there might be some other things waiting to cause some problems for you. Hopefully you and your close doggy pal Bullet can handle the problems as this might test you.

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Blair Witch Review on Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by Evolve PR

Rating Overall: 6.0