What you need to know
- Microsoft recently announced Blair Witch for Xbox One and PC.
- It's a first-person psychological horror experience that is similar to Layers of Fear.
- It's coming to the platforms on August 30.
- Blair Witch will launch on Xbox Game Pass and is available to preorder for $30 through the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab).
At E3 2019, Microsoft surprised by revealing a game inspired by the Blair Witch Project for Xbox One and PC. Blair Witch is a famous horror film franchise that is considered a cult classic. The game can be preordered for $30, but will also be available through Xbox Game Pass in August.
Blair Witch is set in 1996 and you play as a detective. Gameplay involves searching the woods at night with a flashlight, a dog at your side. The reveal trailer suggested that the title will place the player in the same kind of eerie vulnerability which was the hallmark of the "recovered footage" style of the 1999 film.
The new gameplay trailer showcases some of the supernatural elements of Blair Witch. There are plenty of jump scares that will surely delight horror fans. The narrative structure appears to be similar to Firewatch where you have a voice over the radio guiding you.
The Microsoft Store page says that it runs at 4K resolution on the system. It should look incredibly crisp on modern displays because even an upscaled image from 1080p looks quite blurry. Blair Witch is coming to Xbox One and PC on August 30. It's unclear how long the experience is, but from the trailer, the game looks like it features high production values. Microsoft doesn't have a lot of horror games in its catalog, so this one should make a great addition.
Survive the night
Blair Witch will return players to 1996, treading the same ground as the 1999 film that was a breakout success for the found-footage genre of horror.
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