Blair Witch (video game series)

Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr

While Volume 1 is intended to take place within the fictional universe of the Blair Witch, the game is technically also a sequel to Nocturne, the game for which the trilogy's engine was originally developed. Elspeth "Doc" Holliday was a minor character in Nocturne, with several other characters from that game also appearing, including Master Khen Rigzin, Colonel Hapscomb, General Biggs, an unnamed secretary, Svetlana Lupescu, and The Stranger appearing at the start of the game. The Stranger reappears later in the game, on the fourth day, as the player's partner. Some enemies from Nocturne such as bat-like creatures and a werewolf also appear in the beginning of the game in the training session.

The story takes place in the year 1941, and with the exception of the opening section in the Spookhouse HQ, the game takes place over four days. Research scientist Elspeth "Doc" Holliday is dispatched to the town of Burkittsville by the Spookhouse, a fictional classified government agency charged with investigating paranormal occurrences.

It is reported that during the early 1940s, a hermit named Rustin Parr abducted seven children from Burkittsville and, apparently without motive, murdered all but one in his basement. He forced the surviving child, Kyle Brody, to stand in a corner and listen to the screams of the children being tortured and murdered. Afterwards Rustin Parr left his house in the forest, walked into town, and said to a local shopkeeper, "I'm finally finished."

The player must guide Holliday through her investigations, to see if there is any truth to Parr's claims that he was under the influence of otherworldly forces when he committed the murders. The investigation includes conversing with inhabitants of the town and analyzing clues. Action sequences occur intermittently in the woods where the legendary Blair Witch is rumored to live, as well as in nightmare sequences in which the inhabitants of the town seem to become Daemites (demonic zombies). The story of Rustin Parr, minus the involvement of Holliday, was described briefly in The Blair Witch Project, and more fully in the pseudo-documentary Curse of the Blair Witch, which accompanied the DVD release of the film.

The main antagonist of the series is not actually the Blair Witch, but a Native American demon called Hecaitomix. It is explained through the game and the series that this demon controlled and possessed others, like Elly Kedward, and (through Kyle Brody) influenced Rustin Parr.

The game contains references from David Lynch's Twin Peaks. There are several references in the game, most notably a Dale Cooper facsimile making a cameo appearance in the Burkittsville Diner, directly using quotes from the television show ("Damn fine cup of coffee... and Hot!"; "This must be where pies go when they die."). His name is given as "Hale" only when chatting to him while the town sheriff is present; during Holliday's nightmare, a possessed Hale exclaims that the diner "must be where pies go when they die" while actually sitting before a plate of writhing human intestines.

Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock

The second installment of the game is based on a story that was related briefly in the first game and the original movie. It is the tale of a Union soldier during the American Civil War, Lieutenant Robert MacNichol, who is mortally wounded in battle and left for dead. As he slips into unconsciousness, he hears a mysterious voice say, "Your time is not up yet, soldier. I have need of you yet!". Sure enough, his time is not up - a young girl called Robin Weaver finds him and helps him back to the isolated house where she lives with her grandmother, Bess.

While he heals, MacNichol has a number of hallucinations and a near-death experience, in which he learns, but does not fully comprehend, that Robin is in danger. When he awakes, it is discovered that he is suffering from amnesia, and cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his past is the uniform he wears. Since MacNichol cannot remember his name, Robin's grandmother, a devout Christian, temporarily names him Lazarus.

Robin's grandmother, with Lazarus now in her debt, informs him that Robin has disappeared into the woods and begs him to find her. She is convinced that "the woods have her." Lazarus regards this as paranoia, and thinks that Robin has simply gone to play in the woods and is late in returning. Bess is insistent, however, and the soldier reluctantly agrees to help in the search for Robin.

As the game progresses, Lazarus recalls elements of his past, by means of flashback game sequences, which slowly explain how the current events come to be.

Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale

The final episode of the trilogy is an original story that was not mentioned in the film, although it was briefly referred to in the first two games. It is basically an origin story, telling of how the Blair Witch legend came to be, set in 1785, in the early days of the Blair Township (later renamed Burkittsville). The story's main character is Jonathan Prye, a former priest who left the clergy during a crisis of faith. Prye, now a witch-hunter, is called to Blair to investigate events related to the disappearance of a woman called Elly Kedward a few weeks earlier.

Elly Kedward was accused of witchcraft after it was found she had been drawing blood from the local children and performing pagan rituals. She was tried, convicted and sentenced to be banished from the town. Instead, the locals tied her to a wheelbarrow, dragged her into the nearby woods and left her to freeze to death. Kedward disappeared from the wheelbarrow to which she was tied, and was never seen again.

A few days later, children from the township began to disappear, and the terrified villagers began to flee — with only the local magistrate, Jonah, and the township's chaplain, Father Hale Goodfellow, remaining behind. Father Goodfellow is convinced that a supernatural force is at work; Jonah, a skeptic, refuses to believe this, assuming Kedward is behind the kidnappings and is still at large near the town.

There are also two people who are locked in a jail in the town: Hirrum Heathtow is a drunk, and Elizabeth Styler is a supposed witch who was arrested when she was found in Elly's house, reciting strange phrases.

The player must guide Prye through his investigation, to discover what happened to Elly Kedward.

Volume 1

On Metacritic, a site which aggregates normalized review scores, Volume 1 has the highest average score of the trilogy with 73 out of 100. GameRankings also gave it 71.58%. GameSpot awarded the game a 7.1 out of 10, praising its atmosphere but calling its combat "mediocre". Eurogamer also highlights the game's atmosphere but said this about the game's length:

"Sadly, there is one big crux as far as Rustin Parr goes, and that's longevity. Like a film or book with a twist in the tail and an engrossing story-line, you can happily read it again and the odd bit here or there will make more sense, but you'll never get quite the same level of enjoyment out of it as you did before. Add to this the fact that Rustin Parr is over in what seems like an instant and you have cause for some alarm."

ActionTrip was more critical of the game and awarded it a 5.9 out of 10. Cited are its "bad controls", "godawful camera angles" and its re-purposing of a classic adventure game engine for a more action-oriented game. On the positive side of things, the author approved of the game's story and mood. AllGame described the game as "one of the scariest games you're likely to experience on the PC in the year 2000" but that the greatest drawback was the controls, stating that "it takes what seems forever to re-center yourself after you turn around and also, when you look up or down, you can get disoriented before you realize you aren't looking straight ahead anymore. This can be very frustrating, especially when you are trying to fight off the many undead creatures in the forest." and that the game was short, taking only about 10 hours to finish.

Volume 2

Blair Witch Volume 2: Coffin Rock was met with mixed reception upon release. GameRankings gave it a score of 56.42%, while Metacritic gave it 56 out of 100.

Volume 3

Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale was also met with mixed reception upon release. GameRankings gave it a score of 59.10%, while Metacritic gave it 55 out of 100.