If you’ve yet to dive into the series, then let the Blair Witch video game serve are your entry point to the Witch’s cursed woods.

The Blair Witch game is going to be the best horror game you’ve played in a long while, and here’s why.

First off, if you’ve haven’t watched the original Blair Witch film, you should. It far outpaces all of its clone-like competitors in that it not only set the standard for the found-footage horror genre, but also #invented it.

While the latest theatrical release for the Blair Witch series in 2016 was critically panned, it opened up the doors for more witchy story telling. Burkittsville, Maryland has seen a lot of hapless twentysomethings go crazy and/or fall victim to the legend of the Witch, and now, it’s Ellis’ turn to see if he can survive the wooded mayhem.

The ‘Blair Witch’ game will tell, not show

The first-person perspective of the Blair Witch game will set the mood perfectly for the adventure/horror title. The original film did it best, and now, the video game sequel story intends on drawing in fans of the 1999 film for one more wild ride through the woods.

Ellis has the “troubled past” trope down pat, but listen, listen: He’s travelling with a dog. This speechless companion will make the horror of the game all that more terrifying. Sure, listening to three friends whimpering in the dark had some spooky elements in the 1999 film, but that trope has seen its fair share of failures.

The exploration elements of the Blair Witch video game are already giving me the willies. I already had to stop playing a lot of other horror games on account of being too chicken to finish them, but I have hope that my love for this series will get me through what is sure to be an interesting new story in the Witch’s mythos.

And if the game does anything right, it will follow through with the promises of its trailers: the Jaws effect. Spreading the underlying dread is something games like Alien: Isolation did amazingly. Unfortunately, it’s not common that video games follow films like Signs and yes, even the diet Blair Witch film Paranormal Activity, in relying on the underlying, unseen horror of the situation, rather than how often they can shove the monster’s grizzled mug into your line of sight.

Following in the footsteps of silent evil

The horror video game genre has largely been formulated by both the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. While the two have had their ups and downs, they’ve proven one thing: first person is the scariest way to play a horror game.

Crafting weapons, throwing up your hands in fear, hearing your heavy breathing and heartbeat, and having a limited perspective all gift players the joy of experiencing true horror. If Blair Witch follows in the footsteps of games like Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, then we’re hitting the ground running.

The most important lesson the Blair Witch game can learn from the Evil series comes from the Resident Evil 2 remake. While RE2 did a great job at building an environment, it struggled to translate an antiquated inventory system that ultimately stole from the players’ horror experience.

When it comes to a good horror game, you want to think just enough, but there has to come a point where you let the story take hold. There should be a good amount of strategy to completing a horror game, but when the monster is right in front of you, you shouldn’t have to be worrying about reaching the safehouse for the fifth time to return the puzzle piece needed to advance. It’s poor pacing, and is any horror games’ downfall.

The witchcraft of it all

In the Blair Witch video game trailer, Ellis is seen crafting, and crushing the series’ iconic bundle of twigs. It seems as though he’s either going to be goading out the witch, losing his sanity because of the witch, or both.

From the little snippets we get of the story, there seem to be elements of the original film present in the 2019 video game. Sure, Heather and friends thought it was all good and fun to pull out the camcorders and make light jokes about the wood’s resident Wiccan. The real mental torture begins when the hunter becomes the prey.

Just as many before him were there to do, Ellis is drawn to the woods of Burkittsville to get some answers on a missing persons case. As a former police officer, Ellis is keen on mystery, but his remaining wits must be about him if he expects to make it out of the Black Hills Forest alive.

The Blair Witch game will study “your reactions to fear and stress” along with pitting “your sanity against her curse,” and I have no doubt that both of those statements are true. I’m sure that I’m going to need a lot of breaks to get through this psychological thriller, but the end result will be oh so worth it.

The Blair Witch video game releases on August 30, 2019 for Xbox One and PC.