Blair Witch Hands-On Preview: You'll want to protect this dog from your life

video game trying to stroke the dog. Believe me, you'll want to do it. Your faithful Bullet canine companion is the only thing you'll need to help you in Blair Witch, who announces himself as a scary little back-and-forth at a time when camcorders were at the forefront of technology. It's part of your (limited) arsenal just like your camcorder, mobile phone and flashlight, but it's also an extremely adorable partner you'll want to protect against the mysterious horrors of Black Hills Forest.

As a former cop named Ellis looking for 9-year-old Peter Shannon, in the depths of the said forest, you're armed with a camcorder, a walkie-talkie 39, a flashlight and Bullet. All have their uses, but Bullet is the most used minute by minute. You can order it in different ways: pick up, reprimand (who would choose this command forever), stay, stay close and be familiar, and I'm told that the way you treat him will influence his behavior later in the game. So, praising it is not just something you want to do, it's something you should do.

When I started my research at the woods entrance, I asked Bullet to use Seek, which serves as a catch-all command for identifying objects and key trails. As I plunged deeper into the woods and the sky turned to a sickly yellow, I began to get pissed off as he left. I wanted my boyfriend to be close if something attacked me, after all.

It did not help that the video game Blair Witch likes to disorient you. It takes its bearings in the film, where suddenly shit begins to fall and you're not really sure what it is, but you know you just have to run, what I've spent a lot of time in the demo to do. Environments will suddenly fall back on themselves or begin to gradually turn into reality, letting you blindly switch to security. It's a clever way to make sure you feel completely helpless; a slice of the demo saw me forcing my way through a black grotto, my flashlight stammering on weak batteries in the pre-LED era of the 1990s.

Like the movie, the video game Blair Witch does not want to be explicit about its horrors; the enemies in Blair Witch The Video Game are barely blurry, but very ubiquitous. Bullet will help you locate them – his grunts will alert you of their presence – and you "fight" them by lighting up your Alan Wake flashlight (though some events that I've also seen suggest that this n & # 39; 39 is not a coherent rule).

Later in the demo, I found my first video tape of the iconic camcorder series, which you can browse to change environment. In this case, I quickly advanced the footage of a door being opened in order to open the same door in my reality. This is a bit of a puzzle when it comes to puzzle solving, but it's a little trick to make the camcorder relevant in an interactive environment.

The demonstration ended with a looped, disoriented walk through the witch's house, with scary child's footprints and a very effective fear of jumps. Unfortunately, Bullet was not found in this section; and even though I'm told he can not be killed in gameplay, his story remains mysterious. I can not wait to play Blair Witch, the 5 to 6 hour video game experience, to make sure that damn doggo does not die.