The Blair Witch Project (video games)

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The Blair Witch video games are a trilogy of action adventure games for Windows-based PCs based on the backstory of the movie The Blair Witch Project. All three games made use of the Nocturne Engine and were published by Gathering of Developers, although each of the three games was developed by a different team.

[edit] Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr

While the game is intended to be based within the fictional universe of the Blair Witch Project, the game is technically also a sequel to Nocturne the game for which the trilogy's engine was originally developed. Volume 1 incorporates elements from both stories. The central character is Elspeth "Doc" Holliday, a research scientist who briefly appeared in the game's prequel. A calm, collected individual, she is dispatched by the Spookhouse, an allegedly classified government agency charged with investigating paranormal occurrences, to the town of Burkittsville, where it is reported that a hermit by the name of Rustin Parr has abducted a number of children and, apparently without motive, murdered all but one. He forces the surviving child to stand in a corner and listen to the screams of the children being tortured and killed.

The player must guide Holliday through her investigations, which include conversing with inhabitants of the town and analysing clues left behind. Action sequences come intermittently in the woods where the legendary Blair Witch is rumored to live, as well as in nightmare sequences where the inhabitants of the town seem to have become daemites.

The story of Rustin Parr, minus the involvement of Holliday, was briefly covered in the first movie.

[edit] Trivia

• With the exception of the beginning in the Spookhouse HQ, the game is divided in 4 days.
• Some character's from Nocturne appear at the start of the game (Master Khen Rigzin, Coronel Hapscomb, General Biggs, an unnamed secretary, Svetlana Lupescu, Stranger and a new Doc Holliday assistant, Justine). Stranger later appear in the game in the Fourth day, as your partner.
• Some enemies from Nocturne (the bat creatures, a werewolf) appear in the beginning of the game, at the Training room.
• The Daemites, that appear in the night of the first day (what is really a nightmare), later appear in the BloodRayne game.
• The main antagonist of the series, it's not exactly the Blair Witch, but a demon called Hecaitomix. It's 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 final scene of the first movie appear in the third day, but in a different overview. This scene also show what probably (according to the game) happened after with Heather and Josh.
• The character of Asgaya Gigagei also appear more younger as a shaman in the third game, The Elly Kedward Tale.

[edit] Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock

[edit] General overview

The second instalment of the game surrounds a story that was explained briefly in the first game and the original movie. It tells the tale of a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War 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!". Surely enough, his time is not up - a young girl by the name of Robin Weaver finds him and helps him back to the isolated house where she resides with her grandmother, Bess.

While he heals, he has a number of hallucinations and a near-death experience, where he learns, but does not fully comprehend, that Robin is in danger. When he awakes, it emerges that he is suffering from amnesia, and cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his history is the uniform that he wears. With no name, Robin's grandmother, a devout Christian, temporarily names him Lazarus.

Robin's grandmother, with the soldier 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". The soldier perceives this as paranoia and believes that she has simply gone to play in the woods and is late back. Bess is insistent however, and the soldier agrees reluctantly to assist in the search for Robin.

As time progresses in the game, Lazarus recalls elements of his past which slowly explain how the events come to be.

[edit] Trivia

• The uniform of Lazarus is seen in the first game, at Robin Weaver's house and he is mentioned some times in the game.
• The character of Peter Durant appear in the first game as an old librarian. In the second game, he is younger and tells Lazarus some of the Blair Witch legend.

[edit] Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale

[edit] General overview

The final episode of the trilogy was an original story that was not covered in the film, although it was briefly mentioned in the original two games. It is fundamentally an "in the beginning" telling of how the Blair Witch legend came to be. Set in the early days of the Blair Township in the 18th century, the story centres around Jonathan Prye, a witch-hunter. Prye, a former priest who left the clergy due to a crisis of faith, is called to Blair to investigate the events surrounding a woman by the name of Elly Kedward.

Kedward stood accused of witchcraft when it was found she had been drawing blood from the local children and committing pagan rituals. She was tried, convicted and sentenced to be banished from the town. The locals tied her to a wheelbarrow, dragged her into the nearby woods and left her to freeze to death.

Elly Kedward disappeared and was never seen again, leaving behind only the wheelbarrow to which she was tied. Soon after, children from the township began to disappear, and the population began to flee out of fear - with only the local magistrate, Jonah, and the township's chaplain, Father Hale Goodfelow, remaining behind. The chaplain is convinced that an evil supernatural force is at work - the magistrate, a skeptic, refuses to believe this.

There are also two people who is locked in a jail in the town, one is a drunk, Hirrum, and the other, Elizabeth Styler, is a witch who was arrested when was found in the Elly's house, saying strange phrases.

The player must guide Prye through his investigation to establish what happened to the Blair Witch.

[edit] Trivia

• The character of Jonathan Prye appeared briefly in the first game, but voiced by another actor, and gives Doc Holliday his journal. They meet each other in a "dark path", a dark dimension, where "there is no time, only place; past, present and future, all at once". it is unknown why Doc does not appear in the third game, to signify that happenstance.
• The character of Asgaya Gigagei also appears in the first game, but with some differences. There, he is a old man who lives in the center of the forest and also help Doc Holliday (the protagonist of the first game) in her mission.
• Despite the title, Elly Kedward does not appear any time in the game.

[edit] Links

• Survival horror game
• The Blair Witch Project (film)