How Does the Blair Witch Game Compare to the Movies? [SPOILERS]

This is a video critique of the 2019 Blair Witch game. It looks at how it interacts with and draws from the trilogy of movies that came before it, and what the Blair Witch aesthetic might be all about. Full spoilers for all movies and the game itself.
========================================
If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider donating through the crowdfunding website Patreon: / noahcaldwellgervais

[@ewanherbert3402]

I love how different devs always include certain little in-jokes and references. Like how in Gust's games, you always have someone say "barrel", or how FromSoft always includes the Moonlight Blade, or how Bloober Team always includes the message that people with mental illnesses are fundamentally broken and should just give up and die for the good of everyone.

[@muddman34]

This is an inredibly dishonest way of framing the narrative, the mc isn't just a mentally ill guy he's a killer that has escaped justice on not one but two occasions. There is nothing in the narrative to suggest that all traumatized people deserve to die that's just stupid.

[@Eukleides89]

@@muddman34 I'd give the game more benefit of the doubt if every Bloober game DIDN'T have the same pattern of a mentally ill main character being a harm to others and then resolving to die.

[@dracomundo1498]

Ohhhhhhhh it's a bloober team game. That makes so much more sense.

[@isthisnamegood]

@@muddman34 Several times during this game a character tells you to just die before you can harm others...did you play the game, or watch someone play it?

[@UltimateCarl]

I think the devs got confused and thought they had the Jacob's Ladder license first, then realized after the game was 90% done it was actually supposed to be Blair Witch and had to do a rush job of fixing it.

[@EnglishTheif]

"As long as you are breathing there is time to heal." What an beautiful sentence. I love it.

[@AugustRx]

Won't be healing for long then

[@Captain1nsaneo]

"Boo! Here come the marital regrets from behind the fog machine." Great. Line.

[@clashmanthethird]

@@HelenGPitts cringe

[@ProfesserLuigi]

@@HelenGPitts true horror.

[@TAKEYOURCREATINE]

@@robertprewitt7777 of course

[@SuperGhettoBob]

30:00 mark

[@wakkjobbwizard]

Helen G. Pitts I bet you’re some like 50 year old man

[@kinoepigrafe]

Average KZbinrs: "Wow, this game is great!" **talks about it for 10 minutes, just enough to place an ad at the end** Noah Caldwell-Gervais: "Eh, this game is okay" **proceeds to talk about it for 2/3rds of an hour without a single ad break**

[@xanaxodgrindcorelover9191]

virgin youtube ads vs chad patreon support

[@ronnieDaking]

you are new to Noah

[@MalkHead]

09:31 Let me clarify. The radio says Peter was found alive if you obeyed Carver's instructions - when he tells you to turn left/right, stop, crouch etc. If you didn't obey, Peter ends up dead.

[@timothymclean]

So, if you perfectly obey your murderous future self, you don't turn into a murderer, otherwise you do?

[@Romrojal]

@@timothymclean welcome to Bloober team games.

[@michelottens6083]

The original free 2012 Slender game is for games what BlairWitch was for film: deceptively crude and concise, until it gets shockingly haunting. And with a bunch of eerily credible viral rumor-based storytelling around it. Both also spawned entire horror subgenres in the same way. This game seems redundant, and as overwrought and emotionally juvenile as the other games by this dev.

[@schweppes1313]

Slender also gave birth to two of the best ARE webseries/pseudo-documentary-vlogs on youtube: Marble Hornets and Tribe Tweleve

[@michelottens6083]

@@schweppes1313 yes it did : 3

[@samweinstein9508]

Observer wasn't bad

[@chelsie2767]

And now that team is developing one of the most nuanced and emotionally intelligent games of all time.

[@michelottens6083]

@@chelsie2767 redeveloping* I'm genuinely hoping it turns out a great revival of the franchise. Very much not expecting it though

[@reynoldssmith6696]

Hearing Noah casually mention House of Leaves was definitely a highlight.

[@renaigh]

literally every video essayist owns House of Leaves.

[@loriisgorey]

'no happy ending' always knew my girl blair witch was an avril lavigne fan

[@neil_breen42]

"You know, what's really scary is that a tainted aristocracy will always haunt the livelihood of the working class!" Scariest goddamn Dracula right there!

[@DitisEmile]

The only real fun I had with this game was that I absolutely loved the Dog Mechanics and theorizing that maybe Ellis could have been in contact with the Blair Witch when he was still young (the traumatic experience) which he survived, and that's why she takes such a big interest with him now. I really don't like the vision of mental health they showed in the game.

[@Ya_Mosura]

Were gonna need a full video of Noah as Dracula.

[@sprinkdesign7170]

o pls pls pls pls

[@FinetalPies]

3:10 You can pet the dog 10/10 no further review necessary

[@MrConredsX]

The dog dies so it's an instant 1/10

[@Jer9-Carver]

The secret ending can also be different. Apparently some people received the message that the kid has been found and is alive and well. So that might indicate that the search of the kid wasn't real and just a way for the witch to lure ellis back to the woods. My theory is that ellis was the one kid that got away from the witch in the past, but was always affected by the witch through his life. To a point he's isolated, weak and prone to be influenced. The forest timeskips, with places looking recently touched for decayed by years. ( for example the campsite) yet his radio/cellphone is always present day. The people he talks to might not be real conversations. Just conversations he wants to be real. Hence why the reconciliation with his wife feels so.. Fake. Once he returned to the woods, he was already on death's row. Everything he clung onto, his wife, his dog or the search gets stripped away over time. He's stuck in a loop by the witch where he either gives in or gives up. Either way I do agree they went a bit too far with in-your-face depictions of guilt etc. The house had more potential if the strapping of the flashlight to the cam made the trail light up, instead of being glued to the small cam screen. Good video, though! Definitely hope they do more with the blair witch franchise. Edit: also all the tools are practically from the woods. The radio from the abandoned entry(which look older than the 90s due the cars yeah) , the camera and tapes are from the campsite. The only thing he brought was his phone, but that only has signal when there's downtime and a moment to breathe.

[@johnoneil9188]

Having watched the older videos not too long ago, seeing him all beardy and long haired was a bit of a surprise for a moment.

[@brendanmccabe8373]

Beardy long hair do be cute tho

[@GoldenGyroBalls]

That intro was PERFECT thank you based Noah

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Based Noah indeed.

[@Synerco]

damnit, first shaun uploads the patron version of his bell curve video, and now i get another one from noah gervais why won't you folks let me sleep tonight 😭😭😭

[@Tudmoke]

Holy shit, the Bell Curve video is finally happening? Can you at least tell me how long it is

[@corvuscallosum5079]

Ooo bell curve hype!

[@Argo.nautica]

For what it's worth, the videos (generally) aren't going anywhere.

[@luigiatlarge]

who is shaun? someone similar to Noah? i gotsta know

[@Amelia-yu6ii]

lefty youtuber. hes v good

[@KrisM189]

I like how the dog was on guard during the shout-outs :)

[@misterscienceguy]

I swear to god if anything happens to that poor dog I will be inconsolable.

[@emprsnm9903]

Looks like an Australian blue heeler, good dogs.

[@hayk3000]

good boy

[@vaclav4435]

For what it's worth, it's best to think of those older Blair Witch games not as Blair Witch games but as backdoor spinoffs to _Nocturne,_ a third-person action horror title with a pretty enjoyable pulpy setting. Basically the devs wanted to make a sequel to Nocturne but couldn't, so when they got the job to make the Blair Witch games they incorporated a bunch of characters and mythology from Nocturne to the point that they don't have much to do with the Blair Witch. Grimbeard has a pretty good discussion of the game over on his channel. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jImnenhratlmZs0

[@ThatDjinn]

Finally a fellow fan of the Nocturne almost-franchise. Those games are both great and terrible. It's clear they made an action-based low-budget version of Resident Evil 1, but with vampires, werewolves, skeletons, zombies and other monsters instead of just... zombies. Blair Witch Vol1 Rustin Parr was an excellent game because it focused on adventure aspects as much as it did on the action and the puzzles were engagin (on the hard difficulty at least). Vol 2 and 3, while still being charming games, went towards more action again to their own detriment. I still love the entire mythos of Nocturne based games. Damn shame nobody wants to make an anthology series of survival horror titles, where you could fight many different threats like ancient mummies, vampire lords, ghosts, horryfic monsters and eldritch horrors...

[@EvolvedDinosaur]

I always get excited when I hear people talk about House of Leaves. It’s such an incredible book, and I’ve always wanted to see a film adaptation of it. The movie Adaptation (2002) is a film about a screenwriter trying to make a film about an author, who wrote a book about her own attempts to see a flower. This strange perspective is pretty damn near identical to House of Leaves, proving it could be possible to make a real film adaptation of The Navidson Record! Oh also this video was fantastic. I’ve never even played this game, I just enjoy listening to you talk. And from this perspective, it sounds just as insane as the character being portrayed in game

[@edatthegovernance]

The mental health thing really bugged me with this one.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Aesthetically I felt it was on the right track for depicting post-traumatic stresses but what it was trying to say and the information it imparted dripped of inexperience. There was a certain insincerity to it all, it captured iconography, but I find that so often are "war experiences" in media relegated to the popular iconography of a conflict - oh, he was in Iraq? Road signs with scribbles on them, Minarets, beige buildings and walled compounds. Oh, the character was in Vietnam? Green jungle, mosquito sounds, helicopters, smoke, etc. It's such a superficial thing without any meat to back it up. I hate the way conflicts are relegated to buzz words for pop-culture understanding.

[@ight_of_heart]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 That is a great comment. I'm also suspicious that there are normally less flashy things to haunt a soldier than dramatically stabbing a young woman to death. Which of course might be difficult to translate into the game medium with how normalized violence is.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

@@ight_of_heart I feel like it comes from a place of lacking creativity. It reminded me of the MASH finale, odd as it is to bring up, where Hawkeye is in a mental hospital because he witnessed a mother smother her baby on a bus because if the baby started to cry it might've caused the enemy to find them. It seems like a similar concept - and one that's been done to death in media afterwards (and maybe before) - with the roles condensed to make it more "morally gray" - as if war needed to be MORE morally gray than it is by its inherent nature. Might be a problem inherent to video games - unless you're killing someone female or child-like no gamer will care much to pull the trigger, and many wont care about the former, anyway - so the devs have to go out of their way to make the victim as harmless as possible - otherwise killing is perfectly fine - that's a video game issue I guess.

[@ight_of_heart]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 Feels like some work on interviewing the relevant people (or the absence of it) could make the difference. Which I suppose could be an indicator of how passionate were the creators towards the subject.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

@@ight_of_heart I'm actually working with USAHEC right now - which is part of the US Army War College - I take oral histories from veterans, basically, which is why I bring it up. They have an archive full of interviews with all sorts of Army vets. They could've gotten access to the archives, they didn't even need to actively interview anyone. The problem I think is that it's relatively easy to get the physical stuff correct - what things looked like, maybe even what they sounded like - but authentic experiences can be difficult, mindsets especially so - what a soldier cares about and thinks about most in certain situations. I don't want to bury the devs, maybe they did try, but I think they missed the mark.

[@AIHumanMind]

I've followed your channel since your first Fallout video, and I thouroughly enjoy your work. This, I think; simply as a work of art by its own merits, is your best video yet. Your arguments are very concise and no time is wasted to get your points eloquently - and very funnily! - across. Awesome job, man :)

[@williamdufort176]

For me his best work is the Postal series review. The man knows how to write. I haven't had an affinity to an author like this since I first read Matt Taibi.

[@Bluecho4]

RE: Predestination I agree on the point that making the protagonist doomed either way - doomed to carry out evil and madness, with no choice - is bullshit. The horror of the character's actions is muted - robbed - by the implication that he had no option _not_ to do them. The horror must come from the character having had the ability to do good (or to not do evil), and then failing to do so. If he has no choice, then the horror falls flat; the events are unfortunate, certainly, but there was truly nothing that could be done. Whether it's the Blair Witch's influence or the character's mental illness, if there was no fighting it, it was inevitable. It's not a capital-T Tragedy, because it was neither a Fatal Flaw nor Fatal Mistake that doomed the character, but a predestined outcome. Looking at it through a different cultural context, let's talk Vampires. What divides an Always Evil vampire from a Tragic vampire? Whether they must kill to feed. If their feeding inevitably kills a human victim, then a vampire is, by nature, an obligate murderer. Moral judgement cannot be fully rendered on the vampire, because their survival and that of their human prey are mutually exclusive. They need to be destroyed, yes, but they cannot be condemned (for, arguably, they already have been). Whereas if the vampire can feed only a little from a person and walk away satisfied (for the moment) - or if the vampire can feed from animals - then them leaving dead human victims is truly horrific, because it was a failure of restraint or a conscious choice. They do not have the luxury of saying "it can't be helped", because it CAN be helped. It makes them, ironically, more of a monster than the obligate killer vampire, because they possess agency and responsibility for their actions, and out of weakness, carelessness, or selfishness they did the wrong thing. This is where I'm coming from when I say this game's horror lacks bite (no pun intended). The game would have us believe there was never any hope for the protagonist. So there was never any agency in the protagonist's actions and, by extension, none for the player, either.

[@GoldenGyroBalls]

I'm curious as to what you think of something like Hereditary. That's the sort of horror film wherein the character's fates are pretty much sealed from frame one.

[@Comicmongoose]

Dude, it's always nice when one of your videos crops up in the subscription feed! So, thinking about the shifting labyrinths of the house as it moves through time aesthetically (Sidebar: Excellent point with "House of Leaves!") and the themes of guilt/mental illness... does anyone else get the vibes that this thing is more akin to a knock-off Silent Hill than to the franchise it's part of? There's some real thematic overlap, even if Blair Witch is considerably less nuanced and...well, problematic, to be diplomatic.

[@TheTyrantOfTyrus]

Noah you're really going for that 1970s freebootin hippie look

[@cosmicmuffet1053]

He *is* the Blair Witch.

[@Shakenmike117]

A man stuck in the past is doomed to repeat it

[@michaelkitchin9665]

@@Shakenmike117 At least the van still works.

[@PassiveNights]

He’s literally a van hippie from the 70s.

[@kilomillensimus9379]

I actually really like the Blair Witch backstory and think that lots of kinds of horror stories could be told with it. The recurring murders, the Colonial American superstitions, etc.

[@Jerkovski]

i'm loving your gradual transformation from skinny poindexter to a chonky hippie

[@gwen3504]

LaPenetrature Oregon, not even once.

[@cloud_and_proud]

Wait, what's a Poindexter?

[@mikedrop4421]

He fully leveled up when he got the V-dub van.

[@lsb2623]

Wow dude! I haven't seen your image in years, and you used to be kind of a throwback intellectual looking type... but now you went full on hippie revolutionary! Me and you got to get together at a beatnick coffee shop sometime and talk about society! Love the vids, have a good one.

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

Talking about society is always great

[@stickpeoplegamedudes]

I think it's difficult for games to handle mental health well, or really any topic involving how to treat others or treat yourself, because (paradoxical as it might seem) games are actually *more* deterministic than other media. In a book or a movie, the story only ever plays out one way, but you only get a small piece of their respective worlds and can easily imagine counterfactual situations in them. Not so with games. You actually *can* go back, do things over again, and see the consequences, or look up a walkthrough and know your options ahead of time. You never have to act under uncertainty. If there's a good ending to be had, then whatever options are prerequisites for it are canonically moral obligations. If there isn't a good ending, then the story becomes necessarily nihilistic - there's nothing you can do, after all. I've been thinking about Silent Hill 2 since the remake was announced (I went back and watched this for more spicy bloober team takes), and I think it handles this paradox pretty well. Though not completely random, the factors that determine your ending are specific and obscure enough that without the internet you'd never have a complete understanding of them. Like real life, you kind of just have to do what feels right, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

[@queerandsad]

The best part about new Noah videos is it's another one in the rotation of his videos I watch over and over again

[@walrusman86808]

Same, yo

[@Bleilock1]

i found myself awkwardly in the same situation recently have to say, i just embraced it, lol

[@FamilyValuez]

@@Bleilock1it’s probably one of the better ways to be caught in one of those loops, though!

[@masktheory]

It's like the Dark Souls bonfires. We gather, some for the first time, many who know what's to come, and get a little calm from the deluge of content.

[@MegaBearsFan]

RE: the ambiguity of Blair Witch (game)'s ending and meaning: This is a big reason why I love Silent Hill 2 so much. It doesn't have an ambiguous ending. No matter which ending you get, what James did, why he is in Silent Hill, and so forth, remains the same. It is only how he deals with the revelation in the end that changes. *I made a video on the subject of the Genius of Silent Hill 2's endings, and I hope you'll check it out: **kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpS3gpuYlrN3ia8* If you enjoyed Noah's breakdown of why Blair Witch's endings failed, then I think you might also enjoy my contrasting explanation of why I think Silent Hill 2's endings work. So many horror games have tried to copy the plot twist idea of Silent Hill 2 (including many of the outsourced Silent Hill sequels), but they always miss that point that the various endings of Silent Hill 2 didn't change the game's setup or underlying plot. Instead, so many of these games try to have ambiguous endings that contradict the other endings by retconning the game itself. You were dead all along, or it was all a dream, or you aren't even the character you thought you were to begin with, and so forth. Blair Witch (game) kind of falls victim to this as well. It has too many plot threads that are all left dangling at the end, and the "truth" of the game's plot is left up to players' imaginations (www.megabearsfan.net/post/2019/09/11/Blair-Witch-game-endings.aspx).

[@jonathanholder1]

Just commenting to please the algorithm. Noah is the best video essayist on the platform and more people should be aware of his work.

[@luszczi]

The old Blair Witch games (at least Episode 1) are solid. Once you get to the forest you forget all about the weapons training part. I only remember the forest atmosphere and the dream. You can also tell that the devs of 2019 game took some of the more memorable elements from it.

[@AspelShuyin]

I actually really enjoyed having to stare at the corner of the screen and felt it was really tense (and I crouched through that whole section), but it wasn't until I was at the end of the game that I realized you actually can raise the camera to Ellis' face and cover the whole screen with it, which the game never seems to tell you.

[@paradoxinraindrops141]

11:59 EST! You just made it in time for a Halloween video! 😊

[@clashmanthethird]

He lives in PST though.

[@philactics]

It's harder than ever to play in it's original form but man I really feel like you'd get a kick out of Silent Hill 2!

[@freddywilson6784]

Fucking nigh on impossible. I asked my gf to find a used copy on Amazon to play on my bulky ps3. Then I looked up the prices and feel guilty for having put the idea in her head!

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

@@freddywilson6784 Emulators?

[@Kaliospectre]

It’s listed as abandonware I believe, you can download it free on PC without feeling like you’re not really “supporting” the devs by doing it. Team Silent is long gone, and their original work is luckily preserved.

[@echoness_]

Hey, Noah. Have you ever considered doing voice acting for video games? It's hard to put into words, but I have a feeling that if you have a chance in voice acting, maybe it might turn out better than anyone could expect.

[@AGFuzzyPancake]

Ahh yes, The Blair Overdone Post Process Effects Witch Project game. I swear I jump every single they crank up contrast and bloom! And the blurry edges... lord save me! I was stoked when I first learned of this game. Even without having watched anything but the 2016 reboot, I understood how much potential there was for this to be a tense and innovative experience. I pictured a game that blended the unrelenting tension of the shareware Slenderman game with a real budget and proper adventure. What would be a better setup for a AA "lost in the woods at night with something out trying to kill you" game? I was hoping for maybe a procedurally generated woods, a stalking omnipresent witch with some spooky AI and audio tricks, the house, a twist, and an escape in the end. Then I found that the game's premise is that you play a cop with PTSD with a dog and do puzzles and uncover a meandering story with an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. I gave it a hard pass. The Blair Witch is not about people's emotional struggles being a metaphor for a monster in the woods. It's about there being a fucking witch in the fucking woods trying to fucking kill you. Why anybody would spend money to acquire the Blair Witch IP to make a game like this is beyond me.

[@ThatDjinn]

I agree with you totally. I do recommend the game Noah mentions near the end of his review. Blair Witch Vol1 Rustin Parr has the Resident Evil of old style of clunkyness with fixed camera angles and tank controls, but it's also an amazing blend between survival horror where you fight monsters in a haunted forest, and an adventure game where you talk with NPCs, investigate clues, look for items and solve puzzles to progress.

[@jevonhilton2012]

You missed something though, it is indeed about a Witch, however, the witch uses your darkness to bring you over. It makes sense for him to have PTSD, it's one of the worst forms of said darkness. We needed to know what he struggled with, in a sense, it was like the witch was looking into his deepest fears, the part that we don't want anyone but the people we truly love to see. She used that against him and brought him in. She needs another puppet, and how do you manipulate a puppet--you tell them they're worthless.

[@ThatDjinn]

@@jevonhilton2012 Sure. Or you could not overanalyze a bullsht plot and take it at face value, at which point it's not about a witch.

[@jevonhilton2012]

@@ThatDjinn that's how I do things, I analyze my games, I don't take things at face value because I see potential, potential to create something out of it. I hate keeping myself in a box whether the game is bad or good. That's what makes a good review for a video game

[@ThatDjinn]

@@jevonhilton2012 Oh, come on. The plot of this game is just a shallow attempt at being more than it really is. There's not much to analyze, that's why I've pointed that out. Thing is there's nothing wrong with a simple story and both the original movie and the original games had simple stories that were well told and engaging. This one tries too much to be original, sacrificing the Blair Witch mythos for people who wanted a game about the witch and not really delivering a great standalone story for anyone else. The criticism that this ain't a Blair Witch story is a valid one, when game focuses all effort on an emotionally traumatized ex-soldier-dude.

[@williamwallace234]

His Dracula sounds so much like something that would be made now.

[@hayk3000]

"The real Dracula was Jeff Bezos and Trump all along. The only way of stopping a bad guy with a capitalism is a good guy with a capitalism. Capitalism is good. Bleh!"

[@ShadowMageAlpha]

I had a potentially interesting interpretation about the game. Several times when Ellis is talking to other characters, he mentions how he "has" to help with the search, obviously feeling he feels less of a person just sitting by. This compulsion is reflected in the player's "need" to play the game, in a very one-to-one way; Ellis literally HAS to go into the forest because we are forcing him to. As a player, we are his various mental issues bearing down on him, controlling his actions and preventing him from taking the logical course (getting the fuck out) when things start to get rather nasty and weird. It may just be my own head-canon, but I envision a third ending to the game, one where Ellis stops the search the moment the player stops playing the game, and leaves the with Bullet to live a (relatively speaking) normal life. It's not a much brighter interpretation as Ellis is still very much a person without agency and control until his demons intentionally stop compelling him, but... it keeps Bullet and his buddy safe, so that's all I could really ask for.

[@rekware9320]

Your critique and eloquence in delivering your analysis are always on point. Keep it up Noah.

[@Squalidarity]

“It’s blissfully kung-fu free.” Put that right on the box.

[@Fromond96]

The best boy provides again with excellent content 😍 (with bonus spooks)

[@taylordull9516]

Posting before I watch the video. The first movie made found footage into its own sub genre and it really wasn't until paranormal activity came out years later that anything really mimicked it's best elements and success. Blair witch 2 book of shadows is the poster child of bad late 90's and early 2000's horror sequels and poisoned what could have been a longrunning franchise for Artisan/Lionsgate. Blair Witch 2017 was a pretty good attempt to reinvent the series by using the lore more fully but since it came out so late in the found footage era it felt out of step with what audiances expected. In fact it's kind of poetic in a way that the film that Kickstarted the found footage movement was also the one that kind of ended major studios interest in the concept. The new game can't really be said to be as interesting as any of those films it's just a way to late to the party movie tie in with the 2017 film.

[@Vulgarth1]

[REC] is better than Paranormal Activity and came out earlier.

[@taylordull9516]

@@Vulgarth1 Agreed, but paranormal activity was a massive industry changing success and basically put Blumhouse on the map. REC and it's sequel are better then any of the paranormal activity movies though.

[@schweppes1313]

@@Vulgarth1 Noroi came out in japan in 2005, two years before [REC]. Still one of the best found footage horrors I've seen.

[@jadeingels3475]

I know it’s a weird place to draw inspiration from but I so badly want to get a tattoo of “so long as you’re breathing, there’s time to heal”

[@brocklewis7624]

I honestly just come for those 10/10 intros and accompanying songs. Also, love your work, boi. Keep being awesome.

[@Protester19]

noahs new look is fucking rad. keep it up

[@mathiasjabs5755]

Man, i love your work.

[@thegustbag]

Right off the bat: this is one of the best intros I've seen on your channel, Noah! I'm already excited to see the rest of the video!

[@adamplentl5588]

I was sleeping soundly when the chimes sounded and upon inspection, knew that I would sleep no more.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Someone more creative than I should really make an Edgar Allen Poe joke right about now.

[@yeetleslaw8529]

OMG IT'S NOAH! EVERYONE WAKE UP. Noah made an upload! Raise the alarms. This is not a drill!

[@mortaneus]

Regarding the early 2000's trilogy of games, the second and third were a hot mess for sure. However, I suggest giving the first one (Rustin Parr) another look. The guns and kung fu bit is there because it's a spinoff of the quite good Resident Evil derived game Nocturne, done by the same team and with the same characters. It's not the psychological horror game the 2019 game is, certainly, but it's actually quite good. Think of it as a Resident Evil game where a monster-hunting organization's Q-analogue packs up her gear and expertise, heads off to Maryland to handle a supernatural problem (as she and her co-workers often do), and winds up getting in WAY over her head. Don't write it off, it's actually worth a play or watch. I remember playing it back in the day, and it made me appreciate the original movie a lot more.

[@FuckYourSelf99]

God I loved Nocturne. And Bloodrayne too, from the same team.

[@Prophecyx01]

I heard that the Blair Witch games from around 2000 were connected to a game called Nocturne.

[@franklinbarnes7329]

In the interest of defending the old 3 *Blair Witch* games, each one was made by a different developer, and the first one was trying (for some bizarre reason) to tie itself in continuity with that developers' previous game with which it shared an engine. The others aren't quite as self-indulgent.

[@legiongamerworkbruhben6058]

Good to have you back noah

[@williamdufort176]

Spooktacular to get a video tonight, Noah. Danke!

[@GenericDanganronpafanArchive]

the game feels like a bad combination of SH2 and slenderman

[@ethancossett7318]

I love your intros, this was one of the coolest.

[@BobLogical]

I really wish there was a shirt with, "It's a witch, bro!" on it.

[@jetwagner7054]

This is now my favorite channel man is a don

[@Guffaw9494]

This video got me to read House of Leaves. Thank you!

[@MrDoctorColossus]

"Con-spish-us?" I love you, man, but "con-spick-you-us."

[@kot-duott]

The Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows is really underappreciated. It's a great movie on its own merits.

[@MrConredsX]

This is the most respectful and well constructed negative review/analysis i ever heard. Sadly Outlast already took advantage of hidden cam game scenario. This game was just too late on the party.

[@panelsofDOOM]

Your transformation from baby faced pizza baker to Vietnam war vet/protestor has happened so gradually I almost didn't notice.

[@jadeingels3475]

I got the previously mentioned tattoo! Thanks so much for your words Noah

[@NxAllie]

Every time i think "Noah's next video should be right around the corner" BAM, like clockwork, it was a pleasure hearing your take on something more directly horror, i'd love to hear your thoughts on layers of fear. Thanks for the awesome video as always!

[@tito3213211]

I'd love to see you review movies Noah Caldwell-Gervais

[@WildFungus]

this is probably the most fun video essay to listen to I've listened to yet. awesome show great job

[@McMostaza]

Whoa! I was *just* listening to Factory Showroom yesterday!

[@stevethepocket]

So basically, the developers of this game wanted to make _Spec Ops: The Line_ and got stuck making this instead, so they just merged the two projects into one.

[@ProblemForSolution]

I have to say that I actually liked the game. The dog mechanic was nice and when dog would react to enemies and sometimes disappear or chase them it would get creepy. The ambience was also really good, I enjoyed going through the forest, being wary and looking around for monsters.

[@kennethkh930]

Am I the only one who sincerely hopes, Noah some day makes it past the flight school in San Andreas and does a “A Thorough Look At Grand Theft Auto”?

[@huwguyver4208]

Great video as always. It would be cool to see Noah's take on more movies. I know he would have interesting insights on them.

[@Goji938]

I think about ur Dracula impression every day, thank you

[@tierfreund780]

it's a WITCH bro!

[@afluffywhitekitty8589]

This is a video I was not expecting from you. Really glad you made it

[@Joy_ffa1bd]

this game is pretty interesting and I'm very glad you made a video on it!

[@dhaonrisemlan]

Noah, I'm making my way through the grand catalogue of feature length and nigh-feature-length content. I started at Baldur's Gate as I'm sure a lot of people did. But I was wondering if you ever played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for GameCube/PS2? It's not like the other Baldur's Gate games, but it always had this treasured place in my heart.

[@xanaxodgrindcorelover9191]

the reason the original works, besides its authenticity, is the horror of everything and everyone slowly falling apart under these weird circumstances and beginning to turn on other, and this part is in and of itself authentic. the actors followed GPS points around during filming and had their food and stuff stolen by the rest of the crew to further stress them and break everyone down

[@BarrickMacready]

I live 5 mins from burkittsville MD, they screwed up on some small details about the cops and what not and it was like "aww come on" over all your review of the game is on point, thank you for helping me save my time :)

[@RetroGamePlayers]

You can see what the hell is going on for starters!

[@benwasserman8223]

So rather than play this game, I should just go stand in a corner? That's what Noah seems to be implying

[@hotwheelsdeepstate]

The fact that you have to avoid and not look at the monsters is interesting thematically, mostly because of how problematic it is. Particularly when compared to that horror classic Silent Hill 2, which does that exact opposite. (KZbin doesn’t have spoiler tags lol) There if you fail to confront the monsters of silent hill but instead run from them it is seen as you failing to confront your trauma and gilt which leads to a bad ending (and suicide). Surprise that what is considered the greatest horror game ever made is good at handling parking issues and good and bad endings.

[@menorak]

Have you played any of Outer Worlds? I would love to see you do an introspective of that, I find the lore so engaging and rich and the different cultures within the game so faschinating

[@chabbab6698]

Lol

[@FranzKafkaRockOpera]

Great video, as always! I don't think the genre of horror where people transgress ancient, unknowable laws is necessarily incompatible with social and psychological insight (The Witch and Midsommar come to mind as examples of the two aspects bolstering each other), but it definitely needs a defter approach than 1:1 correspondences between the inner life of the character and the supernatural elements. It sometimes feels like video game writing is very willing to trust the player with over-complicated plots and not at all with any level of allegory.

[@ThePuppyPrince]

"Gentleman...welcome to the forest..."

[@Theminkeyful]

Do you feel like a film student yet?

[@PassiveNights]

Okay this is genuinely important to me about healing. Thanks

[@RobertJPalmer]

This is awesome! But I can't get over the way you pronounce 'documentary'. Maybe its a regional thing?

[@firstlast446]

Yea, threw me off a bit, I wonder what region that's from.

[@evanpincus2203]

Wait. How on earth do you pronounce documentary????

[@evanpincus2203]

Oh wait nevermind lmao he switches it up every time he says it

[@jayfolk]

Walking-Sim gets Blair Witch I.P. title (but at least the snake & asteroids mini-games on the ingame generic Nokia phone were cool).

[@arknark]

Where you're at in the end of this video reminds me of Terrebonne or the Crooked River Ranch area in Oregon.

[@mrpinguimninja]

What's with the David Foster Wallace clothing style in the end?

[@driverdown7694]

I realise I'm rather late to the show here, but I thought it worth pointing out that the first of the trilogy of Blair Witch games released around the time of Book of Shadows was actually a cross-over with a previous game called Nocturne set in the 1920-30s where you played an agent from a secret government agency called Spookhouse that was tasked with investigating paranormal activity. Think X-Files with broad brimmed hats. The game took the characters from that and put you in the shoes of one of the NPCs, making the original player character a sometimes companion, tasking you with investigating the Rustin Parr murders that were mentioned in the film. At first glance the game might seem to bear no relation to the film whatsoever, but the way the story unfolds I found it to be remarkably faithful to the spirit of the film (SPIRIT. I MAKE PUN OH OH OH). It's a shame it's so difficult to get it running these days, but of the three games it's actually the one I found most interesting. It helped that I'd played Nocturne and had a head start on the setting, probably a mistake on the developers' part as the original game wasn't exactly a well known hit. But for those who had played it, it brought an interesting note of familiarity, and observing The Stranger (PC from Nocturne) appear at points during the game added an extra layer, particularly in (SPOILER) the part where he kills Doc Holliday as she has become one of the monsters it was his job to hunt down.

[@Skip-Towne]

Your analysis here feels pretty on point with how I felt about it too. It's such a shame, I was looking forward to this game when it was announced. I like Bloober Team's art direction, but the stories in their horror games are never really very clear. It's always a mud puddle of different ideas and concepts that leave me thinking "what exactly was the point here?".

[@pipmitm8276]

Excellent work! I always love the level of detail and thought you put into these. The "heroic sacrifice" trope is so common, I'd have never caught on to how it negatively impacts this game's portrayal of mental illness if you didn't point it out. Vague storytelling in horror games and creepypasta seems to have become very popular over the course of the last few years (FNAF, Petscop, et cetera). Maybe there's something to be said about how sprinkling little hints of the terrible truth throughout a game transforms literary interpretation into a game. And maybe developers are finding it useful because it lets them "design" stories in the same way they design games. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. In any case, this game seems to handle slowly opening your eyes to the horror of its world very poorly. Is it just too obvious that one of two concrete but entirely contradictory scenarios definitely took place? Is it because the game's attempts to obfuscate the truth just make it seem indecisive rather than making it seem like the player is uncovering the world's dark secrets? I'm thinking it's a little of both, but I'd love to hear someone else's thoughts on this.

[@FlosBlog]

That Dracula Voice is flawless

[@jeffbloke2157]

it took me a disturbingly long time to decide that that wasn't actually his dog and in fact was a CGI dog, only for it to finally be confirmed when he played the game opening. computer graphics have gotten pretty good lol.

[@s2korpionic]

It's a principle of mine that any video games which takes over the camera control of the player is not going to be a great experience at its best.

[@RomanV_]

9:30 Radio doesn't necessarily say that "the child was stabbed to death": kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5eUhWqibtx4a6M

[@drakenfist]

A Noah video for Halloween?....we are blessed!!. The best long form video critic on youtube strikes again!.