Welcome back, my vengeance-seeking boys and ghouls. Halloween may be over, but the air is still chilled. The leaves still crunch underfoot. We’ve still got games to write about. Over the next three weeks, we’ll be looking at a trilogy of video games which take place in the cinematic universe revealed in The Blair Witch Project. Three different games developed by three different studios exploring three different aspects of the Blair Witch mythos, all using the engine developed by Terminal Reality for their cult hit Nocturne?! This is going to be the best three weeks of my life where I party like it’s 1999 all over again! Or it’ll end with my editor wuss-slapping me in the face because “real gamers don’t bawl like that when told to play a shitty game, Michael.” I’m going to regret this, aren’t I…?

Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale (Ritual Entertainment, 2000)

The folklore involving the woman known as Elly Kedward casts a disturbing pall over the small community nestled in the woods of Maryland known as Black Hills Forest, but this final volume of the Blair Witch trilogy pulls the old Star Wars prequel trick and zips back to before the beginning. While Rustin Parr’s activities and their subsequent investigation by The Spookhouse unfolded in the 1940s, and Coffin Rock’s nightmare is recorded in the aftermath of the US Civil War of the 1860s, Elly Kedward’s tale of woe takes place in the year 1785.

We’ve not even been a country for ten years, and already we have witches eating people.

Local historical records record Elly as being nothing more than a harmless older woman who lived by herself in the forest near the settlement of Blair. She was known for her skills in herbalism, and often treated the minor injuries of the local children when they knocked on her door. Unfortunately for her, the superstitious lot trying to turn Blair into a thriving, modern eighteenth century village didn’t think much of Kedward’s whole ‘independent woman’ routine. Convinced the woman is cavorting with Satan, the townsfolk rustle her up in the middle of the night, and drag her into the woods during the coldest winter on record, where they bound her to a cart and left her to the elements. And while Maryland winters are harsh, and there’s no chance an elderly woman like Elly could have survived, it is odd that none of the people sent into the woods have been able to find her remains.

Maybe something kept scaring them off?

Kedward might have been a harmless old woman in life, but being treated in such a heartless manner for the crime of knowing how plants work would have given even the kindest soul pause in that whole ‘turn the other cheek’ concept, so when kids start disappearing there’s panic in the streets. Jonathan Prye, a witch hunter of some repute, arrives to investigate Blair township and its surrounding woods and, if possible, lay the evil infesting it to rest before more damage can be done. Welcome to Blair Mr. Prye, and may God help you, because nobody else in town wants to.

There’s no place like home for the holidays.

Ritual’s take on the game is almost a complete 180-degree turn from the previous two entries. Puzzles in The Elly Kedward Tale are few, far between, and require only a modicum of brain power to solve, mostly being of the fetch quest variety where you’ll be directed to a given location to grab something and bring it back. Interaction with the townsfolk, while still important, has taken a back seat to straight up action in this entry. While Rustin Parr and Coffin Rock produced slower, more measured and gothic-style storylines, Elly Kedward drops this motif in favor of a balls-to-the-wall basic action/horror experience. If you read the last two entries and thought, ‘no thank you’, Elly Kedward may well be the one you’ve been looking for. On the other hand, fans of the more deliberately paced survival horror embraced by them will likely find themselves blowing through this one in search of a story that always feels elusive and out of reach. You’ve arrived in Blair to help, but nobody wants anything to do with an outsider. The town magistrate is convinced this is a local matter devoid of supernatural taint, and he’s awaiting a group from Baltimore to arrive as reinforcements, so a wandering witch hunter doesn’t interest him in the slightest…unless, of course, Prye would like to investigate a little place off in the woods called Coffin Rock which some people claim to be haunted. Then, why, he’s only to glad for your assistance.

Really? Because your desk is in need a good tidying, if you don’t mind my saying.

Graphically the game is similar to the previous two. The Nocturne engine always renders beautiful backgrounds, and with this tale taking place in winter, everything is covered with a layer of snow to great effect–the serene veneer hiding a sinister undercoating of evil. Prye’s coattails flutter in the wind thanks to the game’s cloth physics, and like other entries the people and objects you can interact with are highlighted as you draw near, making it simple to determine useful items from set dressing.

BZZZZZZZZZZZT!! *sizzle*

The previous two games featured decent music, but composer Zak Belica (who went on to score titles like Command & Conquer: Renegade, Bulletstorm, and Gears of War 3) really went the extra mile in this department and it shows. Individual buildings such as the courthouse and the local church have their own themes, and the one for the church is especially effective: combining Latin chant with the deep, haunting sounds of a pipe organ, it manages to feel inviting and lonely at the same time. For such an early career project, it’s absolutely incredible and the game is worth playing just to hear the music alone.

The Blair Church Project will be filmed here in another 300 years.

I wish the same could be said for the voice acting, which is limp and uninspired. Prye’s actor growls through his lines in what sounds like an attempt to channel Lynn Mathis’s portrayal of The Stranger from Nocturne and Rustin Parr, but he lacks Mathis’s conviction and natural flair for inflection and thus sounds like he’s reading from a script. Other characters do better, but there’s not a memorable performance or voice among the lot. As for replay value, it’s nearly non-existent: there are two endings, but all it takes is a simple reload to make a different decision at the end of the game in order to see it. No New Game+ mode, and no new puzzles mean no reason to run through it a second time once you’ve uncovered and dealt with the evil infecting the town.

Somehow, our suspects always confess to their crimes. No idea why–must be the Lord’s will.

Still, it’s a game made with the Nocturne engine, and I’m a sucker for those. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, I dunno. But Elly Kedward‘s more action-oriented approach and lack of any serious sort of puzzles makes it a good enough entry in the survival horror genre, especially for new players on less-powerful rigs. It won’t set your world on fire, and plenty of other games to the action/adventure mix better, but if you like Blair Witch and want to see a reasonably competent game fill in some of the mythology, you don’t have many options. So wander around, enjoy the scenery, revel in the soundtrack, and kill a few demons with the power of pagan magic. Then be thankful you didn’t pay a lot for the opportunity.

And a scandalously low-cut dress.

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


If he made you laugh, drop a tip in his jar at http://paypal.me/modernzorker


(If he didn't make you laugh, donate to cure his compulsion to bang keyboards by sending an absurdly huge amount of money to his tip jar instead. That'll show him!)