Free Games At Epic
New week, New Free Games at the Epic Games Store!
This week it's Blair Witch and Ghostbusters Remastered
Blair Witch
It’s 1996. A young boy disappears in the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland. As Ellis, a former police officer with a troubled past, you join the search. What starts as an ordinary investigation soon turns into an endless nightmare as you confront your fears and the Blair Witch, a mysterious force that haunts the woods…
As the title suggests Blair Witch is based on the lore of the original Blair Witch movies whose first part The Blair Witch Project was an unexpected success, packed into a first-person, story-driven psychological horror game developed in 2019 by Lionsgate Games
The game focuses on survival horror mechanics and stealth, requiring the player to use items such as a camera, cellphone, flashlight or Ellis' dog, Bullet (yes, you can pet the dog!), to track and follow the trail of missing nine-year old Peter Shannon while fending off shadowy creatures. Along the way, the player will find various items like photographs and cassette tapes. Solving some more or less easy puzzles are also part of the gameplay. Like the movies, it integrates the found-footage subgenre with the gameplay and story, often through the use of cassette tapes.
Blair Witch received mixed reviews with critics praising its atmosphere, graphics (build with Unreal Engine 4) and sound design, but criticised its gameplay design and perceived difficulty.
The game is technically impressive, no question about it. However, the puzzles in the game are rarely challenging or even difficult. For example, when we encounter the mandatory striking generator and we are crisscrossing the forest, looking for spare parts and fiddling with fuse boxes.
This delivery service, which is rather boring, has the purpose of course that we wander tense through the pitch-black night and occasionally scare away a few blurry creatures with the flashlight. Whether this is really exciting or even scary depends primarily on how scared you are.
The excitement in these moments is primarily due to the enormously dense atmosphere - cracking branches around us, the flickering of the flashlight, headlights that suddenly give up the ghost, creepy music. Hands down Blair Witch's greatest strength.
Ghostbusters Remastered
The beloved and critically acclaimed Ghostbusters video game is back and remastered!
Developed by Saber Interactive and Terminal Reality the remake has been published in 2019.
Strap on your proton pack once again and join the Ghostbusters on the adventure with the voice and likeness of the original crew as you battle to save New York!
The game features the voices and in-game likenesses of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson in an original story penned by the writers of the original films - Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.
In Ghostbusters: Remastered, the player takes on the role of the new Ghostbusters contender and supports the original ghost hunters, consisting of Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stanz and Winston Zeddemore, in their fight against the dark forces. With the original voices of the actors it goes on a great ghost hunt in Manhattan to save the Big Apple in the old Ghostbusters manner and to send the ghosts, demons and other paranormal creatures back into their dimension. The Ghostbusters met a large number of old acquaintances who should be known to most hobby ghost hunters from the films.
The starting point of the first mission is the legendary Ghostbusters fire station, from which it goes to the Sedgewick Hotel, where an old friend is waiting for the ghost hunters. In the further course the Ghostbusters will go ghost hunting in Times Square, in a natural history museum and even in another dimension. Of course, a visit to the New York Public Library is also a must.
Personal Opinion
As mentioned above, Blair Witch has an incredibly good atmosphere. If you are into horror games and can deal with rather fidly game design (e.g. weird camera perspectives) this game is definetly for you!
--> Partially recommended
Ghostbusters: Remastered on the other hand can only be recommended to Ghostbusters fans. Yes, it can be humorous but other than that it is not much more than a generic 3rd person shooter. Even the previous existing multiplayer has been cut.
--> Not recommended
After all, both games are currently available for free so you can give it a try without regretting having spent money ;)