Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr Review

Well, on the upside, the Nocturne Engine looks beautiful. And on the downside, Blair Witch Vol. 1 suffers from some serious identity crisis, and the same-old Nocturne engine problems - bad controls and godawful camera angles. Now I'm supposed to give you a little introduction regarding the whole Blair Witch hoopla, with the movie sequel coming out and all, and two more Blair Witch games scheduled for release in the coming months... but I can't. I just cannot, because I'm positive you've read something on Blair Witch, seen the movie, or just heard a few bits and pieces about the famous Burkittsville mystery. Either that, or you've been lost in the woods for a few years, and have recently returned with no recollection of the past and with a giant lump on your head. So, I assume you've heard of the Blair Witch, little children, demons, ghosts, and whatnots. You peed in your pants when you watched that girl say goodbye to her mom and dad, and just yelled in terror when you saw that gory bit of Josh's flesh lying on the ground in front of the expedition's tent (I couldn't make out what part of the body that was).

In the game, the player assumes the role of Elspeth "Doc" Holliday, scientific investigator for Spookhouse, a shadowy agency dedicated to protecting the world from supernatural evil. The year is 1941. An insane hermit named Rustin Parr has confessed to murdering seven children in the quiet Maryland town of Burkittsville. His claim is that an "old woman ghost" drove him to his heinous crimes. Parr's rantings coincide with age-old local legends: tales of the cursed woods surrounding the town and a murderous, vengeful entity that has haunted Burkittsville for two hundred years, an abomination known locally as "The Blair Witch.

Are You Scared Yet?

Welcome to Burkittsville, folks - one seriously demented little community. Intricate play of light and shadows surrounds the misty town streets, with random cries and fading voices of small children echoing in the night. The Nocturne engine does a great job of bringing the atmosphere of the haunted town closer to the player. It's plain to see that the Nocturne engine was built from scratch and tailored to fit the needs of the horror genre. The game looks stunning in 32-bit color with fantastic animations and beautifully lighted models. With some of the best dynamic shadows work I have ever seen, and with enough backing from today's hardware to show the full graphic possibilities of the Nocturne Engine ... something that just wasn't conceivable with last year's hardware. Every little detail, from the animated leaves in the forest to dripping blood and capes flapping in the wind, adds to the game's spooky mood, and if I had to score the engine's atmosphere-generating capabilities, it would've probably gotten a perfect 100.

That's the good news. The bad news is, I'm afraid already familiar to anyone who has played Nocturne in the past. For crying out loud, the Nocturne engine is a classic adventure game engine! Why the hell did you decide to include excessive "action elements?!" The controls are clunky and sluggish -- sort of, like when (cough) a guy I know smokes pot, and then tries to perform ninja stunts. Or when you have that dream where a monster chases you and your legs feel like they're made out of led -- your movement is equivalent to that of a man trying to do an underwater pirouette. Add to that the confusing cinematic camera view that throws angles at you like it was directed by a Hong Kong movie director ... on crack, and what you get is one confusing and virtually uncombatable action game. If the programmers had just a tad more insight, they could've made a great classic adventure game brimming with irrational puzzles that us, adventure gamers have come to enjoy over the years. The atmosphere and the visual galore provided by the Nocturne engine along with the "fairly" marketable horror license could've resulted in one heck of a classic adventure with random yet scarce combat sequences.