Scarily Average (Revision) (Blair Witch Volume 1 - Rustin Parr (PC))

Name: Ian Proudfoot

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Blair Witch Volume 1 - Rustin Parr (PC)
Date:	20/11/00 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary woods, Nice Graphics

Disadvantages: Shoddy controls,, Poor save system

It 's amazing how quickly people cash in on a successful movie now days. Some games are directly linked into the whole marketing ploy of the film industry. With a lot of tie in games being developed at the same time the movie is being edited and processed. With the arrival of the Tomb Raider movie the process may have been reserved but the many tentacles of Hollywood have now firmly got their grip on the computer games industry. Which maded the arrival of a series of games based on the Blair Witch Project all that more unexpected, especially since the original Blair Witch film was made outside the normal Hollywood/ Big Business system.

Well someone thought it was a good idea to cash out the film's box office success. That someone was a GOD (Gathering of Developers) a motley gang of several small games producing companies united together in a single cause. So we have a game that is based on a film on a successful film, (which is normally a sure sight of mediocrity) and a coalition of small producers with a mixed history of producing anything half-decent. So unsurprisingly my initial reaction was "Here we go another substandard film cash in". However after seeing a rave review of 'Blair Witch: The Rustin Parr Investigation' (to give it is full-bodied title) in PC Zone I was willing to be impressed. The main issue being "excellent someone has finally made a decent game using the graphically stunning Nocturne Engine".

The plot of the game is typically wafer thin. Set roughly 70 years before the film, the game attempts to add more background to the Blair Witch myth (or should that be marketing ploy). You control a Female investigator from the Spook house team (first seen in Nocturne) sent out to investigate the bizarre occurrences around the Rustin Parr murders. This mainly involves wandering around the woods aimlessly shouting and randomly gabbling (this sadly untrue but what have made a interesting side attraction
to the core of the game and would have been more in line with the film). However for you nature lovers out there the game is still heavily wood-o-centric.

Game play wise Rustin Parr plays in a similar way to the Resident Evil series of games. Using the sometimes annoying fixed camera/ static background style of that series of games. Word of advice if you cannot stand this style of game, then Rustin Parr is a game to avoid. It does nothing to improve on that style of game play and on some occasions even makes a bigger hash of it. At certain points in the game it becomes more frustrating than trying to playing any of the Resident Evil games whilst being drunk on cheap cider and wearing boxing gloves.

Graphically the Nocturne engine is superb; shadows and light sourcing are exquisitely mapped adding a high level of detail and atmosphere to the game. The torch you carry illuminates your path gorgeously, cloaks and clothes flap in the air and the character models look and move in a realistic manner. The only criticism being that some of the close up character graphics lack detail and look extremely 2D. When you see the facial detail created for the characters in games like the older Quake 3 or the recent Alone in the Dark 4, you've got to wonder what GOD was up to.

The game play it's self is not too bad to begin with. You are gently taught to the mechanics of the game via a training mission. Which is a fairly decent affair apart from some slightly dubious vocal acting. The game then slow evolves from you wondering around the town of Burkitsville talking to the local inhabitants to fighting supernatural foes in the woods surrounding the town. As this is when the game begins to come alive and also die at the same time.

Whilst in the woods the atmosphere builds to a genuinely nerve wracking level as strange sounds and ghostly images start to appear. It's only when you start to fight these creatures that the game starts to fa
ll apart. The movement system becomes cumbersome making combat very hit and miss. The constant angle shifts become a right royal pain throwing your view point and positioning all over the shop. The creatures just steadily move towards you, whilst seemingly being invulnerable to your weapons. Unlike Resident Evil where you feel and see the damage you're doing to your opponents in Rustin Parr they just seem to suddenly stop and disappear (or in some cases get back up again and again). Maybe it's the sadist in me but I like to feel like I'm knocking seven shades out of the bad guys.

Then cliché of all game clichés you suddenly meet the large end of level type boss thing. The first one I met was a giant scorpion. Err Excuse me GOD but what have giant scorpions got to do with the Blair Witch. If I was playing Clash of the Titans: The Gareth Hunt Investigation I might have expected this, but come on this is the Blair Witch. Add to this the fact that you have no idea if you are causing damage to said beastie. Add this to the other annoying features (camera angles, movement system, etc) and the game begins to suck more than Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat. To be honest this was as far as I played the game as it was beginning to annoy me more than my haemorrhoids after a day of sitting on cold gravestones (hey it's a hobby that doesn't involve expensive equipment and having friends)

The sucker punch for me though is that there is only one save slot for the game, this just stinks of slack programming and also makes the game even more frustrating. Save at the wrong time like me and you will have to replay the game from the start. Jesus might save but GOD sure didn't think that it's worth the effort of programming a multiple save system into Rustin Parr. It was at the second time of saving at the wrong time I thought sod it and removed the game from my PC. Maybe I'm just a buffoon with poor timing and the co-ordination of an amoe
ba (you can correct me if I'm wrong and amoebas have fantastic co-ordination skills, but I want references to studies please) but this is not how games should operate in these days of massive hard disc space.

Very much like the film, the first Blair Witch game is a good idea poorly executed. Instead of shaky cameras we get shaky controls, instead of annoying Americans we get annoying giant scorpions. GOD why did you have to do this to me, I came to this game with an open mind and all you did was betray me with a second rate game based on a second rate movie. Bah it's enough to turn a good atheist into a.....

Summary: