Review: Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr

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The sound and graphics in Rustin Parr help create the Blair Witch spooky atmosphere

by Brian Wright

(IDG) -- It's time to go back into the Burkittsville woods and show evil who's boss in Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr - the first in a series of games based on the now famous Blair Witch legend.

As the title suggests, Volume 1 of the series centers on the notorious Rustin Parr murders of the early Forties. As Elspeth "Doc" Holiday, a member of the secret US government agency Spookhouse, you are sent to the town of Burkittsville to investigate the murders and uncover the source of the evil in the nearby woods.

The story does a good job of incorporating Terminal Reality's own Spookhouse story into the history of the Blair Witch while staying mostly true to the legend, and despite some corny character cliches (a crotchety small town sheriff, a wise and mystic Native American, etc.) the plot is captivating and will keep you interested enough to play through to the end.

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Anyone familiar with survival horror games like Resident Evil will recognize Rustin Parr's style of gameplay. You explore various areas from a third person perspective with fixed camera angles providing Hitchcockesque views of the surroundings, while fighting monsters and solving puzzles that require you to put together clues from bits of dialogue and objects you find. One particularly fun puzzle has you manipulating a sound recorder to uncover some mysterious sounds recorded during your travels.

The Nocturne engine adequately creates the spooky atmosphere necessary for a Blair Witch game with some of the best shadows seen in gaming and lots of little details - leaves kick up from the forest floor when you walk and ghostly images lurk in dark corners. The flittering fabric effect, while technically impressive, appears glitchy and the characters' photo-realistic faces are inadvertently frightening.

The sound in Rustin Parr creates a tension that will keep you on the edge of your seat, particularly in the forest where wind howls through the trees, footsteps crunch through fallen leaves, and the air is filled with the voices of lost children asking you to come and play. Your Spectral Proximity Sensor will send chills down your spine as it crackles - warning you of nearby monsters - and you'll jump when thunder crashes. The only problem stems from some mediocre voice acting that bogs down many of the cut-scenes.

Controlling your character can be tricky at times, especially during combat. Auto-aiming doesn't always work and you'll sometimes find yourself pointing your gun in the air or straight down at the ground. It's also easy to get stuck behind a tree, blocked in by an enemy.

If you're looking for a frightful gaming experience just in time for Halloween and you don't mind a few minor flaws, you can't go wrong with Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr. For a mere 20 bucks you'll get intense gameplay, clever puzzles, and plenty of scares. Just don't play it alone.

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