| The second game in the trilogy of Blair Witch games from Gathering of Developers should come with a bottle of Tums and a six-pack of the strongest beer you can find. This is the kind of game that makes you want to pull your hair out and then construct stupid looking stick dolls out of it and some twigs in your backyard. I was really impressed with what Terminal Reality did in the first game of the series, Rustin Parr, but with what Humanhead has done with The Legend of Coffin Rock, the game is almost unplayable.
Rustin Parr contained many different elements of a good game. It had a great storyline. The Nocturne engine, although flawed, look very nice and brought the game alive. Apart from some really stupid controls and some really wicked camera angles, Rustin Parr was great and received a 9 out of 10, a very high mark for us. Now I have the privilege (?) of reviewing the second game (and soon the third) in the series of games from GOD and three different developers. I find it hard to bash something that someone has worked so hard to produce, but a team of monkeys must have created this product on the weekends.
Coffin Rock does have one thing going for it: The storyline is very well conceived and interesting to follow. It’s just the execution that mars this coulda-been-great-game. The premise of the game is as follows: You are a Union lieutenant and after surviving the horrors of Gettysburg, you are looking forward to a light duty assignment in Burkittsville, MD. Unfortunately, there have been some Rebels raiding local farms in search of food, so your commanding officer gives you three men to find and capture the Rebels. It’s nice to see an original story in a budget game such as this, whereas the developers could have just giving you a gun and said, "Kill anything that moves" a la Quake. Even with the original story, this game falls flat on its pale face on all fronts.
The same problems I mentioned in my Rustin Parr review are back, and sometimes even worse. The movable clothing is back. When our hero Lazarus is walking about, or sitting down, or even laying down, his cloths are in current motion, like some ghost is trying to look down his pants, but can’t pull them away. Grotesque? Yes, but it looks so very odd.
The rest of the problems with this game come from the Nocturne engine itself. This engine was never designed for an action game such as this. The ridiculous camera angles can have you stuck in a position where you can’t even see what is attacking you. This leads to some very frustrating die, load game, die, repeat gameplay. Sure, the camera angles are very cinematic, but they would work better in another game.
Getting stuck into a corner is one thing, but not being able to escape because you can’t find the right button or turn fast enough is another. The same horrible control scheme is back for another go in Coffin Rock, and I must say, it still sucks. Being confined to controls so similar to a first-person shooter makes this third-person adventure game a chore. You can never turn fast enough, your character runs like his pants weigh 45 pounds, and Lazarus can somehow walk in mid-air. For the love of God, why must you holster your weapon to open a goddamn door? We have two arms and hands for a reason. Looks like the bottle of "common sense" is running a little low.
The one thing the Nocture engine does well is scripted cut-scenes using the in-game engine. Alas, even this portion of the game is messed up due to some voice acting problems and cut-scenes that drag on and on and on and on – well, you get my point. The voice acting on a whole is very well done, and I was impressed, but, yet again, the execution kills another strong point. Towards the beginning of the game you will flash back to 1863 where you have been assigned to locate rebels in the woods. You are given three men and are supposed to meet them at the edge of the town. All good and well, but once you meet them you will see how rushed this game was. Your character will complete a fully voiced sentence, and then all three of your men will talk in subtitles. Then your character will talk in subtitles, then one of them will speak, and back to subtitles you go. This portion of the game shows just how unfinished the game is. Playing through the entire thing, I could tell that another month of bug testing and polish could have established a good, or even great, game.
Volume 2 of the Blair Witch series suffers from the budget syndrome. The game was rushed to the market, slapped with a low price so the excuse can be made that "it’s only 20 bucks!" Sadly this game isn’t even worth the cardboard used to box it, let alone the 20 bucks to buy it. Horrible execution coupled with some redeeming music and voice acting leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. I would have liked to see the second game in the series live up to its predecessor, Rustin Parr, but my high hopes were shot down. I can only hope the third game redeems the series and ends it on a high note.
Oh, by the way, was this game supposed to be scary? | 
