Introduction:
A few years back, a movie was released that for some reason swept the nation by storm. It was a low budget, quasi horror picture that many said was the most frightening movie that they had ever seen. I thought that it was just a b movie, with a drunken cameraman and a large amount of media hype behind it. This movie came to be known as "The Blair Witch Project". It was a movie that you either really really liked, or you despised it like the rest of us. The story behind the movie (incase you have been stuck in a cave for the last few years, and the title doesnt give it away) is that a group of student filmmakers have set out to create a documentary about the Blair Witch, a local legend that supposedly haunts the Black Hills of Maryland. In 1995, the filmmakers journey into the woods in an effort to find and document the Witch, and a few days later, they mysteriously go missing. A duffel bag containing the students film is found a while later, and after it was deemed to be inconclusive by the authorities, it was given to a movie studio to show the world the filmmakers journey.
During the course of the movie, the film crew would take a break from the story and recount some of the legends of the Blair Witch. This was done not only to give the viewer some background on the legend and to the extend of the film, but it was also intended to open up the movie to marketing spin-offs and possible prequels. Since the sequel to the movie has already arrived in theaters nationwide, and has made a departure from the original films treatment of the Blair Witch, Miramax films has decided to blitz the consumer with a marketing rush to rekindle his or her waning interest in the movie. They set out to accomplish this by giving Gathering of Developers the rights to create the electronic versions of the movie. Three volumes were to be created, each one dealing with a separate part of the Blair Witch legend, and each to come out one month after the one before it. The first was Volume 1: Rustin Parr, and the second, which I am reviewing today is Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock.
Story:
The player takes control of Lazarus, a former Union soldier whom was found by a young Robin Weaver. You have been resurrected from the dead of the forest by this girl and her grandmother. You awaken from your catatonic state only to find that the little girl has gone missing, and her grandmother charges you with the task of finding her in the forest. Having an affinity for the supernatural, she knows that you and only you will be able to find her dear little grandchild. Reluctantly accepting the offer, you venture fourth into the dark abyss that is the forest, risking life and limb to find the little girl.
Gameplay:
In order to expedite the production of the three games, and to ensure that once a player was hooked on one of them, he would find it an easy transition to go from one game to another, the developers were all given the same game engine to build their respective volumes in. Subsequently, each game plays almost exactly like the game before it, and the only real differences between them are some minor interface changes (locations of menus on screen etc.) and the actual storyline of the game. All of the control elements, menu elements, and the like are all exactly the same.
Blair Witch Volume 2 attempts to be a 3rd person action adventure game for the masses. Its interface is almost oversimplified in order to allow inexperienced to quickly acclimate themselves to the game and begin playing immediately. Unfortunately I feel that this oversimplification actually has the effect of hindering the game because it limits the variability of the gameplay. Everything about the game is scaled down, from the variety of items that your character can have to the three or four different weapons that he is limited to in his arsenal.
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