Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr

"good game with too many annoying bugs"

Man this game is riddled with bugs. I know its a budget title but does that mean that terminal reality can create such a a poorly built game?
Speaking of which rustin parr is the first of trilogy al of which use the same nocturne engine(no updates were found) and the same flaws. Luckily each of the games is developed by a different division of take two I can only hope the next two are better. Straight away the player can tell this is a mediocre attempt as the the title of the game in windoze is nocturne not good TR not good at all. While I was playing this game it would escape into windows often and even when I loaded up game this became annoying very quickly. So I went looking for patches and didnt find any then I decided to consult the online FAQ only to be shocked as I was taken straight to the nocturne FAQ page. *whimpers* they didnt even try to create an individual FAQ *stops whimpering* anyway their only solution is not to click on objects often this is a bit difficult as this game is like grim fandango with mouse support.

That being said this game has a tight story line which is based 50 yrs before the mediocre film which of course gets a slight reference near the end of the game. The main character is named Doc Holladay who can call wyatt earp as backup :) only kidding hehe nah instead we stranger the protagonist of nocturne. Basically Doc is assigned to investigate if a small village named berketsville(sp) has any paranormal activities which it turns out that it does would be much of an adventure if it wasn't :) it turns out that the spirit that made the secluded villager rustin parr is still around and is hell bent on causing trouble. What ensues is a trek in the forest which will have all the adventure while the town has secrets that will be uncovered by the player. There are also instances where Doc is transported in different realities via the use of twana which act as keys the music at this time picks up as the haunting music becomes louder and...er more haunting.

The gameplay is more or less the same as grim fandango except for the mouse support which comes in handy when you need to dispose twana monsters. The mouse is used to change directions of Doc while the keyboard direction buttons are used to move the character. It seems tricky but those who played games like quake etc should find it easy. Rusin parr does well in providing atmosphere as the spectral device produced noises reminiscent of the radio of silent hill which was a joy. The controls can be very annoying as once when I was trying to defeat a boss (yes the game has bosses which are large and frightening....to some people not me) where I had to destroy its 'nest' before I could actually destroy it and I dont know how many times I was clicking on the damn nest but Doc wasnt doing anything dammit?!?

The graphics are very nice in the game if or when you can see them as TR made it so that the whole habitat of berketsville was dark again providing some atmosphere although I found myself having to increase the gamma correction. The game use Hardware Acceleration well as the graphics are nice a crisp though poor anti-ailiasing is present. The lighting effects are amazing as the shadows are perfectly placed and it seems the lighting is the only thing TR can do right.

The music in rustin parr definitely plays the part right as it can add to the already tense atmosphere especially when visiting the alternate realities.Fantastic. The lightning effects made me jump numerous times very good hahaha. The voice acting is predictably bad as the voices are not in sync with the mouth movements and add to it the bad compression TR used makes me want to turn off the voices and leave the text on.

Overall this game isnt bad but the large amount bugs in it made made me resent it and there is no chance Im playing this again. Due to being a budget title this game is very short as it can take four or five hours to complete it. This game is onlt worth playing due to its story and nice light effects though not worth purchasing in my opinion, if you can borrow it off a friend than its definitely worth playing through just for the tense atmosphere better in the night BWAHAHAHA.....

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/01, Updated 06/25/01