The Story

Hello, my name is Lazarus

Blair Witch 2: Coffin Rock (BW2) casts you as a man simply named "Lazarus," and even this is a pseudonym. At the game's opening you know very little of your past, not even your name. The one thing you do know is that you are a soldier, easily recalled via your uniform. A strange little girl named Robin Weaver finds you injured in the woods by, and returns you to her grandmother for nursing. Within a day, Robin disappears into the woods, and her grandmother charges you with the quest of finding the little girl.

On your quest, you will find much more than just a little girl. The quest into the woods is more than just a search for Robin. Your background and memories are in that wood somewhere, and it's your goal to recover those, as well.

Lost...

You don't say!

Don't interrupt me, I'm in the middle of a flashback

BW2 uses one of the most interesting storytelling devices to hit video games in a long time. The art of the flashback, or dual stories, has long been a common device in fiction, but rarely do we see it on the PC, and even more rarely do we see it well done.

As you trek through the woods and come across, say, a tree growing out of a rock, you will explore it as the modern incarnation of Lazarus, and then, when something triggers a flashback, it will drop you back to his former incarnation of a soldier exploring the same tree growing out of a rock. Lazarus appears as a young, strapping man exploring a well-lit wood in comparison to the drab misty wood you explore as his post-war version.

As time progresses the flashbacks will yield more and more of your background as you trek deeper into the woods in search of Robin, with the horror of Coffin Rock, which you have previously forgotten, appearing at the climax of the game.

Assembling the posse.

Goofball doesn't even know he is being shot at.

Everything else

The first qualm you will have with the game is the voice acting. Your character has an apathetic and reserved tone, which makes sense since he is a Veteran of Gettysburg and the Coffin Rock incident, but this trend of distant voice acting carries through most of the characters.

When the voice actors aren't distant, as is the case with Robin's grandmother, they are incredibly over the top and downright silly. Mrs. Weaver has a roller coaster dialogue with Lazarus, her inflection will rise and peak, her tone descends into the depths of calmness to rise into a jittery apex. Though these roller coaster dialogues are annoying, you'll find yourself preferring them over the distant and apathetic voice acting you will find in most of the characters. Moreover, the majority of these scenes are very long, some of them taking several minutes to relay information and background that can be placed into a single well-written minute.

Though the cutscenes are almost always narrated, the visuals themselves are very well done. The camera will generally stay stationary, save for an occasional well placed pan. The cutscenes are always placed against a great background, and the characters don't unnecessarily emote, or generally make fools of themselves.

You tied my laces together old man, now you die.	Check out the ectoplasm spray. Egon eat your heart out.
Left, left, left right left.	Opening fire