Lets talk a little bit about Chapter IX. It was short. Parts of it were entertaining. Many parts were odd and didn't make a lot of sense. Especially the part about the witch. First, why is Zobek following Gabriel around? And is he the jerk holding the camera? No matter how much I love Cloverfield, shaky cam always makes me nauseous. This is no better. So if Zobek is holding the camera tell him to put the dumb thing on a tripod.
The first section of Chapter IX is easy and straight forward. It would be uneventful except for the fact that a designer remembered the Chupacabras. One of those annoying little guys shows up in this area. He's remarkably easy to find, you just need a troll to help smash a wall. I am just glad the whole Chupacabra section was short. I despise those things. And I might even despise the designer who came up with them.
The next section is actually a little more interesting. First Gabriel meets a Witch. This Witch reminds me of the garbage lady from Labyrinth.The Witch wants to be young again and it is up to Gabriel to help her. First he has to get to the key for her music box and some mean old Scarecrows have stolen it from her. Gabriel promises to help the Witch as long as she helps him. Sounds like a winning deal. I would like to point out that Zobek is calling for the Witch's death the entire time. Seriously, the guy is pretty adamant about it.
Gabriel has to defeat some Scarecrows and he can only do that by luring crows onto the Scarecrow. Yes that sounds counter-productive and it probably is. The puzzle isn't hard. You just have to fill up all of the posts in the area with crows and this eventually forces one murder of crows to land on the Scarecrow. The Scarecrows then get down off of their perch and attack Gabriel. Do this three times to win.
The Scarecrows can be a little tough though. They are fast and they have a pretty good reach. Thankfully Gabriel is feeling a little more powerful these days so I wasn't overly concerned. I just had to make sure I was careful. There's a neutral orb fountain in the area and that can help get health back. There are also Mandragoras in the area. They are perfect for beating down and restoring life as Gabriel needs it.
With the keys in hand Gabriel can return to the Witch for part three of Chapter IX.Gabriel really needs to pay attention. The Witch specifically said that she needed the Blue Rose from the music box and to get it she will have to shrink down Gabriel and stick him in the box. Naturally Gabriel is surprised when the Witch shrinks him down and shoves him into the box. This guy needs to pay a little more attention.
So here we are inside of the music box. This area was frustrating for me. A lot of it required pretty precise timing to get through. Gabriel had to collect these colored cylinders and use them in the main part of the music box. Depending on what color was playing certain traps were disabled. Thankfully the this would match to the floor. If the red cylinder was playing the traps at the end of the red carpet would be deactivated, or activated depending on how you look at it. The yellow cylinder doesn't shut off the flames that block Gabriel's path, but it does cause them to move. The timing of the traps was pretty specific, but they were off just enough to throw me off. I kept running into them. Eventually the whole thing comes down to memorization. Frustrating, but I felt satisfied once I beat the level.
Once Gabriel has the Blue Rose he returns to the Witch and do you know what he does? He demands that the Witch help him. So she does. That's it. Gabriel doesn't kill her. There are no big boss fights at this point. The Witch just sends Gabriel on his way to the Abyss. Maybe he'll find Kratos there, that does appear to be his summer vacation spot.
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