Obscure

"Kind Of Like A Game Of Pacman; Over Quickly But You'll Play It Again"

The horror genre has long been dominated by Resident Evil and Silent Hill. While Obscure doesn't provide any major scares, it provides something a lot more interesting; a two player mode.

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Storyline (6/10)
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This story is very stereotyped, which I hope is intentional since it resembles that of a teen movie. It's set in the school of Leafmore High, where students have been disappearing since it's opening. The story starts with our group of heroes losing track of one of their friends who they hadn't seen since the night before and didn't turn up for class that day. Obviously, he must have got lost somewhere on school grounds, so our group decide to search the school. The story has a couple of twists but nothing you probably couldn't predict in the first ten minutes of the game. Also, the script of the game is extremely poor, and the way Josh keeps referring to the group as “the gang” makes it feel like an episode of Scooby Doo. Thus the quality of the script definitely isn't why I gave it a six, instead, the reason I've rated it so is due to the fact it's a game that never tries to get overly complicated, knows it's storyline and actually provides it in a decent way.

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Gameplay (6/10)
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You are given a choice of characters to play as, which you can switch between as you wish, as well as having one of the others follow you around. They all have their own abilities, which range from useless to somewhat handy, for example, Kenny has the ability to run a bit faster for a couple of seconds and Stan can open locks, but so can everyone else by using a bit of wire that you get at the beginning of the game. Josh however lets you know if there are any items lying about, thus letting you know whether it's worth exploring a room or not. This game has an edge over other games in the survival horror genre by offering a two-player mode, which obviously betters the game, since the PS2 seriously lacks two player games, let alone decent two player games. Unfortunately, the AI is so bad it makes it pretty necessary to play the game with another human, as the partner you bring along will often just get themselves into trouble, use up all your ammo and completely ignore any command you give.

As mentioned in the storyline, the basic flow of the game is to find your missing friend and then uncover the secrets of the school. It's very straightforward and the nearest the game gets to taxing is some of the puzzles, which mostly consist of using an object on another object. The enemies you come up against are also pretty simplistic and don't involve any tactic other than blast away at them. Obviously, from the sounds of it, this game is very obvious and nothing taxing, however, this is to the game's advantage.

First, it's obviously a low budget game, and thus there's obviously going to be lacking quality to some extent. The game doesn't make use of any overly fancy controls, and thus can be played by anyone, and while the game takes a very short amount of time to complete, the two-player mode does make up for this. While it does have it's problems as well, for example, the players being able to walk off screen can really spoil the game as you get stuck behind something yet again, it is enjoyable. Resident Evil Outbreak did provide partners to go around with, however, a two-player mode in that was unfortunately missed out, while this game isn't as enjoyable as Outbreak could have been with multiplayer it does have it charm. Overall, it is not the perfect game, or anywhere near it, but what the game contains is done well, it's just a shame there's isn't as much of it.

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Graphics (6/10)
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The environments are pretty well drawn, it's just a shame that this only amounts to the school and some basements. The characters themselves are fine when stationary, however, they are animated horribly, which results in a lot of jerky movements, especially evident in cutscenes. There aren't a huge amount of monsters, which aren't drawn very well either, although the black mist around them is pretty well done and the light effects are good.

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Sounds (4/10)
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While I guess the opening song sets the scene well, I thought it was a pretty lame song and is unfortunately probably where a good chunk of this game's budget went. The rest of the in game music ranges from alright, to not noticing it in the slightest to outright horrible. One such example is the operatic music that you get at certain points in the game such as after killing a “boss”. The sound effects are alright and sound like the objects they're supposed to and the voice acting while lacking in places is good for the most part. The moral of this is; turn the background music off and this game improves.

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Lifespan (2/10)
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This is the game's biggest downfall; it's incredibly short. On my first playthrough I finished it in three hours, and this included a lot of backtracking and not knowing where to go at times, I haven't played it through a second time yet, but I can't imagine how short the game is when you know exactly where to go. There is a set of unlockable extras, but they just amount to a couple of weapons and one alternate outfit for each character. Overall, these just don't amount to enough to provide any amount of long-term playing. What does make you come back is the multiplayer mode; as while it certainly isn't ground breaking, it's something you can pick up and play and the controls are easy enough to learn that just about anyone can pick it up. This is important, since the PS2 has a serious lack of games that you can just pick up and play whenever you want without requiring any sort of serious commitment in order to finish it. But again, although you will most likely play it a few times, and it is fun when playing with a different person, even if you played it three times, it's still less than ten hours gameplay.

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Summary (5/10)
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It sounds odd, but this is the kind of game the new generation of gamers needs. It's nowhere near the high budgets that many games demand, and thus doesn't need to sell as many to break even. High budget games are killing the games industry, and while this isn't the place to write on that, this game is a prime example of how low budget games can provide good gaming experiences. I explained how short the game is, but the fact is that this isn't always a negative, since it doesn't require any sort of long term commitment, and can be played with anyone. This isn't a game that will appeal to everyone, especially those who are used to ultra flashy graphics and only rate games based on them, like magazines for example. This game is kind of like Tetris; your game can have finished in a very short amount of time, but you'll play it again, and that's what our industry needs. If games like Obscure were given a bit more publicity and people were willing to rate games on how fun they are, then the games industry may still have a future, since one day graphics just aren't going to be enough.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07