Obscure
Boo! Run! Die! That’s the formula of Obscure, the teen horror movie videogame.
Tags: Obscure Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 27th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Obscure (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Survival Horror | No | ||
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Obscure’s concept is a simple one: adopt the formula and setting of a teen horror movie – you know, like URBAN LEGEND, SCREAM or A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET – and deliver it as a game play experience in a videogame format. Nice concept, especially with the resurgent interest in the genre at the theatre box office with recent hits like THE RING 2, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS and BOOGEYMAN. But can a movie formula work as a videogame? That’s the question.
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The basic formula of most teen horror movies boils down to the BRD concept: Boo! Run! Die! At least until you’re down to the final hero of the flick, the survivalist star who can beat the movie monster through pluck, courage and sheer, utter will to survive. It’s a formula that works well for a 90-minute scare ’em flick, but can it hold up to the rigors of a thorough, 10-15 hour survival horror videogame? That is the question Dreamcatcher si hoping to answer with its entry in the genre, Obscure.
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The game opens movie-style, with scenes from a high school and cutting-edge rock blasting, then a story segment to set up the prologue. You are a student shooting hoops in the gym long after everyone else has gone; but when you go to take a shower, your cell phone is ringing but as you seek it out, you get the spooky feeling of being watched and next thing you know, your belongings are missing. You investigate, and uncover a homeless man, clearly insane, in the school basement. You try to help him, but then monsters attack and – well – pretty much regardless what you do, you’re gonna die here. But is there a Game Over screen? Not yet; this was an encounter you were meant to fail. Oh well.
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Next thing, a bunch of that guy’s friends are wondering where the heck he went and end up getting locked inside the school when they decide to stay after and look for him; but this is no ordinary empty school building. Things are getting spookier and spookier and finally, after some puzzle solving, your new crew gets their first glimpse of a nasty. Take my advice: run! It’ll pay off better that way. Without giving away any more plot, from there the game really starts to ramp up as your objectives shift and change. Of course, your primary objective is pretty simple: live. But that won’t be easy: the creatures you’re facing are seldom affected by the meager weapons you’ll find early in the game, and really the only thing that’s effective are the rays of the sun, which destroy them in vampire-like fashion. Not too shabby.
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But knowing their weakness and having access to it are two separate things, and too often yu have no access to the sun, even if you have a bat to bust open windows; there’s still a lot of running and dying and reloading in the game, which somewhat limits the fun due to an almost-forced repetition. Then there’s the save-scheme; much like you had to gather save crystals and could only save your game using one in Tomb Raider 2, in obscure you collect CDs; you can save anytime, as long as you have one. But they’re limited in number, so conserve ‘em! This is a game that, due to its save scheme, almost demands you play it in long stretches, since your save resources are limited.
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On an audio level, Obscure is quite strong, with character voices sounding just right and wonderful atmospherics, including a rockin’ sound track with original music from Sum 41 and Span, the same kind of “obscure” hard music acts that populate the soundtracks of so many horror movies. Nothing wrong with that, and most folks will enjoy it as it adds to the teen horror movie atmosphere.
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Your team consists of three friends initially, and they are, in effect, your “lives” within the game. If they all die, the game is over, so don’t save after a death, otherwise you’ll be without that teammate for the balance of the game; and you may need them. Certainly, some of the puzzles in the game require at least two kids operating as a team to solve. This can lead to some frustration along the way, as you could be taking a long time to conquer a significant portion of the game without using a save disc and then, just before you are ready to save and move on to the next thing, one of your characters will die in an unscripted moment and you have to ask yourself – do I want to save now and lose this character the rest of the way, or do I want to start over and re-do all that stuff again. It’s not a pleasant choice, either way.
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Graphically, the game looks less like a survival horror movie and more like a low-rent version of Silent Hill; the art style mirrors that of Konami’s top-selling horror game series, and it shows in the design of the school, which features bathrooms as fetid as those you find yourself in at the opening of Silent Hill 2. Honestly, any school that actually looked like this would be shut down for health code violations long before any monsters or serial killers could start taking lives. But, what are you gonna do, right? Exactly. The PS2 version of the game plays just find, although it did freeze on me a couple times – a rarity that has only happened to me once before, recently, and that was with Pinball Hall of Fame.
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The basic controls of the game are well-explained and easy to get the hang of, but the trouble here is that most of your weapons are useless against the monsters in question, which wasn’t even the case with Silent Hill, which at least gives you a fighting shot to survive encounters; the “you gotta run away” game play follows in line with Namco’s Clock Tower series, so take that as you wish. Personally, I like a better mix of “stand and fight” with my “run to survive” game play. But that’s me. For others, this may be exactly what they’re looking for. To each his or her own.
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In the end, though, the game does look and play like a low-rent version of Silent Hill. That’s not a terrible thing; Silent Hill is a great model to follow. But the puzzles aren’t as innovation, the game design and story less subtle and ingenious, and the graphics like a first draft version of a Silent Hill title, rather than the final product. Obscure is a good enough foray into survival horror by Dreamcatcher that it’s worth a look; but while it’s not terrible, there certainly are many horror titles that are better than Obscure, so it probably won’t be the first one you play when you have any choice at all. Renting would be the better option here.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Solid storytelling that delivers survival horror chills with interesting characters. + Great audio atmosphere. + Basic controls are easy to master. |
6.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
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— Most weapons are useless; you’re better off running away, like most horror movie teens. — Look of the game is less teen horror movie than it is cheap Silent Hill clone. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Obscure is a game with a promising concept and great from an auditory standpoint, but in the end it feels mostly like what it is: a low-rent Silent Hill clone. If you like Silent Hill, this is your fix till Konami delivers again; but it’s not as filling. | |
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Tags: Obscure
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 27th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
