Obscure thoughts

This week a friend and I played through most (about 3/4ths) of Obscure. I was away from home on a business trip, so it was a good excuse to take a break from Silent Hill 4 and check out the two-player action in Obscure.

Though I must reserve final judgment until the game is complete, my impression of Obscure is quite good. The two-player mode in particular is awesome, as is the party system and light mechanic. The graphics are pretty good, and there are a few legitimate scares packed away in the game’s depths.

The problem with Obscure is mostly that while it has some really innovative elements, it’s also based on rather bland puzzles and combat. The plot is run-of-the-mill, the characters are only mildly interesting, and the monsters are (with a few exceptions) pretty standard. The game’s innovations seem to be enough to keep it afloat, and there are very few execution problems, but some of standard survival horror game elements feel a little flat.

The game is also quite dark and there seem to be a few dramatic spikes in difficulty. But in general, Obscure is a solid survival horror game with some really cool elements going for it. It’s not quite revolutionary, but like The Suffering, it gets enough of the equation right that the experience is fresh and enjoyable.

7 thoughts on “Obscure thoughts

  1. I finished this game a few days ago and I loved it. The game was much better that I had thought.
    As far as playing it two player. Me and my b/f haven’t gotten very far He still can’t stop beating my charater with a bat long enough for us to bet anything done.

  2. Sneak in a back elbow. If this fails, massage
    his head with knee strikes and throw him into
    a pit by his collar. It worked for me in the
    Double Dragon days. 🙂

  3. Yeah, I loved the two player mode on this, especially when you can swap camera angles.

    It’s a shame this wasn’t used for RE-Outbreak PAL version…It would have been a much better game for it.

    BTW, they say to see the full ending you have to play it on hard…they lie. It’s the same bloody ending!

  4. na
    started this one with a mate, didn’t grip either of us to be honest. Does it get better further on by any chance? The teen-e storyline is a bit random, interesting idea, just poor characters.

  5. I’ll admit that the game itself is a little unoriginal, but playing with two people is really great. Also, it took me a while to realize that fighting monsters is really hard, and that I should avoid it (by breaking windows to let light in, etc) as often as possible.

  6. I got nothing out of the game though, it didn’t seem to particularly matter who you played as since none of the additional skills seemed to matter much. I found myself using Shannon and the skater kid the most and kenny the least (not just cause he was missing for most of the game)
    I never beat it, I got quite far before giving up, but as a single player game it just didn’t hold up, I tried to play in two player, but my friend being the RE person he is, didn’t think to move around while shooting so he died alot.

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