PS2 Review - Obscure: The Aftermath

Obscure: The Aftermath

PS2 Review
Developer: Hydravision Entertainment
Publisher: Ignitioni Entertainment
Players: 1-2

The original Obscure was a sleeper-hit of sorts on the PS2 for co-op fans, telling a great survival horror story of high school students who have to fight to survive these mutants who are out for their blood. It played out as a spoof almost on the many terrible teen horror films. The game focused on co-op game play and set itself apart from other survival-horror affairs. Now, we are brought the sequel, Obscure: The Aftermath. Can it work the same magic yet again?

Obscure: The Aftermath builds on where the original left off.

The game focuses on co-op play once again and the story begins a few years after the events of the original game. The survivors from the original are now in college and seem happy, recovering from the past. Things begin to take a turn for the worse though when history begins to repeat itself.

The game clearly draws inspiration once again from many teen horror films, and does so in an extremely entertaining fashion.

The game focuses on two characters mainly as you go through environments, solving puzzles and avoiding monsters at all costs.

The game features a nice array of weapons at your disposal, and also allows you to map the use of the weapons to your controls however you life. The camera works well with the weapons as it jumps right behind your shoulder once you are ready to fire.  Other than that the camera is mainly fixed.

Each character also has their own special abilities to help them along. Some are better at doing physical tasks than others, who may use their brains more for the puzzles. This is where the co-op aspect comes in, as this is a great game to sit down and play with someone, working together through things.

The visuals are very respectable considering this is a budget release on the PS2. The environments are fairly detailed and the character models, although not perfect, have come together well. For a budget game, it looks damn good.

The audio features some awful voice-acting which detracts from the story. In a way though, the bad voice acting almost makes it humorous at times. The music does a nice job of setting the entire atmosphere of the game.

Obscure: The Aftermath is not a perfect game by any means. There are clearly some game play flaws in the game as some of the mechanics do not work and leave you not knowing where to go to solve the next puzzle at times. There is also a lot of backtracking you have to do if you make minor mistakes here and there.

For a budget survival-horror game, Obscure: The Aftermath gets the job done on the PS2, making in an enjoyable co-op experience. As a single-player affair, I would say you may be a bit disappointed. If you and a friend are looking for a good co-op experience though, and a few good laughs with the ridiculous voice-acting, this is not a bad budget game at all!

Graphics: 7.5 For a budget game, Obscure: The Aftermath looks damn good. Nicely detailed environments.

Sound: 7.0 The music does a good job of setting the mood, sound effects could have been improved, and the voice acting is so bad it is actually entertaining.

Gameplay: 7.2 The controls work best in a co-op experience as there is less of a chance of making a mistake and having to backtrack. Overall it plays well though.

Replay Value: 5.5 You can’t ask for much considering it is a budget game. For a solid six-hour co-op experience though, it is not half bad!

Final Score: 7.0

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Interested in picking up this release? Head over to Amazon at the link here - Obscure: The Aftermath