Obscure Preview

Released in Europe last fall, Obscure is gearing up for a North American release this spring. The game, while technically an entry into the survival-horror genre, does things a little bit differently. Taking place in a high school where some pretty grisly events begin to transpire, Obscure has you controlling five different students as they each investigate the strange goings-on while attempting to keep themselves alive. Plus, there is a co-op mode that allows you to team up with a friend to take on the bad guys. If all goes well, Obscure should be a fun and engaging survival-horror game with some pretty innovative elements when it hits later this spring.

As I mentioned earlier, you gain control of five students of Leafmore High, guiding each of them through the quest. Each of them fits into a different high school “clique;” there’s an athlete, a rich girl, a nerd from the AV club, a valedictorian and a “troubled” kid. Thusly, each person has different skills based on their character traits that can make them assets in certain situations. For example, the athlete is a bit more physically fit than the other kids, enabling him to run faster and take more damage. Also, the troublemaker can pick locks faster than any other character, which comes in handy when you are in a jam.

When progressing through the game, you can have two characters together (because, in horror movies, they always seem to travel around either alone or in pairs, but never large groups) at one time. Also, your characters can die, putting them out of commission for the rest of the game. You can basically lose your characters until each of them is dead, at which point the game is over.

Your ragtag crew of adolescents also has access to a ton of different items and the ability to interact with items in the environment. In true adventure game fashion, you can also combine two items to make them better, like taping a flashlight to a gun for example. At this point, the gameplay feels a bit more focused on the puzzle-solving elements than all-out combat, with a lot of adventuring and less monster bashing. This should appeal to adventure fans looking for the thinking man’s survival-horror game. However, considering that this was a demo of the game and not the final retail version, and a lot can change before a game’s release.

The graphics are looking quite nice at this point as well. The environments are very well detailed and feel like they were lifted out of a horror movie. The areas look like a twisted high school, with some really creepy elements coupled with things like locker rooms and classes, making for a cool aesthetic. The monsters are also very cool looking, and will probably impress (read: scare the pants off of) the Silent Hill crowd.

The game is also poised to have some great sound elements. While the voice acting and script is in sore need of localization (the game was originally made in France), the soundtrack has some licensed acts like Sum 41, which adds to the game’s high school/horror movie feel. All in all, Obscure is shaping up to be a refreshing take on the survival-horror genre with a unique horror-movie feel that horror fans would do well to check out this March.