Y2k-flavored survival horror. The original Resident Evil 5?

Co-op was fun and I was lucky to have a partner to play with (Thanks Patrick). Putting aside the weird troubleshooting to get two controllers working on a PC version of this game, I don’t think this is one I’d come back to regardless.

It starts out interesting enough. I think you could sell anyone on ObsCure with the elevator pitch alone: early 2000s survival horror with multiple playable characters, permadeath, and drop-in/drop-out local co-op.

It’s unfortunate that the co-op feels incongruous, an afterthought. There are too many encounters where the camera would focus directly opposite to enemies, or Player 1 would get too far ahead, leaving Player 2 unable to do much of anything.

For some people, maybe that’s a selling point. Maybe awkward camera angles and janky combat enhances the survival horror experience for you. It wasn’t my cup of tea here.

There’s also the (coincidentally) proto-Alan Wake combat, which was underlined by my most recent replay of Alan Wake. You have to “burn away” the darkness surrounding enemies using a flashlight, although here it’s more of a miasma which can damage you, I think? Also, enemies regenerate their “darkness” almost immediately, making it a tug-of-war between using the flashlight, and dealing damage. Again, it’s awkward, but that might be what some people find endearing about it. I couldn’t help but think that Alan Wake did it better though!

Coming to grips with some of the mechanics, the early game was novel. My partner and I found ourselves running out of healing items and ammo, having to switch characters to not die, and it was a genuinely rigid and tense survival horror experience. Eventually, however, we settled into our preferred characters – I stuck with Josh, whose ability allowed him to sense if there were any useful items available in any given room; my partner chose Shannon, whose ability was to turn into a AAA game protagonist, dropping extremely obvious hints as to what to do next at regular intervals.

Honestly, the idea of a character designed around giving hints is pretty smart. The map is also generous, marking POIs and objectives which definitely made this playthrough a breeze.

Our final playthrough clocked in at 6 and a half hours, with regular breaks and pizza in between. I think we could’ve cleared it in 4-5 hours otherwise. Its brevity almost demands a second playthrough, but… I don’t know about that.

I recently finished Resident Evil 1 remake for the first time (Chris’ story, that is, I finished Jill’s story about a year ago). I couldn’t help but compare the experience of both games.

RE1 demands a lot of backtracking, with very few hints, limited inventory space, and such tight difficulty scaling and pacing that its gameplay loop becomes a rhythm of expeditions into the Spencer Mansion, which feel decidedly methodical and calculated.

ObsCure is comparatively linear, with backtracking that is rarely required, and squeezes players of their resources during stretches of heavy combat, leaving voids of enemies and supplies that offer zero utility in revisiting.

The bombastic soundtrack also completely kills any kind of atmosphere this game would’ve had. There’s also no options to lower any music OR sound, so you’re stuck with this the entire game. Compare this to regular RE1 ambience and you’ll understand. One intends to create dread, another panic – but it’s hard to create panic when nothing is happening, at all.

This feels like half of an average survival horror game, and it unfortunately didn’t grab me. Hard to recommend unless you’re a genre enthusiast.

Obscure é uma bela transposição do terror teen dos cinemas para o vídeo-game, proporcionando ao player a mesma sensação que os filmes do gênero oferecem.

A qualidade deste jogo é impressionante, nota-se a paixão dos desenvolvedores em cada ponto. Aliás, esse é um game tecnicamente complexo e revolucionário para a época, pois os personagens podem morrer permanente durante a gameplay, assim disponibilizando diálogos dos demais integrantes do grupo acerca desse evento, além de alterar as cutscenes. Ressalto, obscure em questão gráfica é lindíssimo.

O único ponto que não agradou-me, trata-se do design dos monstros, são bem simples e não tem nenhum aspecto "UAU".

This game is such a gem!

Obscure is a title I have been wanting to play for awhile now but I have just been lazy to start it up but finally got the urge to finally do it. I have stayed away from everything about this game so I went in 100% not knowing a single thing about the game and honestly I am really glad I did. This game is pure Teen horror cheese and I just fell in love with the vibe of this game.

With that being said the story isn't anything to write home about its there but it won't blow you away its a very basic story. Voice acting? cheesy as all hell and it honestly worked in this game's favor a lot imo.

For me what I really enjoyed about this game was its gameplay and character swapping mechanics. In this game you play as 4 students trying to survive and save their friend but what I did not know was that you can play as each character each having their own skill and you will always have 1 other character with you in which you can swap out at anytime if you are near the others. This honestly made the game more interesting as I would sometimes think about who I should bring or specific parts of the game. The AI is fine enough I didn't feel bothered by the AI but I felt like this game would have been a blast to play through with a friend.

The gameplay itself feels like a mixture of Silent hill and RE and while the camera can get in the way sometimes overall the gameplay was fun. The environments were as well fun to traverse and roam but sometimes it could get awkward as some areas can be small but the game still would throw big enemies in very narrow areas but if you get used to the gameplay its really not an issue.

Overall if you can understand this is pure Teen horror cheese you will enjoy this. It isn't game changing but its a good time with some good 2000s horror vibes and that alone was enough for me.

Bizarre design on so many levels, not least the retention of the fixed camera of the early Resi and Silent Hill while also making each room more cluttered with objects that hinder navigation and shooting, and with enemies way too fast for these environments. This is compounded by the most mundane puzzles imaginable and a barebone horror storyline, not interesting enough to leave a lasting impression and not campy enough to be thrilling while played with a friend. Also, teenagers are inherently not made equal, there is little incentive to swap between characters as most of them clearly have better abilities than the rest overall.
What a weird, weird experience.