Obscure [2004] for the PC
Obscure is a survival horror game from French studios Hydravision Entertainment. It's a slightly subpar RE clone with some mechanics - borderline gimmicks - that make it stand out somewhat. Tank controls, fixed camera angles, lock and shoot, very simple puzzles - they are all there. No pre-rendered backgrounds though as Obscure is fully 3D. For starters, the game features 5 playable characters, but only 2 characters can play at once while the others sit on the bench. Your companion is either controlled by the AI or another players. You can also switch between both characters at will, just don't expect Resident Evil 0 because Obscure ain't it.
Why five different characters? Well, that's because each one of them comes with a special skill that should - supposedly - make them especially useful in certain situations. In reality, their special skills make so little impact on the gameplay that you can completely ignore them. Shannon receives 25% extra health from medkits and that's about as good as it gets. There's also a permadeath mechanic - characters that die are gone for good and you can retrieve the weapons from their corpse. However, nothing speaks against reloading your last save and easily avoiding that death, making it a bizarre design choice.
The game's setting is peculiar, but not interesting. Obscure takes place in Leafmore High, a seemingly nondescript American high school. All the playable characters also happen to be high school students. Not just any students, but shallow and annoying high school stereotypes. Luckily, there's not much dialog in the game, so you won't hear much from them. The high school itself look like a completely regular high school - that's it, until you make it into the basement, then you'll come across some proper creepy environments, but still nothing that stands out all that much.
The story is nonsense - apparently, the dean retrieved an evil plant known as Mortifilia during one of his travels in the Dark Continent and went on to conduct experiments with such plant on his students. Unfortunately, the plant seems to turn people into darkness seeking Thing-like creatures. Once one of their friends gets abducted, it's up to the main characters to find out what happened and thwart the dean's plans, etc. Nonsense.
However, the game feature yet another mechanic. The monsters in Obscure thrive in darkness but can't tolerate light. As you start the game, you can actually avoid most fight by smashing the windows in a room, letting the light in and burning monsters to a crisp. Unfortunately, it's not long until night falls and then you'll have to rely on the lamps - that you can actually tape on your firearms - to weaken the monster before attacking them directly.
Similar light mechanics are not new to horror video games. Light was first required to solve some puzzles in The Note for the PS1. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare would also include light puzzles as well as monsters that'd flinch if exposed to your flashlight. Although won't be until Alan Wake that light became such a core element of the game's combat system.
Finally, I'll mention the score was surprisingly good, although choral music is an odd choice given the setting and occasionally felt jarring. Obscure is a passable but unexceptional RE clone. The uninteresting setting and shallow characters bring it down some. It's also quite easy, making it a decent 'baby's first survival horror game' option.
2/4
Obscure II [2007] for the PC
As it's often the case with sequels, Obscure 2 is both better and worse than the previous game. Replacing most of the old fixed camera angles with a 3rd person camera and featuring a larger and almost entirely new cast of playable characters, Obscure 2 abandons the high school setting in favor of - guess what - college. That means most of the new characters are spoiled and unlikeable college kids - and they just won't say no, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, one of the drugs they won't say no to happens to be the evil plant from the previous game which seems to be rather in vogue with the students.
It's not long until they bite more than they can chew as a local fraternity party turns into a massacre - just as some of the playable characters managed to sneak in from the roof after being turned off at the door. Immediately, you realize Obscure II is a more on rails experience than the original game. You often can't decide which characters to bring along as that's now entirely up to the game itself. You'll constantly find yourself with a different team of characters depending on where the story wants to go.
The good news is that now there's more dialog among characters and they feel more like actual people. The bad news is that now there's more dialog among characters and they feel more like actual people. I don't like these people. I don't care about these people. Most of them are going to die anyway, so you shouldn't get attached all too much. Not that there's any risk of that happening anyway.
While the game completely abandons the light mechanics from the previous game, it doubles down on the 'unique skills' aspect. Now each characters does have skills that you absolutely need to complete the game, so you'll have to choose the right people to overcome some puzzles. The downside to that is the backtracking you'll need to go through as you realize you needed that other party member after all. One of the characters can perform acrobatics - so expect some Prince of Persia-like platforming - others can push heavy objects or unlock doors. Speaking of unlocking doors, now picklocking and hacking doors comes with its own minigame, while in the previous game you just had to press a key for a few seconds. I'll let you decide whether that's a positive or a negative... but it's a negative.
Overall though, I like how they gave unique skills to each characters you actually need to complete the game. The environments and atmosphere are still nothing worth writing home about, but at least you'll visit a bunch of different areas, whereas you spent most of the previous game exploring that boring school. Some people complained about the story, how it was loosely connected to the first game and retconned several things. Well, Obscure definitely has a bad story with a ridiculous villain, but I don't see how the story in the first game was even remotely close to good either, so what's the deal?
2/4
Here's a list of all horror and horror-ish games I've beaten with a new rating system:
Alan Wake (PC) 4/4
Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC) 2/4
Alien Resurrection (PS) 3/4
Alien Trilogy (PS) 1/4
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (PS) 1/4
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (PC) 2/4
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC) 3/4
Armorines: Project SWARM (N64) 1/4
Blade (PS) 2/4
Blade II (PS2) 1/4
Blood (PC) 4/4
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (PS) 3/4
BloodRayne (PC) 4/4
BloodRayne 2 (PC) 3/4
Blue Stinger (DC) 1/4
Bullet Witch (PC) 3/4
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC) 1/4
Carrier (DC) 3/4
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS) 4/4
Chaos Break (PS) 2/4
Chasm: The Rift (PC) 3/4
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC) 2/4
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC) 4/4
Clive Barker's Jericho (PC) 4/4
Clive Barker's Undying (PC) 3/4
Clock Tower (SNES) 3/4
Clock Tower 3 (PS2) 3/4
Cold Fear (PC) 3/4
Condemned: Criminal Origins (PC) 4/4
Constantine (PC) 3/4
Countdown Vampires (PS) 2/4
Cry of Fear (PC) 4/4
Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason (PC) 3/4
Curse: The Eye of Isis (PC) 2/4
Cursed Mountain (PC) 1/4
D (PS) 2/4
D2 (DC) 3/4
Daemonica (PC) 2/4
Dark Sector (PC) 4/4
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (PC) 2/4
Darkwatch (PS2) 3/4
DEADBOLT (PC) 2/4
Dead Space (PC) 4/4
Dead Space 2 (PC) 4/4
Dead Space 3 (PC) 4/4
Deadly Premonition (PC) 4/4
Deep Fear (Saturn) 3/4
Dementium: The Ward (DS) 1/4
Detention (PC) 3/4
Devil May Cry (PS2) 4/4
Devil May Cry 2 (PS2) 2/4
Devil May Cry 3 (PS2) 3/4
Devil May Cry 4 (PC) 4/4
Devotion (PC) 4/4
Diablo (PC) 4/4
Dino Crisis (PS) 1/4
Dino Crisis 2 (PS) 2/4
DmC: Devil May Cry (PC) 3/4
Doom (PC) 4/4
Doom 2 (PC) 4/4
Doom 3: BFG Edition (PC) 4/4
Doom 64 (N64) 4/4
Dreamweb (PC) 3/4
DUSK (PC) 4/4
Echo Night (PS) 2/4
Echo Night 2 (PS) 2/4
Enemy Zero (Saturn) 3/4
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GC) 2/4
Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomsticks (PS2) 2/4
Evil Dead: Hail to the King (PS) 1/4
Evil Dead: Regeneration (PS2) 3/4
Exhumed (PS) 4/4
Extermination (PS2) 3/4
F.E.A.R. (PC) 4/4
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC) 4/4
F.E.A.R. 3 (PC) 2/4
Fear Effect (PS) 3/4
Fear Effect 2 (PS) 2/4
Final Doom (PC) 4/4
Galerians (PS) 4/4
Galerians: Ash (PS2) 1/4
Gorky 17 (PC) 4/4
Gregory Horror Show (PS2) 4/4
Haunting Ground (PS2) 3/4
Hell Night (PS) 2/4
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (PC) 4/4
Ib (PC) 3/4
Kabus 22 (PC) 1/4
Kagero: Deception II (PS) 3/4
Koudelka (PS) 4/4
Kuon (PS2) 4/4
Manhunt (PC) 2/4
Manhunt 2 (PC) 1/4
Metro 2033 (PC) 3/4
Nightmare Creatures (PS) 4/4
Nightmare Creatures 2 (PS) 2/4
Nowhere (Mobile) 3/4
OFF (PC) 3/4
Obscure (PC) 2/4
Obscure: The Aftermath (PC) 2/4
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (PS2) 3/4
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (PS2) 3/4
Onimusha: Warlords (PS2) 3/4
Oxenfree (PC) 4/4
Painkiller (PC) 4/4
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation (PC) 1/4
Painkiller: Overdose (PC) 4/4
Painkiller: Recurring Evil (PC) 1/4
Painkiller: Redemption (PC) 1/4
Painkiller: Resurrection (PC) 1/4
Parasite Eve (PS) 4/4
Parasite Eve II (PS) 4/4
Pathologic (PC) 4/4
Penumbra Collection (PC) 3/4
Prey 2006 (PC) 4/4
Quake (PC) 4/4
RLH: Run Like Hell (PS2) 1/4
Resident Evil (GC) 4/4
Resident Evil (PS) 4/4
Resident Evil 0 (GC) 4/4
Resident Evil 2 (PS) 4/4
Resident Evil 3 (PS) 3/4
Resident Evil 4 (PC) 4/4
Resident Evil 5 (PC) 3/4
Resident Evil Code: Veronica (DC) 1/4
Resident Evil: Revelations (PC) 2/4
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (PC) 4/4
Ritual: Crown of Horns (PC) 3/4
Ronin Blade (PS) 3/4
Rule of Rose (PS2) 4/4
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (PC) 4/4
SOMA (PC) 4/4
Shadow Hearts (PS2) 4/4
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2) 4/4
Shadow Tower (PS) 4/4
Shadow Tower: Abyss (PS2) 4/4
Shadowgrounds (PC) 4/4
Shadowgrounds: Survivor (PC) 3/4
Silent Debuggers (TG16) 2/4
Silent Hill (PS) 4/4
Silent Hill 2 (PC) 4/4
Silent Hill 3 (PC) 4/4
Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2) 3/4
Silent Hill: Homecoming (PC) 1/4
Silent Hill: Origins (PS2) 2/4
Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness (PS) 3/4
The 3rd Birthday (PSP) 2/4
The Hunt (PC) 3/4
The Ring: Terror's Realm (DC) 1/4
The Suffering (PS2) 3/4
The Suffering: Ties That Bind (PC) 1/4
The Thing (PC) 3/4
The X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2) 1/4
Theresia (DS) 3/4
Tokyo Dark (PC) 1/4
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC) 4/4
Van Helsing (PS2) 4/4
You Are Empty (PC) 4/4
Probably forgetting some stuff. Also didn't know whether to include games like Thief, HeXen, Half-Life or BioShock, so I didn't.