Includes 2 items: Obscure, Obscure II (Obscure: The Aftermath). The main objective of the game was the keep the five kids alive to obtain the best ending. Game: Obscure 2 Composer: Olivier Deriviere Enjoy. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Live) - Duration: 6:03. DR Koncerthuset 28,906,171 views.

From Wikipedia

ObsCure II is a survival horror video game developed by Hydravision Entertainment and published by Playlogic Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Wii. It is the sequel to the 2004 video game ObsCure. The game was released on September 7, 2007 in Europe, March 25, 2008 under the name ObsCure: The Aftermath^[1] in North America and June 12, 2008 in Australia. Later in 2009, Playlogic has announced a PSP version and it was released on September 29, 2009^[2].

Storyline

Two years after the events of Obscure, the survivors have had to move on with their lives. Shannon and Kenny are now enrolled in the nearby Fallcreek University, while Stan is making ends meet as a pizza delivery boy. Stan and Kenny now have to take medication to prevent the effects of the plantation from infecting their bodies while Shannon has been able to adapt to the changes.

As the story begins, a new drug created from a strange flower is quickly spreading its influence over the University's populace. Soon enough, a small group of students along with the Leafmore High survivors have to face a horde of mutants and stop the spread of contagion before the situation becomes critical.

The students meet a scientist Richard James, who is immersed in the biology of the scientific black spores, and aids the player several times.

The flower spore spread through the campus and affects the nearby hospital. Mei, who gets a call from her twin sister Jun, goes with Sven to rescue her, but fails when she is killed by an unknown monster. The player eventually switches to Corey, and he finds Shannon and her brother Kenny, who is badly injured inside by the black spores and turns into a monster with huge arms.

When Sven and Corey meet up at a warehouse with the others, Kenny in his monstrous form appears and kills Mei, thus distressing Corey. Stan meets with the surviving group and drives them away, until he crashes off a cliff into an unknown forest. Eventually, the monstrous Kenny strikes again, while Corey and Shannon defeat him by making him fall into a seemingly endless pit in a warehouse.

As the game progresses, Stan and Shannon get closer together.

While Shannon and Stan find a place to take refuge, Amy and Sven explore and are ambushed by an unknown man carrying a chainsaw, with a disfigured face. The disfigured man fights Sven while Amy escapes.

When they find Sven impaled by a chainsaw by the disfigured man at an abandoned house, Stan and Shannon chase after the disfigured man, leading to the Ruins of the School from the original game and to find out a horrifying, living tree with huge moving branches. The huge tree was actually the mutated remains of Leonard Friedman (from 'Obscure 1') and the disfigured man was his son. In the past, Friedman had injected himself with a strain of virus that mutated him and transferred (through his genes) onto his son, Jedidiah, causing the horrifying features of the man. Stan and Corey kill the Friedman tree by sawing off the main parts of the huge moving branches, while Corey finishes off the disfigured son by slicing him with the chainsaw.

When the pair return, they find Richard James and an ambulance carrying Amy pregnant with a mutation. Stan and Corey find out that she was raped by Kenny in his monstrous form. The ambulances take Stan, Shannon, Amy, and Corey away, but they crash at a bridge after going through a dark aura of spores under a bridge. Stan and Shannon try to find out what Richard's new pickup point is and try to reach there, while Corey goes to rescue Amy.

When Shannon and Stan reach the new destination point, they find Corey lying on the ground with surprisingly alive monster Kenny, and Richard James taking off with Amy in a helicopter. Kenny had planned to unite with Corey because he had taken 'everything precious' to him. Corey, feeling desolate states that Mei was the only one that he cared about, and commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. Stan and Shannon, the only ones left fight Kenny and kill him by crushing him with a huge floating platform on the ceiling.

As Kenny lies dying by the crushing platform, he pleads to Shannon to take care of his child living in Amy. Shannon swears that she will not let it live. Meanwhile, the helicopter containing Amy and Richard suddenly fill up with an aura of dark spores, and the helicopter explodes. Finally the end, Stan asks Shannon what to do next. As a cloud of black spores rapidly spread all over the area, she replies strongly that she will continue and cut all family ties.

Characters

Characters from the original game

• Shannon Matthews - Kenny Matthews' younger sister who survived the horrors at Leafmore High. Her experiences have left her with a much darker personality. Due to the experiments done to her by Friedman she has the ability to control black auras and suck them into herself. Shannon succeeded at adapting to the experiments and does not have to take medication to cope with them, this probably makes her the strongest one from the original group.

• Stan Jones - Another survivor of Leafmore High. After the events at Leafmore, Stan caused a lot of problems and ended up being sent to prison. He makes the decision that he never wants to go back to any school again, and ends up working as a Pizza boy. Unlike Shannon, he needs medication to cope with the experiments.

• Kenny Matthews - The older brother of Shannon who also survives the events at Leafmore High. After the events at Leafmore, he went to the university of Fallcreek with his sister. Unlike Shannon, he needs medication to cope with the experiments done to him, much like Stan. The experiments were too much for him to cope with, and he eventually turns into a huge monster with gargantuan arms.

• Josh Carter and Ashley Thompson - Josh appears in a hidden video with Ashley which can be found in the last secret box of the game. In the video you see him set up the video showing the ruining of Leafmore High with Ashley. Suddenly Ashley disappears and when Josh tries to find her, his camera falls. The camera is then picked up by the son of Friedman.

New player characters

• Corey Wilde - Corey is a car enthusiast and a skater who seems resistant to pain; this is explained as being due to Corey's past love of climbing trees. His girlfriend in the game is Mei and he loves her immensely, yet because of his immature nature he has a hard time convincing her. He commits suicide right before fighting Kenny for the last time because Mei was killed By Kenny, taking everything he loved.

• Mei Wang - She's Jun's twin sister. She is obsessed with video games and as a result, she has become very skilled in hacking into protected machines. She dies when fighting Kenny after he is mutated by the spores and crushes her head. She's also Corey's girlfriend.

• Sven Hansen - Sven Hansen was born in Norway but migrated to the U.S. He is a fanatic to his country's sports such as baseball and hockey. He secretly loves Amy. He is killed by Jedidiah, Friedman's son.

• Amy Brookes - Amy is a young, smart, blond girl who exploits her good looks and is quick to tease just for the fun of it. She is aware that both Sven and Kenny are interested in her, and she appears to be interested in both of them as well. Towards the end of the game, it is revealed that she was raped by Kenny in his mutant form and is pregnant with his mutant child. She seemingly dies when the helicopter that she is in gets destroyed in an explosion.

• Jun Wang - Twin sister of Mei. She is a gamer who loves to play games with Mei. All the guys dream about her. Mei and Sven control her by cameras monitor. She is found dead when successfully turning on an electrical circuit that locked the doors to the basement.

Other characters

• Richard James - The biologyteacher at Fallcreek campus. Nothing seems to impress or amaze him. It is revealed that he was evil the entire time after the game's false ending. He seemingly dies when the helicopter that he and Amy are in gets destroyed in an explosion of black spores.

Soundtrack

22 tracks, composed by Olivier Derivière.

• 1 Corruption With Rage and Melancholy
• 2 Atmospheric Mood
• 3 Back To School
• 4 Life Has Plan
• 5 Ballets Of Deads
• 6 Finally Home
• 7 Melancholy
• 8 Corpus Gemitu
• 9 Bad Behaviour
• 10 Lost Love
• 11 Infested People
• 12 Dimitri Was There
• 13 Waltz Of Death
• 14 We All Die
• 15 Save My Soul
• 16 The Last Ones
• 17 Periculum
• 18 Turtle Stone
• 19 Hearing Fearies
• 20 Lumen
• 21 Nostalgia
• 22 Bonus Track: Falling Down Demo

This OST is free for download on the official site of the composer:
http://www.olivierderiviere.com/

PSP version

Playlogic has confirmed a PSP version with bonus features. Roger Smit, Playlogic's Executive VP, states of their decision to bring over the game to the PSP: 'We received a tremendous amount of feedback from fans wanting us to bring the gruesome gore of Obscure 2 to a handheld console. Our talented teams have since crafted the game to fit the unique co-op capabilities and controls of the PSP while also keeping the exciting gameplay and detailed graphics featured in the console versions intact.'^[3].

Reception

ObsCure II has received mixed reviews and has an aggregate score of 60/100 on Metacritic.^[4]IGN, who gave the game a 7.5/10 praised the graphics, saying that is has 'detailed, atmospheric environments and respectable character models', but criticized the game for its 'pretty cheap cutscenes' and 'lacking plot'.^[5]

References

External links

Obscure is a survival horrorvideo game developed by Hydravision Entertainment and published by DreamCatcher Interactive^[1] in North America, Ubisoft in China and MC2-Microïds in other territories for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was released on October 1, 2004 in Europe and on April 6, 2005 in North America.

Story[edit]

Strange things are happening at Leafmore High. Three teenagers set out to search for their missing friend. Finding themselves locked inside the school overnight, they now have to get to the bottom of the strange occurrences.

The player controls the five teenagers as they explore the school and battle a number of different types of infected students. The students discover that the enemies are sensitive to light, with direct sunlight being able to destroy them. Flashlights help to slightly weaken their foes and the malevolent black aura surrounding them.

Rule the Roost (20 points): You set the fastest lap time in every session of a long race weekend in Career. Drivers' World Champion (40 points): You have won the Drivers' Championship in Career on any difficulty. F1 2013 brands hatch mods. The World is your Oyster (10 points): You moved to another team mid-season in Career. (5 points): You elected to end R&D on the current seasons car in Career. Back to Front (20 points): You qualified last, but finished first in Career.

The students discover a conspiracy involving injections turning students into mutated monsters, mostly experimentations based on a rare plant spore, with the possibility to allow people to live forever. It is discovered that the nurse, Elisabeth, and principal, Herbert, are over 100 years old but seem only to be in their 60s, thanks to the tests they performed on each other.

The students later come across Herbert, who is killed by a teacher seeking to cure himself of the infection caused by Herbert's experiments. Herbert's twin, Leonard, sees his dead brother and becomes angry. He murders the teacher and then leaves the teenagers to defeat the biggest mutant seen yet.

After defeating him, they return to the gym and inject themselves with the cure. However, Leonard returns and after a battle, Leonard gives into the sunlight and everything is back to normal.

Player characters[edit]

Obscure gives players the ability to control and switch between any of five playable characters. Given that he or she will be playing in pairs of characters, the other characters will be computer-controlled, or a second player can join in at any time.

• Josh Carter (voiced by Sam Riegel) - A shy and reserved reporter for the school paper. He can tell if there's anything left to do in an area, such as items to pick up, or locations that advance the storyline.
• Stanley Jones (voiced by Scott Haze) - A stoner who does drugs, and is good friends with Josh and Kenny. He is a thief and computer hacker. He is able to pick locks easier and break into rooms.
• Kenny Matthews (voiced by Liam O'Brien) - He is the varsity athlete, and Shannon's older brother.
• Shannon Matthews (voiced by Stephanie Sheh) - Kenny's smart younger sister. Shannon dresses provocatively to take the focus away from her intelligence. She provides tips on puzzles and heals wounds. She is able to heal 20% more with a normal health item.
• Ashley Thompson (voiced by Tara Platt) - She is a cheerleader, and Kenny's girlfriend. She has the ability to rapid fire a pistol, and deals more damage with most weapons.
• Dan - He is the first human Kenny comes across inside a room in the basement. His health is critically low due to being a test subject, however. He is a student, who ends up being killed very quickly by a monster when he and Kenny attempt to escape together, and his death cannot be prevented.

Gameplay[edit]

Obscure has a two-player cooperative mode that allows the player to complete the campaign with a friend. The game also allows players to combine items, for example taping a flashlight to any firearm. Some critics, including X-Play, have stated that this was the only redeeming quality, and mocked id's Doom 3 for not implementing such a concept.

While each character has special abilities, none of them are necessary to complete the game. Each character can perform the same physical acts even if it takes some characters longer and/or more effort than others. If any characters die during the adventure, the player may simply continue with those remaining.

Soundtrack[edit]

24 tracks, written and produced by Olivier Deriviere.

1. Main Titles
2. Empty School
3. Something Hidden
4. First Ones
5. Blowing Up a Wall
6. Being Surrounded
7. Herbert Friedman
8. Who is Herbert?
9. Wickson, the Nurse
10. Infested Place
11. Give Us Eternity
12. The First Queen
13. Pure Suite
14. Wickson and Leonard
15. The Second Queen
16. Gardener's Story
17. Herbert's Secret Office
18. Old Movie
19. Friedman's Place
20. Finding Leo
21. Final Fight
22. Leonard's Death
23. Death
24. End Titles

Some of the soundtrack can be downloaded from Olivier Deriviere's official website.^[2]

There are also two tracks that play during the game that are not in the official soundtrack, 'Still Waiting' performed by Sum 41 and 'Baby's Come Back' performed by Span, but by mistake, the song in the Bonus Menu is 'Don't Think The Way They Do' also performed by Span.

In the German version there were many songs from Sportfreunde Stiller. The Spanish version of the game features the song Supersonica performed by Dawholeenchilada for its ending credits. The music video for the song is unlockable as a bonus for completing the game. The French version of the game features the song Cinglés performed by Enhancer for its ending credits. The music video for that song is also unlockable as a bonus for completing the game. The Italian version of the game features the song Kombo performed by Karnea for its ending credits. The music video for that song is also unlockable as a bonus for completing the game.

Reception[edit]

The game received 'mixed or average reviews' on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[19][20][21]

Sequels and Future[edit]

Obscure II takes place two years later. The kids who survived are now at college living normal lives. They discover a strange plant on campus and things start going awry. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Wii and PlayStation Portable. The franchise was abruptly halted due to the closure of Hydravision Entertainment, who had intended to do a sequel and possibly a prequel.

However, Final Exam is a spinoff of the series and was released for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Microsoft Windows in 2013.

In 2016, a high definition remaster of Obscure and its sequel was re-released on Steam featuring Steam achievements, leaderboards and community support. This version of Obscure removed music from Sum 41 due to the rights being lost.

References[edit]

1. ^'DreamCatcher Ships Obscure in North America'. GameSpot. April 6, 2005. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
2. ^'Music'. Olivier Derviviere. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
3. ^Cook, Denice (July–August 2005). 'Obscure'(PDF). Computer Gaming World (253): 88. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
4. ^Reed, Kristan (September 29, 2004). 'Obscure (Xbox)'. Eurogamer. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
5. ^ ^abMason, Lisa (June 2005). 'Obscure (PS2, Xbox)'. Game Informer (146): 127. Archived from the original on April 9, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
6. ^Todd, Brett (April 19, 2005). 'Obscure Review (PC)'. GameSpot. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
7. ^ ^abTodd, Brett (April 19, 2005). 'Obscure Review (PS2, Xbox)'. GameSpot. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
8. ^Hodgson, David (March 28, 2005). 'GameSpy: Obscure (PS2)'. GameSpy. Archived from the original on December 16, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
9. ^Hodgson, David (March 28, 2005). 'GameSpy: Obscure (Xbox)'. GameSpy. Archived from the original on December 18, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
10. ^Aceinet (April 17, 2005). 'Obscure - PC - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
11. ^Bedigian, Louis (April 24, 2005). 'Obscure - PS2 - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
12. ^David, Mike (April 13, 2005). 'Obscure - XB - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
13. ^ ^abDunham, Jeremy (April 6, 2005). 'Obscure (PS2, Xbox)'. IGN. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
14. ^'Obscure'. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine: 95. June 2005.
15. ^'Obscure'. Official Xbox Magazine: 81. June 2005.
16. ^'Obscure'. PC Gamer: 62. July 2005.
17. ^Huschka, Ryan; Newman, Heather; Gardner, Omari (May 15, 2005). 'RECENT VIDEO GAME RELEASES'. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
18. ^ ^abcRing, Bennett (November 6, 2004). 'Great concept'. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
19. ^ ^ab'Obscure for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
20. ^ ^ab'Obscure for PlayStation 2 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
21. ^ ^ab'Obscure for Xbox Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved December 3, 2016.

External links[edit]

• Official website at Microids (archived from the original)
• Obscure at MobyGames