Obscure: The Aftermath
Ignition Entertainment Ltd - Ignition Entertainment Ltd
PlayStation2
Release date: 2008-03-25
Video Game
average reviews
0 vote
0 vote
React and review
Obscure: The Aftermath
Date undefinedThis is not as fun as the original but still glad they made it and hope for another one.
The game is fairly quick and can be completed within the span of a week or less.
Still very fun, I had a good time playing it. I only played the one for PS2 and I am sure that the one for WII was even funner than this.
This is good for a summer game and like the other reviewers said surprisenly good.
each game obscure one and obscure the aftermath, have a resident evil feel to them that is high school/college based which makes kind of interesting and fun
if you are either at leafmore high or fallcreek university you are sure to be in session for a good time
Obscure: The Aftermath
Date undefinedI have not played the first Obscure so I had no idea what to expect from this game. I was pleasently suprised. It is a reatively short game, sometimes the graphics are bad and the storyline can be odd at times. But I like that you can change characters and at a few points it is scary. Well worth my $20 bucks.
Obscure: The Aftermath
Date undefinedObscure the aftermath is a "Sure why not!" game. Because it is cheap you can drop coin on it and not feel like you lost anything in the exchange.
As expected it takes place after the first game. 3 of the original characters survived a horrible botanical experiment gone bad and defeated a mad scentist who was experimenting on faculty and students to find a cure for his dying twin brother. As expected these experiments turned casual people in mutant monsters making you wonder if Leonard and his twin Herbert were the Umbrella execs from Resident evil that did not quite make the cut. I can see it now. Wesker saying "You are evil but just not evil enough guys and your character models look a lil dated! Maybe you can move on to star in a 3rd party survival horror game. I hear Obscure needs some villians check with them!"
Regardless after one of the survivors reflects on his past you begin being randomly put into the shoes of other characters. Because this is a co-op slash and monster fest you have to always use the skills of both people to blaze a trail to your next objective. In truth after you learn how to navigate, use items, switch between team mates, and equip weapons The Aftermath does grow on you. It is not nearly as buggy as Suffering: The ties that bind which would have been a great game had it not been so carelessly rushed by midway. At least Aftermath's programmers took time to address clipping issues and it has no abyssmal doors you walk through and fall into a pit of nothingness. Besides slow save and load times the game is pretty slick and responsive for what it is.
The actual protagonists are not quickly likeable sadly. In your first mission Corey smugly looks at his bed and says "Many girls have come and gone here! But you're different Mei at least you stayed!" Mei has every right to call him a pig.
Next up jock-smock Kenny makes a remark about blowing his load to his sexy decrpyting cohort Amy after she finds a gun in the Billard room.
It's kind of hard to feel anything for these college frat stereotypes. In some instances you may root for the monsters more than for the people you're playing as. If you stay the duration a few of the heroes and heroines do prove they have more interesting layers underneath their dense cliche outer shells but even then the character development never becomes ground shaking.
As you progress through trippy graveyard dream sequences, frat parties, libraries, billard rooms, hidden passages, and labratories you get the feeling these programmers had a thing for the movie The Faculty and thought Buffy The vampire slayer was Shakespeare. Actually Buffy was a great series but whereas its campy style of humor worked for the scooby gang it does not work for The Aftermath. Joss Whedon was a master at portraying characters as normal and flawed but still quirky and lovable. In Aftermath you do not get nearly that same level of bonding.
Believe it or not there are some neat surprises along the way. I thought it was cool how when I leveled my first monster its heart stayed behind and kept beating a long time. There is also an odd Flower reference for one of the female characters that is genuinely creepy.
Despite finding this game to not be mere garbage I have to mostly agree with how I made my earliar acessment doing my IGN review of it. The fact it is two player is a welcome change for this genre. It would definetly be a wonderful introduction to survival horror. However if you've visited Silent Hill and had tea with Alessa and Pyramid head, took tourist pictures in the ghost world of Fatal Frame, or played Zombie Head golf with Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy you have seen far better scares and far better plot devices then what are in AfterMath. That considered it is essentially a good game and "sleeper gem" that has gotten more flak than it deserves.
Pros
+ Very few bugs
+Smooth responsive controls
+Two player gorey action!
+A few neat sights along the way
+ A decent story-line that is much better then what you'll find within the typical "teen horror" genre. Not the most original plot but I've seen far worse.
+ Some of the characters are discovered to be courageous, dedicated, and good hearted deep down. It is a shame this is not immediatly so apparent at first. However it is realistic. Gaggles of friends are rarely "mature and civilized" when observed in groups.
+ A few things such as using spotlights to dispel darkness, utilizing a syringe to collect vital fluids from monster organs to replenish your health, revving up a chain saw to cut fallen trees from your path, and adjusting the security camera clarity while navigating Mei's sister Jun through the basement were neat additions.
Cons
- Ai can get abysmally dumb at certain pivotal points in which your partner actually needs to be helpful.
- The frat humor and frat stereotypes just come off as unintelligent and offensive near the beginning of After-math. The young characters in Rockstar's Bully and Atlus's Persona 3 Fes were alot more likeable at the start of their respective tales.
- Back tracking because you may have brought the wrong character for the wrong task.
-Character models look a bit dated.
- Creature designs are unoriginal however since so many survival horror games exist that have used so many ideas I can somewhat forgive Aftermath for this. Hard to break the mold when nothing new is under the sun.
-Slow save and load times.
