Obscure II

Obscure II
Developer(s) Hydravision Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Composer(s) Olivier Deriviere
Series Obscure
Engine RenderWare
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 2
Wii
PlayStation Portable
Release date(s)

Windows, PlayStation 2 & Wii

  • EU: September 7, 2007
  • NA: March 25, 2008
  • AUS: June 12, 2008 (PC, PS2)
  • EU: August 28, 2008 (Wii)

PlayStation Portable

  • NA: September 30, 2009 (PSP Store)
  • EU: October 9, 2009
  • NA: October 13, 2009
  • AUS: October 22, 2009
Genre(s) Survival horror
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer, Co-op

Obscure II (known in North America as Obscure: The Aftermath) is a survival horror video game developed by Hydravision Entertainment and published by Playlogic in PAL regions and Ignition in North America for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Wii. It is the sequel to the 2004 video game Obscure. A PlayStation Portable version was released in 2009.[1] The game was later released on Steam in 2014.

Storyline

Two years after the events of Obscure, Shannon and Kenny are now enrolled in the nearby Fallcreek University, while Stanley is making ends meet as a pizza delivery boy. Stanley and Kenny have to take medication to prevent the effects of the plant 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 spores 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 by the black spores and turns into a monster.

When Sven and Corey meet up at a warehouse with the others, monstrous Kenny appears and kills Mei, thus distressing Corey. Stan, having responded to Shannon's call meets with the surviving group and drives them away, until he crashes off a cliff into a forest. Eventually, Kenny strikes again, while Corey and Shannon defeat him by making him fall into a pit in a warehouse.

As the game progresses, Stanley and Shannon get closer. While they find a place to take refuge, Amy and Sven explore and are ambushed by a man with a disfigured face carrying a chainsaw. The disfigured man fights Sven while Amy escapes.

When they find Sven impaled on a meat hook by the disfigured man at an abandoned house, Stanley and Shannon chase after the disfigured man, leading to the ruins of the school from the first game, to find a tree with huge moving branches. The huge tree was actually the mutated remains of Leonard Friedman (from Obscure) and the disfigured man is his son, Jedidiah. Friedman had injected himself with a strain of virus that mutated him and was passed on to Jedidiah. Stanley and Corey kill the Friedman tree, while Corey finishes off Jedidiah, avenging Sven's death.

When the pair return, they find Richard James and an ambulance carrying a pregnant Amy. Stanley and Corey find out that she was raped by Kenny. The ambulances take Stanley, Shannon, Amy, and Corey away, but they crash at a bridge after going through a cloud of spores. Stanley and Shannon try to find out where Richard's new pick up point is, to try and reach it, while Corey goes to rescue Amy.

When Shannon and Stanley reach the new destination point, they find Corey fighting Kenny, and Richard James taking off with Amy in a helicopter. Corey, feeling desolate, states that Mei was the only one he cared about, and commits suicide. Stan and Shannon kill Kenny by crushing him with a huge platform of lights over the football pitch.

As Kenny lies dying under the platform, he pleads to Shannon to take care of his child. Shannon swears that she will not let it live. The helicopter containing Amy and Richard fills up with a cloud of spores, and the helicopter explodes. Stanley asks Shannon what to do next. She replies that she will continue and cut all family ties.

Characters

Born in Riverside, California (voiced by E. Renee Thomas) - Kenny's younger sister. 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.
Born in New York City (voiced by Joshua Swanson) - After the events at Leafmore, Stanley caused a lot of problems and ended up being sent to prison. He never wants to go back to school, and ends up working as a pizza boy. He needs medication to cope with the experiments.
Born in Riverside, California (voiced by Buster Cox) - Shannon's older brother. After the events at Leafmore, he went to the University of Fallcreek with his sister. He needs medication to cope with the experiments.

New player characters

Born in Austin, Texas (voiced by Buster Cox) - Corey is a car enthusiast and a skater who seems resistant to pain. His girlfriend is Mei and he loves her immensely, yet because of his immature nature he has a hard time convincing her.
Born in New York City (voiced by Alicia LaForce) - Jun's twin sister. She is obsessed with video games and has become very skilled at hacking.
Born in New York City (voiced by Nikki Rapp) - She is a gamer. All the guys dream about her.
Born in Oslo (Norway) (voiced by Lawrence Bailey) - Sven Hansen was born in Norway but migrated to the United States. He is fanatical about baseball and hockey. He secretly loves Amy.
Born in Charlotte, North Carolina (voiced by Amy Sanchez) - A young, smart, blonde 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 them. She secretly has a crush on Sven.

Soundtrack

22 tracks, composed by Olivier Deriviere.

  1. Corruption With Rage and Melancholy
  2. Back To School
  3. Atmospheric Mood
  4. Life Has A 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
  23. Bonus Track 2: Evergreen (By Noel)

The OST is free to download on the official site of the composer.

PSP version

Playlogic confirmed development of a PSP version. 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."[1]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
PCPS2PSPWii
EurogamerN/A6/10[2]N/AN/A
Game InformerN/AN/AN/A3/10[3]
Game RevolutionN/AC+[4]N/AN/A
GameSpotN/AN/A6/10[5]4.5/10[6]
GameSpyN/AN/AN/A[7]
GameTrailersN/AN/AN/A4.7/10[8]
GameZoneN/A7.7/10[9]7/10[10]6.5/10[11]
IGN(UK) 7.5/10[12]
(US) 6.3/10[13]		7.5/10[12][14]6/10[15]7/10[16]
Nintendo PowerN/AN/AN/A7/10[17]
PC Gamer (US)52%[18]N/AN/AN/A
PSMN/A[19][20]N/A
Aggregate score
Metacritic59/100[21]60/100[22]66/100[23]53/100[24]

The game received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[23][22][21][24] IGN praised the U.S. PlayStation 2 version's graphics, saying that it has "detailed, atmospheric environments and respectable character models", but criticized said console version for its "pretty cheap cutscenes" and "lacking plot."[14]

References

  1. 1 2 "PSP - Obscure: The Aftermath Coming To PSP". Absolute PlayStation. September 20, 2007. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ Reed, Kristan (August 6, 2007). "Obscure II (PS2)". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  3. ↑ Miller, Matt (May 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath (Wii)". Game Informer (181). Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ Sparks, Shawn (May 6, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (PS2)". Game Revolution. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ Rausch, Allen (October 26, 2009). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (PSP)". GameSpot. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  6. ↑ VanOrd, Kevin (April 9, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (Wii)". GameSpot. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  7. ↑ Stratton, Bryan (April 22, 2008). "GameSpy: Obscure: The Aftermath (Wii)". GameSpy. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (Wii)". GameTrailers. April 18, 2008. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  9. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (April 30, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath - PS2 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  10. ↑ Sandoval, Angelina (October 18, 2009). "Obscure: The Aftermath - PSP - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 23, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  11. ↑ Nicksarlian, Greg (April 6, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath - WII - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  12. 1 2 Wales, Matt (August 2, 2007). "Obscure II UK Review (PC, PS2)". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  13. ↑ Clements, Ryan (March 25, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (PC)". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Clements, Ryan (March 25, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (PS2)". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  15. ↑ Clements, Ryan (September 30, 2009). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (PSP)". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  16. ↑ Clements, Ryan (March 25, 2008). "Obscure: The Aftermath Review (Wii)". IGN. Archived from the original on March 28, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Obscure: The Aftermath". Nintendo Power. 227: 89. April 2008.
  18. ↑ "Obscure: The Aftermath". PC Gamer: 66. July 2008.
  19. ↑ "Review: Obscure: The Aftermath (PS2)". PlayStation: The Official Magazine: 82. April 2008.
  20. ↑ "Review: Obscure: The Aftermath (PSP)". PlayStation: The Official Magazine: 82. December 2009.
  21. 1 2 "Obscure: The Aftermath for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  22. 1 2 "Obscure: The Aftermath for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  23. 1 2 "Obscure: The Aftermath for PSP Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  24. 1 2 "Obscure: The Aftermath for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
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