Obscure (Xbox)

Don't get confused when it says the teen slasher genre because the game isn't about a bunch of beautiful teens being stalked by a man in a mask! It is about 4 teen friends who get locked in their high school to search for their other friend who has been kidnapped. As they search for clues and a way out they stumble upon a variety of monsters and artifacts that makes them suspect something VERY evil and dangerous is lying underneath the school's basements. Here is a line up of the game's characters...

KENNY: Kenny is the school's popular guy who gets kidnapped at the beginning of the game. He's very athletic and his special power is the ability to run really fast.
ASHLEY: Ashley is the school's popular girl who is Kenny's tough talking girlfriend. She can really pull a punch and her special power is to shoot and hit monsters perfectly.
STAN: Stan is the school's bad boy who gets bad grades but really cares about his friends. Especially Kenny. His special power is the ability to pick locks in record time. (He also has a very uncanny resemblance to Josh Hartnett)
SHANNON: Shannon may be the blonde of the movie but she is no bimbo! She is Kenny's sister. Her special power is the ability to give precise information about how to solve a problem.
JOSH: Josh is the token nerdy guy who spends more time behind his handheld camera than with people his own age. His special power is the ability to discover any important hidden objects.

The great thing about this game is that you can choose to play as any of the 4 teens throughout the game. (You can briefly play as Kenny at the beginning and then you can play as him whenever in the last quarter)You can also team up in twos so you have someone watching your back and if they get killed well then they get killed! The game will only stop once all the teens are dead.

This game is very exciting to play through. It's not mind frying with impossible to solve riddles and non existent hidden objects! The gameplay lasts for about 3-5 hours but once you finish you really wanna play it again because there are lots of bonues unlocked once you complete the game the first time that you can use the second time round!

I fell in love with the game and really hope they make a sequel to it!


this game is amazingly adictive   April 7, 2005
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

this game is great, it expands on the usual survival horror method and makes it much smarter, i loved the use of the flashlights, this game is basically a buffy based survivlal horror, five teenage kids are stuck in a school after dark when it is crawling with monsters, though this game is quite short, 3-4 hours, because of the mixture of characters it has very high replay value, the story line is indulging and not too hard to follow, with good voice acting and a mix of music like sum 41 and some tracks recorded from a forench school, this game is a must have for all survival horror fans


A teen slasher flick as a game????   March 14, 2005
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Basically this is Resident Evil meets any one of a dozen teen slasher movies.
Set in an American High School after dark, you take control of any pairing from a cast of 5 teenage heroes.
Each character has different traits that come in useful during the game.
There's the athlete, the streetsmart lock picker, the intelligent nerdy type, the fighter and the healer.
When one of them goes missing in mysterious circumstances the others team up to find him, in the school after dark. But there's been a number of students disappear at this school over the years and the gang have to find the clues, kill the monsters and solve the mystery...if they had a scatty great dane it would be too familiar.
The school is suitably creepy but not quite as scarey as the school scenes in the original 'Silent Hill'.
The monsters provide shocks but again it doesn't quite match 'resident Evil' when you first encounter the zombies, hunters etc etc.
Nevertheless, it's still a good, atmospheric game.
The control systems are easy and the weapons get better as time goes on. Of course all american teenagers are adept in the use of pump action shotguns and magnums or there wouldn't be a game.
There's a great sound track including Span and Sum 41.
The graphics are of the high standard that we expect from survival horror games these days and the soundtrack creepy and atmospheric. The voice acting's not bad at all either.
All in all, Obscure is nothing new or ground breaking but if you like the Resident Evil, Silent Hill series then this is right up your street.


VERY CLEVER   October 11, 2004
 8 out of 19 found this review helpful

AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE REVIEWED THIS GAME SO FAR, OBSCURE IS NOT VERY WELL HEARD OF. HOWEVER THIS DOES NOT STOP IT BEING A GREAT GAME, IF YOUR INTO THE SURVIVAL HORROR GENRE. I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED WITH OBSCURE AS IT JUST CAME FROM NOWHERE AND COULD OF BEEN A REAL FLOP. IM PLAYING IT AT THE MOMENT AND REALLY ENJOYING IT. ITS LIKE CONTROLLING A TEEN HORROR MOVIE. THINK SILENT HILL MEETS THE FACULTY. ITS ABOUT FIVE TEENAGERS WHO LOCK THEMSELVES IN THEIR SCHOOL OVERNIGHT TO INVESTIGATE THE DISSAPEARANCE OF CERTAIN STUDENTS. YOU CAN PLAY AS ANY OF THE CHARACTERS AT ANY TIME SWITCHING WHEN YOU LIKE. AND IF ONE OF THEM DIES YOU KEEP GOING UNTIL THERES NONE OF THEM LEFT. ONTOP OF ALL THAT THE GRAPHICS ARE VERY NICE AND SO IS THE GAMEPLAY WITH CLEVER USE OF FLASHLIGHTS