Full FeedGamertell Review: Obscure: The Aftermath for PSP
Title: Obscure: The Aftermath
Price: $29.99
System(s): PSP
Release Date: PSN Download: October 1, 2009, UMD: September 29, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Playlogic (Hydravision)
ESRB Rating: “Mature” for Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Mild Suggestive Themes and Violence
Pros: Characters and environments look good. Is sufficiently scary and unnerving. Fantastic and appropriate soundtrack. Controls are comfortable. Storyline and presentation is reminiscent of a B-movie. Loading times aren’t that bad with downloadable version. Can have a friend join in to help at any time.
Cons: Costs more than the PC, PS2 and Wii versions. Doesn’t really matter which two characters you choose to play as. Loading times can be annoying with the UMD version. Never seem to have enough ammo to fight enemies. Aiming to attack mutants is difficult. Camera is annoying and often fixed into awkward and unhelpful positions. The downloadable copy that I had froze twice while playing.
Overall Score: Two thumbs sideways, 70/100, C-, * * out of 5
There aren’t that many horror games on the PSP. There’s Silent Hill: Origins. Manhunt 2 and Undead Knights cound technically be counted as well, though they aren’t really scary. Resident Evil Portable is in development, but we probably won’t be seeing that until sometime in 2010. So, in the meantime, we have to appreciate the few horror games there are on the handheld. Fortunately, the port of Obscure: The Aftermath should offer an additional alternative looking for a portable scare.
Some young adults lead normal lives, others become unintentional targets for unexplained, scary phenomena.
Stanley Jones, Kenny Matthews and Shannon Matthews, the stars of Obscure: The Aftermath, have the worst luck. In the original Obscure, they happened about strange and unnatural experiments being carried out in their high school’s lab, and then have to save themselves and their classmates from the infection and mutated students. Compared to that, college should have been easy.
Kenny and Shannon both attend Fallcreek University now, while Kenny delivers pizzas. Things aren’t quite right on campus though. Black flowers have been appearing at the school, and the students have been using them as drugs because they cause incredibly lucid, yet strange, dreams. As you can probably expect, things take a turn for the worse. Mutants pop up again, and new friends Corey, Sven, Amy, Mei and Jun join Stan, Kenny and Shannon in the fight to survive.
You can’t make it on your own. Well, you can, but it’s easier with a friend.
Obscure: The Aftermath‘s defining features are the ability to play as two characters and co-operate with another player to make your way through the game. It reminded me a bit of Maniac Mansion. There are six playable characters, and you get to choose two to work with. Each have special talents and abilities that make certain tasks easier. Then, while playing, you can turn on ad-hoc multiplayer at any time to have a friend control one of the characters. It’s an interesting concept which you don’t see implemented in many PSP games.
I did notice that if two people are playing together over ad-hoc wireless, the game will drag a bit. So it’s a toss up - work alone and get things done at a fast, consistent pace, or work with someone else and see a noticeable drag. Also, if you’re playing with someone, you don’t have to worry about the extra character roaming around and getting in your way when you aren’t directly controlling him or her.
Obscure: The Aftermath is also a bit of an homage to B-movies. The plot is kind of ridiculous, and the dialogue is occasionally as well. The acting by the voice actors seems to purposely be done in a manner that borders on melodramatic and is occasionally stilted or ill suited to the situation at hand. Players will either enjoy and find the presentation entertaining, or think its annoying. It all depends on your personal preference. Most likely the fantastic graphics and soundtrack will help make acting or script issues seem like a small price to pay.
There can also be loading issues. If you’re playing the UMD version of the game, the load times seem longer than the downloadable version, and can disrupt the flow of the game. So this may be one of those cases where the PlayStation Store version is supearior to the UMD. There’s still loading, but the times are brief.
A good game for B-movie fans looking for a new horror game for Halloween ‘09.
Obscure: The Aftermath isn’t the best PSP game, or even the best PSP port, ever made, but it still can be fun. If you’re a horror fan and you’re looking for something scary to play on the go, it’s worth the investment. I’d also recommend it to people who enjoy playing with their friends, as the co-op is pretty well executed. It’s a game that has its issues, like UMD loading times, multiplayer lag, camera issues, aiming malfunctions, but also has redeeming factors like realistic graphics, a soundtrack you’d even want to listen to in your spare time, pretty well implemented co-op, a few great scares and B-movie goodness.
There is one other thing to note. If you have a PSPgo, or decide you’d rather directly download Obscure: The Aftermath from the PlayStation Store, there are a few things you’ll need. First, older PSP owners may need a larger memory card, since it’s a 828mb game file. Second, you’ll need a speedy and stable internet connection. Otherwise it could take you an hour or two to download the game or, heaven forbid, there could be a problem with the connection which would require you to start downloading the game all over again from the beginning. I have an internet connection that is typically fast, and it took over 137 minutes to completely download Obscure: The Aftermath.
Site [Obscure: The Aftermath]
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Having played the original Obscure game on the PS2, I have to wonder if this game suffers from the same two big problems that the first did… Those being that, firstly, playing with a second person was always inherently less frightening, and secondly, the game suffered from extreme predictability, as it followed very simple patterns. The most prominent of which, was that every time one player tried to lock pick a door, monsters would attack, in an attempt to scare you. In my own experience, it became a matter of telling my partner to ready their weapon every single time I tried to open a locked door, because every time it pulled the exact same ‘scare’ tactic.
Are these things at all rectified in Aftermath?
on October 15, 2009 at 10:37 AM - LINKHi Nicholas:
In short - no. It’s a direct port, so everything is pretty much exactly the same. There are a few additional loading periods from the original and the control scheme is slightly different, but other than that, the same. I didn’t really hold the cheap scares against it because that is very much in line with the whole B-movie thing (and one of my favorite horror series, Fatal Frame, is occasionally guilty of the same thing), but they are still there.
The multiplayer is also less scary, but I found more because of the lag than the patterns. Since things can move slower with a second person, you lose some of the suspense and shock value.
If someone hasn’t played Obscure: The Aftermath before, and could perhaps get it on sale or used, I’d probably recommend the PSP version though - Hydravision and Playlogic did a good job with the port. But it’s still pretty much the exact same game.
on October 15, 2009 at 11:57 AM - LINK