My Favorite Gaming Hidden Gems, Part Five: Obscure (2005, PlayStation 2)

I've been playing and collecting video games since the early 1980's, and while there's something to be said for enjoying the greats of the gaming world, there's no better feeling for me than picking out something I'd never heard of, throwing it into my system, and being unable to tear myself away from it because it was just too damn fun. With that in mind, I thought I'd start up a series about my own personal favorite hidden gems of the gaming world to let people know about the unsung, the overlooked, the ignored, and the downright weird niche titles that had no chance of achieving the heights of a Mario, Sonic, or Zelda.

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If there's a game with a more fitting title for this list, I've yet to discover it. Obscure is exactly that, so kudos for doing exactly what you said on the label, game! All kidding aside, the reason for Obscure's, uh, obscurity, has more to do with the fact it was Hydravision's first game, and publisher DreamCatcher Interactive was better known for publishing point-and-click adventures on the PC, not console-based survival horror titles. No matter what, DreamCatcher wasn't going to be able to flood the market with millions of copies. This might not have been a problem except that Obscure's launch was completely upstaged by Capcom's bombshell revelation that Resident Evil 4, previously a GameCube exclusive, was coming to PS2 in October of 2005. Obscure, by contrast, was released six months earlier with little fanfare, and what attention it did receive from the gaming press didn't help matters. Reviewers everywhere slammed it as a mediocre title with little to make it stand out against the big heavies of the genre.

The reviewers were by no means incorrect in their assessments (except for Official PlayStation Magazine, who pissed on it with a 2/5 rating for some reason, so screw them), but what everyone seemed to forget was this was a freshman offering by a fledgling development team who had neither the budget nor the staff necessary to match Konami and Capcom's triple-A efforts. Obscure is indie horror on a console; to judge it by blockbuster standards is to instantly miss the point. Gamers looked at Obscure's offerings and shrugged, copies disappeared from the regular shelves into the bargain bins, and while it sold enough copies to fund a sequel, by the time Obscure: The Aftermath showed up in 2008, gamers were entrenched in the future promised by the Xbox 360 and PS3. Convincing people salivating over the pending release of Fallout 3 to break out their old tech to enjoy last-gen graphics was a bridge too far, and the series died on the vine.

Obscure, as I mentioned, is far from perfect, but here's the thing: the stuff it gets right, it gets really right. Hydravision was composed of gamers well-steeped in the lore of survival horror, and part of what they brought to the table were responses and improvements to outdated game design. Resident Evil Outbreak did multi-player horror, but unless you wanted an AI partner, it was online-only--Obscure offers drop-in, drop-out two player action with the push of a button. While James Sunderland and Jill Valentine run all over the map looking for the special symbols necessary to open a door, the kids of Leafmore High bust out a window and stick an arm through, or pick the lock with a bit of wire while their partner holds off any bad guys in the area. Chris Redfield pushes statues around to open locked cases--Obscure's characters just smash the vending machine with a baseball bat and grab an energy drink. This is so refreshing it's hard to believe every horror game made afterwards didn't snaffle this design choice alone.

Obscure also offers a nice variety of playing options with its four (and later five, if you play your cards right during the game's tutorial level) teenage protagonists. In a nod to Sweet Home, just because one kid bites the dust doesn't mean the adventure's over: the survivors just regroup, recover their fallen friend's equipment, and try again. Each kid also has a particular talent unique to them, but not required to beat the game. Losing a team mate hurts and may slow you down a little (especially if Ashley, the fighter of the group, goes down), but as long as one's still standing you've got a fair chance. Also, the AI in the game is pretty intelligent and good at following your orders, though you still may be tempted to leave your buddy just outside the door before you walk into a huge fight in the next room.

The game's other main feature is a shared inventory system, where team mates can swap weapons back and forth easily, and the whole group pools their resources of usable items like energy drinks and save discs. By the end of the game, you'll have enough melee and ranged weapons to fully outfit everybody with a nice arsenal, but in the early stages it can be slow going, with ammo for your pistol in short supply.

The biggest thing Obscure gets right, however, is the atmosphere. Leafmore High feels like a real place, and it's more like a university campus than a high school since it was originally a boarding facility where students lived on the grounds year-round. There are plenty of areas to explore beyond the main school building's classrooms, including the theater, cafeteria, teacher's lounge, gymnasium, library, and even a few areas below ground and outside. The story opens these areas organically as you progress, and utilizes a central hub system where the inactive students wait while their friends explore, and for most of the game you can pop back to the hub area from the pause screen to avoid a lot of needless back-tracking if you just want to change students. This hub moves with the game, so while it starts off in the school's admin building, it'll shift around to be closer to your objectives so you're never left to wade halfway across the campus just to pick up where your last unlucky pair left off. Even if you did, you wouldn't mind though because enemies tend to stay dead after you've killed them, and the soundtrack by French composer Olivier Derivière is twenty-four tracks of ambient beauty, many of which can be heard on his website.

Knowing Hydravision's limitations of both personnel and money, they focused on the right stuff: a diverse selection of playable characters, great level design, a top-notch soundtrack, reasonable puzzles based on real-world applications as opposed to the "combine these weird crests to get a jewel that can be paired with the other gem to unlock the door back on the 2nd floor" so common to the genre, rewards for finishing the game at different difficulty levels to add replayability, and a unique light-based combat system where flashlights and natural daylight hasten the demise of the monsters attacking you. If the voice acting isn't the best, the character models are average, the enemies lack diversity, and the storyline's a little cliché (not to mention short--my first playthrough took roughly six hours, and subsequent ones took half that even on the hardest difficulty setting), it's not the end of the world.

What may end your world, or at least your desire to add Obscure to your collection, is the price. Currently on Amazon, a pre-owned PS2 copy will put you out nearly $70, and while I love this game, I cannot in good conscience suggest anybody pay that much for it. It's good, but it's not 'spend-the-equivalent-of-a-Collector's-Edition-modern-gen-game' good. The PC and Xbox versions are much more reasonable, starting at $10 and $25 respectively. There's no difference between the three versions save for slightly better graphics on the Xbox and computer, so pick whichever one suits your style best. Your mileage may vary, but if you're a fan of horror, are sick of the same Resident Evil and Silent Hill options for the PS2 era, and want an excuse to have a friend over for some live, in-person, couch-based co-op, Obscure may be just the hidden gem you're looking for.

P. B. Horror Gaming recorded a phenomenal playthrough without commentary for this game which, if you have nothing better to do for the next two and a half hours, can be watched right here:

If you're looking for a more slow-paced edition with commentary, then I recommend Helloween4545's 14-episode Let's Play he recorded last year. Start the fear right here:

If you're planning on adding Obscure to your collection, or you've already played it and either liked it or hated it, please let me know in the comments! Happy Friday the 13th you maniacs, and I'll see you next time for more of my favorite hidden gems of retro gaming!

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Don't miss a single one! Catch up on the previous four editions of this column right here:

• Part One: Snoopy and the Red Baron
• Part Two: Dark Summit
• Part Three: Metal Marines
• Part Four: Theresia

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