Rather than wallow in obscurity, I’ll get straight to the point.

If you like survival-horror videogames, you’ll enjoy Obscure: The Aftermath, the recently released sequel to Ignition’s 2005 original. While the game won’t make you wet your pants, it will whet your appetite for solid gameplay.

While the first game focused on a group of students at Leafmore High who battled their possessed teachers to escape the school, the survivors make it to Fallcreek University where they encounter a new threat of sentient plants.

Because the original Obscure wasn’t a huge seller, the designers made the story accessible by providing plenty of backstory. Of course, with six protagonists, understanding the relationships between the characters is tougher than figuring out the game’s few puzzles.

The cheesy dialogue in the cutscenes and encounters with non-player characters is laughable yet entertaining. Obscure: The Aftermath won’t win any awards for its script, but like most recent horror films, the spooky atmosphere and gory scenes are strong enough to make it a solid survival-horror entry.

The game’s main draw is the co-op gameplay where two players can team up to take on various monsters that keep popping up around campus. Each hero has a special ability such as enhanced strength or lock picking that helps them to progress ahead in the story.

The aforementioned puzzles are merely head-scratchers that break up the short battles, but in the end, the action is pretty satisfying. Wielding a bat against gruesome monsters is a lot more fun than shooting at them.

If you can make it to the end, wait for a surprise that caused certain retailers in the United Kingdom to stop stocking the game in their stores. Obscure: The Aftermath is available for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Wii. 

WEB | http://www.obscureaftermath.com