Co-op Survival Horror!!!
Story:
A bunch of high schoolers get locked up in their school grounds while searching for a friend and find out the truth about terrible experiments going on in the school grounds.
Gameplay:
This is where the game designers get kudos from me. The Co-op system in survival horror is something new to me. The game lets you choose 2 charactes out of the total 7 with each character having different special abilities. If you are playing with a friend then the 2 of you will control a separate character. If you are playing alone then a press of a button will let you switch between the 2 characters you have chosen. One drawback about this game is that in 2 player mode, it is very easy for one of the players to walk off screen and get himself killed.
Graphics and Sound:
Graphically and musically, though, is where the game really starts to stand out on its own in what is a very crowded market. Visually, the game is a real eye-opener. The cutscenes and gameplay flow very nicely together, and while not even in the leagues of Doom 3 and Resident Evil 4, ObsCure has a great visual style - simple, but very effective. And the same goes with the music, creepy choirs hitting in the right places, and ominous sound effects keeping you twitchy and on your toes. It all pieces together nicely, putting strong emphasis on light and doing the lighting very, VERY well to justify the relationship. The static-at-times-dynamic-at-others camera is sadly an inherant problem for this genre, but ObsCure does a really impressive job at trying to keep it all looking like a movie. It's not perfect, but it works, and that is what counts.
Replay Value:
Not really much here. I only played through it once to get the full storyline.
Overall:
ObsCure is one of the underrated and overlooked horror game gems of our time - it's so much FUN. It's got all the ingredients, and pulls the game off very nicely. All ObsCure needed was marketing. It's a success in what it wants to be - an accessible, wonderful excursion through typically corny American Teen Horror. It does things really well, does not feel or get too dull, and is just generally a really good game. Well I guess survival horror fans will find this game a waste of time as difficulty wise it is nowhere as hard as the RE and SH series. However, if you are new to survival horror or just looking for something to kill time, go pick up this game you won't be dissapointed.....