Run of the mill survival horror title that deserves the budget price.

Obscure: The Aftermath marks the sequel to a little known survival horror game that debuted on the PS2 a few years back. The original Obscure didn't garner much attention, outside of the drop in/drop out co-op system it introduced, allowing two players to work together towards unraveling the horror before them. The game forced you to play in pairs, so if you were playing solo there was also an AI controlled partner that accompanied you. The game itself wasn't anything too grand, and definitely got lost amidst the other survival horror games that were released around the same time.

At its heart The Aftermath resembles a teen horror flick, and unfortunately not a good one. The voice acting is cheesy and way over the top, the dialogue is pretty horrible, and the overall plot of killer plants is C-Movie grade junk at best. If you've ever desired the ability to play thru a Sci-Fi Friday special, then you definitely have your wish fulfilled with Obscure: The Aftermath.

The story picks up after the events of the first game, but with a new set of teens in charge. When you begin the game they'll quickly introduce the co-op elements, which work in the exact same way they did in the original title. Nothing has really changed or improved over the ideas presented before, and The Aftermath definitely suffers for not trying to change the formula up a bit.

Combat is pretty dodgy as well. It resembles a bit of the Silent Hill franchise in that the weapons you'll typically come across are blunt instruments of one type or another. Hockey sticks, baseball bats, planks of wood, etc., these all serve as the best offense against monsters you'll encounter. However, the first game put a pretty heavy emphasis on light being able to damage your enemies, and while that element does exist here, it's definitely not an option the majority of the time. You'll also encounter firearms early on, but they hardly act as an instant kill weapon against most the monsters you'll encounter. However, unlike the Resident Evil titles, running away doesn't do a whole lot of good. You'll eventually have to go toe to toe with a variety of beasties, but the only basic strategy you can employ is to lock on and wail away.

The Aftermath's musical score is probably the biggest highlight in the game, but even that manages to be pretty inconsistent. The start screen music promises some type of eerie score, but as soon as you press start you're greeted with an opening sequence that employs some kind of pop-rock music that definitely fits the teen horror feel the of the game, but it manages to sound just as generic as the rest of the game. The music tends to go back and forth between the two styles, and the inconsistency of it pulls you out of the horror experience quite a bit.

The co-op element of the gameplay works well enough, but like I said before, The Aftermath doesn't really add much to what came before. Each character has a particular strength, whether that relies in brains or brawn, and you'll encounter a variety of small puzzles that will require the use of a particular character's talent. Most of these are simple exercises, but the ability to switch out characters on the fly to tackle these obstacles isn't present. Instead, if you come across a situation that requires the control of someone you're not currently using, you'll have to backtrack a bit to switch that person out. This element becomes particularly aggravating the longer you play, and it would have been far more enjoyable (if perhaps a little less realistic) to just let me switch the people out when I needed them. At least the inventory system doesn't suffer from the same problem. Regardless of who picks up an item, anyone in your group can use and equip it. It's a wonder they were able to make that system so simple, but make the character switching feel so archaic.

All together, Obscure: The Aftermath is a pretty bland survival horror experience. The enemy design is decent, and the actual sound FX employed feel a bit creepy. However, the uneven music experience puts a damper on the overall mood and effect of the environments, and the tedious character switching makes the later sections of the game feel more like a chore than anything fun. Unless you found yourself really absorbed into the experience of the first Obscure title, I can't give you a good reason for checking this one out. We've played better survival horror titles in the recent past, and everything about The Aftermath just feels like a step backwards for the genre.