I don’t believe there are enough survival horror games. Resident Evil rocked for a while, then they decided to focus on insane hillbillies instead of what they were good at… zombies. The original Xbox hailed tons of awesome horror games, which made it my favorite console to play when it was popular. Cold Fear, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2 just to name a few. One of my favorites on the old school X was Obscure. We were all going through that teen slasher era, and the movies got old in a hurry. So why not bring that young slaughter fest to the gaming circuit? After all, we can’t have all of our CG heroes be cops, military, or scientists.
Originally titled Mortifilia in North America, Obscure was set in a college run by the Friedman brothers who excelled in bio-engineered botany. One of the brothers was sick, so the other was kidnapping students and using them in experiments to find a cure for his sickly sibling. It was a fun game, full of monsters and places to explore. It had its scary moments, but the most important to me was the shock value. I was constantly getting surprised by something jumping out at me. It’s the best feeling in the world, I think.
In 2008, Hydravision Interactive released the next installment of the game called Obscure II: The Aftermath. Set two years after the events of the first game, Aftermath takes place at a college nearby known as Fallcreek University. Everything seems to be normal here except for a new drug that is becoming increasingly popular, made from crushing and inhaling the fumes from a flower that is appearing all over the campus. While at a party one night, the plant’s effects turn deadly, and monsters start appearing everywhere. The students from the original game are now taking medication to fiend any effects from killer plants, and it doesn’t seem to affect them when they inhale the fumes.
Other students, however, turn into giant beasts and kill those who don’t. The scene outside the house where the party is located is very gruesome, bodies are ripped apart, one girl is even impaled on the sharp spines of the outside gate. The graphics of the game carried very well from the larger console version, no detail was spared.
There is no doubt that a lot of work went into make a near perfect port from the PS2 version when bringing it to the PSP. I actually played this when it originally came out last year on PS2 and was amazed at how well the story carried over, not like a game but like a novel or a movie series that Michael Bay had nothing to do with. Hydravision does a great job of combining a good story with lots of action and fright without leaning one way or the other.
Gameplay is a little tricky in the beginning to figure out. Trying to switch weapons was a pain in the but at first. As was using the weapon, until I remembered that it was much like Resident Evil. The R button readies the weapon, then press X for action. I nearly died right off the bat trying to defend myself against a large misshaped monkey-thing in the beginning because I didn’t have sense enough to get a feel for the button uses first.
The killer party is only the beginning of the carnage. What follows afterward is a story that had me wondering if the writer was more than a little crazy. Between the people turning into giant evil trees, mutants raping students and impregnating them, and disfigured guys impaling students with chainsaws (an obvious Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip) it’s enough to give you a good mind-f***ing and have you wanting more. The final scene suggests that there will be another installment in the series, but you’ll have to play the game if you want the details.
Another thing to look forward to is the soundtrack from acclaimed master Olivier Deriviere, who I had the pleasure of interviewing last year after the release of Alone In The Dark 5. He crafted a masterful collection of tracks for this one that is sure to please. And if you go into the Bonus section at the Menu screen and select the radio you can listen to the tracks MP3-style.
Concluding, I had a blast playing the game for the second time on PSP. While I already knew what was going to happen most of the time, I was still amazed at how great the port was. I don’t think Hydravision could have done a better job if they had tried.
All the original frights are there, every splatter of blood, twisted limb, mangled corpse is in pristine condition compared to the original cut. I didn’t see the point in reviewing a game that essentially came out a year and a half ago. Instead, I focused on how well the developers were able to bring that game over to a portable format. And they succeeded in ways I didn’t think they could.
The graphics were beautiful, the gameplay was outstanding, and the horror was exactly what I remembered it to be. I think that more horror survival titles should be ported to the PSP, but don’t skimp out the way you usually do when you port a game. If we have another Gears of War incident I’m going to pop a blood vessel.