Oft Scared- ObsCure: The Aftermath Review

Apparently, Aftermath is a sequel to another game, ObsCure, that came out back in 2004.  Aftermath opens by recapping the story of the first game where a group of students were infected with a mutant virus and forced to kill their teachers to escape.  Now it is a few years later: some of the cast has moved onto college, while at least one has been recently released from prison.  A new drug is being passed out through a college campus, causing students to mutate and become hostile.  The heroes from the first game once again find themselves fighting for their lives as they try to escape from the mutant horde and discover the origin of the mysterious drug.

ObsCure: The Aftermath oozes cheese from every pore.  The acting is overdrawn, the player controls caricatures rather than believable avatars and I found myself under attack more by sexual innuendo than monsters.  There are more jump-scares per capita in this game than any other survival horror game I have played.  Not only does it call on such tried and true tactics as the “window hallway,” but at times, the screen will flash and show a scary face, just to scare you.  As bad as that all sounds on paper, the truth is that I did jump out of my seat on more than one occasion, and if that is the goal of a scary game, then ObsCure is the best horror game I’ve ever played.  It evokes the same emotions as seeing a movie like Jeepers Creepers or Final Destination, I never see these movies with the intent to observe thought provoking narrative, I watch them to be scared out of my pants and feel an adrenaline rush.  Likewise, ObsCure’s story is just a shell to move you from one tense moment to the next, but that is really all it ever needs to be.

The core mechanics of the game are serviceable.  The camera tends to hover in the right areas, and combat is just hard enough to create tension.  There is drop-in/drop-out coop over adhoc, which is a feature that I wish I saw more of in portable games.  Aside from the obvious coop horror experience, where you and your best bud fight off the mutant horde together and give each other high fives when a be-thonged heroin describes the “balls and stick” on the pool table, it opens up for a unique and actually welcomed griefing opportunity where someone on the bus possesses your companion and beats you to death at a scary moment.  As irritating as that may sound, it fits the theme of the game very well.