ObsCure II

ObsCure II, known in North America as Obscure: The Aftermath, is a survival horror game and the sequel to ObsCure.

It was developed by Hydravision Entertainment and published by Playlogic Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Wii on September 7, 2007 in Europe, and by Ignition Entertainment on March 25, 2008 in North America.

It was later released for the PSP on September 29, 2009 in North America and October 9, 2009 in Europe, and for the PSP Go on October 1, 2009 in North America and October 9, 2009 in Europe. It was also released for Steam in 2014.

A spinoff of the series (originally conceived as a reboot named just "ObsCure") was released in 2013, under the name Final Exam. Originally intended as a way to fund a proper sequel to ObsCure II, any future plans for the series were likely canned due to the game's poor critical and commercial responses.

Storyline
Two years after the events of Obscure, Shannon and Kenny Matthews are now enrolled in the nearby Fallcreek University, while Stan Jones is making ends meet as a pizza boy. Stan and Kenny have to take medication to prevent the effects of the plant from infecting their bodies, while Shannon has been able to adapt to the changes. As the story begins, a new drug created from a strange flower is quickly spreading its influence over the University's populace. Soon enough, a small group of students (Corey Wilde, Mei Wang, Amy Brookes, and Sven Hansen) along with the Leafmore High survivors have to face a horde of mutants and stop the spread of the contagion before the situation becomes critical. The students meet a scientist, Richard James, who is immersed in the biology of scientific black spores, and aids the player several times.

The spores spread throughout the campus and affects the nearby hospital. Mei, who gets a call from her twin sister Jun, goes with Sven to rescue her, but fails when she is killed by an unknown monster. The player eventually switches to Corey, and he finds Shannon and her brother Kenny, who is badly injured by the black spores and turns into a monster.

When Sven and Corey meet up at a warehouse with the others, a monstrous Kenny appears and kills Mei, thus distressing Corey. Stan, having respond Shannon's call, and meets with the surviving group and drives them away until he crashes off of a cliff into a forest. Eventually, Kenny strikes again, but Corey and Shannon defeat him by making him fall into a pit in a warehouse.

As the game progresses, Stan and Shannon get closer. While they find a place to take refuge, Amy and Sven explore and are ambushed by a man with a disfigured face carrying a chainsaw. The disfigured man fights Sven while Amy escapes.

When they find Sven impaled on a meat hook by the disfigured man at an abandoned house, Stan and Shannon chase after the disfigured man, leading them to the ruins of Leafmore High, to find a tree with huge moving branches that is revealed to be the mutated remains of Leonard Friedman (from Obscure) and that the disfigured man is his son Jedidiah. Friedman had injected himself with a strain of virus that mutated him and was passed on to Jedidiah. Stan and Corey kill the Friedman tree, while Corey finishes off Jedidiah.



When the pair return, they find Richard James and an ambulance carrying a pregnant Amy. Stan and Corey find out that she was raped by Kenny and she is carrying his rapidly-growing monstrous offspring. The ambulance takes Stan, Shannon, Amy, and Corey away, but they crash at a bridge after going through a cloud of spores. Stan and Shannon try to find out where Richard's new pick up point is to try and reach it, while Corey goes to rescue Amy.

When Shannon and Stan reach the new destination point, they find Corey fighting Kenny, and Richard James taking off with Amy in a helicopter. Corey, feeling desolate, states that Mei was the only one he cared about, and kills himself with a gun. Stan and Shannon kill Kenny by crushing him with a huge platform of lights over the football pitch.

As Kenny lies dying under the platform, he pleads to Shannon to take care of his child. Shannon swears that she will not let it live. The helicopter containing Amy and Ricard fills up with a cloud of spores, and the helicopter explodes. Stan asks Shannon what to do next. She replies that she will continue and cut all family ties.

Playable characters



 * Shannon Matthews Born in Riverside, California (voiced by E.Renee Thomas) - Kenny Matthews' younger sister (Although in the second game she calls Kenny "Little Brother", it is unknown whether this is a sarcastic nickname) who survived the horrors at Leafmore High. Her experiences have left her with a much darker personality. Due to the experiments done to her by Friedman she has the ability to control black auras and suck them into herself. Shannon succeeded at adapting to the experiments and does not have to take medication to cope with them, this probably makes her the strongest one from the original group.
 * Stan Jones Born in New-York City (voiced by Joshua Swanson) - Another survivor of Leafmore High. After the events at Leafmore, Stan caused a lot of problems and ended up being sent to prison. He makes the decision that he never wants to go back to any school again, and ends up working as a delivery truck driver. Unlike Shannon, he needs medication to cope with the experiments.
 * Kenny Matthews Born in Riverside, California (voiced by Buster Cox) - The older brother of Shannon who also survives the events at Leafmore High. After the events at Leafmore, he went to the University of Fallcreek with his sister. Unlike Shannon, he needs medication to cope with the experiments done to him, much like Stan. The experiments were too much for him to cope with, and he eventually turns into a huge monster with gargantuan arms.
 * Corey Wilde Born in Austin, Texas (voiced by Buster Cox) - Corey is a car enthusiast and a skater who seems resistant to pain; this is explained as being due to Corey's past love of climbing trees. His girlfriend in the game is Mei and he loves her immensely, yet because of his immature nature he has a hard time convincing her. He commits suicide right before fighting Kenny for the last time because Mei was killed by Kenny, taking away everything he loved.
 * Mei Wang Born in New-York (voiced by Alicia LaForce) - Jun's twin sister. She is obsessed with video games and as a result, she has become very skilled in hacking into protected machines. She dies when fighting Kenny after he is mutated by the spores and crushes her head. She is also Corey's girlfriend.
 * Sven Hansen Born in Oslo (Norway) (voiced by Lawrence Bailey) - Sven Hansen was born in Norway but migrated to the U.S. He is a fanatic to his country's sports such as baseball and hockey. He secretly loves Amy. He is killed by Jebidiah, Friedman's son.
 * Amy Brookes Born in Charlotte, North Carolina (voiced by Amy Sanchez) - Amy is a young, smart, blonde girl who exploits her good looks and is quick to tease just for the fun of it. She is aware that both Sven and Kenny are interested in her, and she appears to be interested in both of them as well. Towards the end of the game, it is revealed that she was raped by Kenny in his mutant form and is pregnant with his mutant child. She seemingly dies when the helicopter that she is in gets destroyed in an explosion. She secretly has a crush on Sven and provides a romantic hand over the course of the game.
 * Jun Wang Born in New-York (voiced by Nikki Rapp) - Twin sister of Mei. She is a gamer who loves to play games with Mei. All the guys dream about her. Mei and Sven control her by a camera monitor. She is found dead when successfully turning on an electrical circuit that locked the doors to the basement.

Other characters

 * Josh Carter and Ashley Thompson - Josh appears in a hidden video with Ashley which can be found in the last secret box of the game. In the video you see him set up the video showing the ruin of Leafmore High with Ashley. Suddenly Ashley disappears and when Josh tries to find her, his camera falls. The camera is then picked up by the son of Friedman.
 * Richard James - The biology teacher (Voiced by Buster Cox) at Fallcreek campus. Nothing seems to impress or amaze him. It is revealed that his intents are rather malicious after it is revealed that he and his colleagues intend to study the flower. He most likely dies after the helicopter that he and Amy were in explodes in a mass of black spores caused by Amy giving birth to her and Kenny's child.

Gameplay


ObsCure II plays similar to a typical survival horror game, although it is different from the first game in some ways. There is no "permanent character death" during battles; if they die, it is part of the scripted storyline. The flashlight system has been abandoned.

The player visits many locales in the city instead of being stuck in a school. The game is also far more linear and levels are designed more like corridors compared to the first. The player is forced to play as a certain duo most of the time.

The game switched from saving anywhere you want as in the first game to finding save points on walls which resemble flowers. The player touches a flower and it will make the characters pass out and the game will save.

Small Keys can be collected to obtain weapons in safes.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Main Menu Theme (Corruption with Rage and Melancholy)
 * 2) Atmospheric Mood
 * 3) Back To School
 * 4) Life Has A Plan
 * 5) Ballets of Deads
 * 6) Finally Home
 * 7) Melancholy
 * 8) Corpus Gemitu
 * 9) Bad Behaviour
 * 10) Lost Love
 * 11) Infested People
 * 12) Dimitri Was There
 * 13) Waltz Of Death
 * 14) We All Die
 * 15) Save My Soul
 * 16) The Last Ones
 * 17) Periculum
 * 18) Turtle Stone
 * 19) Hearing Fearies
 * 20) Lumen
 * 21) Nostalgia
 * 22) Bonus Track: Falling Down Demo
 * 23) Bonus Track 2: Evergreen (By: Noel)

Reception
ObsCure II has received positive and mixed reviews and has an aggregate score of 60/100 on Metacritic. IGN, who gave the game a 7.5/10 praised the graphics, saying that it has "detailed, atmospheric environments and respectable character models", but criticized the game for its "pretty cheap cutscenes" and "lacking plot". The public in general on metacritic from users, the rating from users is 9.0/10.

Trivia

 * The game contains many recycled audio files from the first game.
 * Unlike ObsCure, all the new characters of ObsCure II died. Although Amy and the Professor are currently unconfirmed to have died, it is unlikely they survived the helicopter crash and explosion. ObsCure II may be considered one of rarer survival horror games where nearly everyone dies, and the protagonists lack "plot armor". This is in contrast to the Resident Evil series which, for the most part, keeps most of its protagonists alive, albeit with a few exceptions.
 * The game's ending may have been intended lead to a sequel, as when the helicopter explodes into black aura, a monster could have been born and somehow survived the crash. This may be why Shannon and Stan ready a shotgun.
 * Toward the end Shannon and Stan can come across a video tape that suggests the death of Ashley and Josh from the first game. While they aren't seen dying, it is implied.
 * A few of the returning characters had a major change. Shannon is now gothic and has a more dark attitude, but even with this she still cares about others. Stan has a more friendly attitude and Kenny has a more friendly attitude in part 1 until part 2 when he becomes the major antagonist of the story.
 * The game is the final to be published by Playlogic and the final to be developed by Hydravision Entertainment, who, was purchased by Focus Home Interactive (Along with all their IP`s), and "Rebooted" into a new company.
 * Currently, the game is the final Obscure to be based on the main plotline. The next title, Final Exam, has no ties to the main plot and is non-canon.
 * Obscure 1 and 2 were both released on Steam with achievements, leader boards, HD visuals and more upgrades. Sam Riegel, the voice actor for Josh, helped promote the release.
 * The game has a glitch allowing infinite ammo.
 * It is possible to defeat the final boss (Kenny) without picking the bag containing all the items/weapons. If the player initiated the infinite ammo glitch and picked the Flare Gun before the door puzzle, it is sufficient to stun Kenny and unlock the four levers and end the final battle.