Obscure: The Aftermath A
survival horror game in which you and six students must use each
other's unique abilities to investigate sinister goings-on at Fall
Creek University.
Aftermath, like its predecessor, is a very
interesting title. First, the aforementioned co-op elements certainly
make the experience unique, considering that the majority of similar
titles in the genre are restricted to single-player modes. But perhaps
more entertaining is the unusual combination of utter cheesiness with
genuinely scary and well-executed horror elements, similar to the teen
horror films that the series draws its inspiration from. I'll touch on
the specifics later, but playing Aftermath was definitely an
interesting experience for me.
The
majority of the game is spent guiding two characters (from a group of
around six, give or take) through small environments crawling with
hostile creatures, riddles and the greatly loved ambiguous fog.
Controls
for Aftermath are pretty solid, giving you a fair amount of freedom to
move around and rotate the camera. Multiple weapons can be mapped to
your controls giving you some slack to fight the way you want. Although
most of the areas in Aftermath have an initially fixed camera to invoke
atmosphere, as soon as you ready your weapon the camera will snap down
behind your character to give you a clear view of the action.
Aftermath
does a number of things very well. Considering its low price point, the
game looks shockingly nice with some excellent attention to detail.
Several of the title's environments are highly atmospheric. The game's
sound design is also admirable. Sound effects are generally great but
Aftermath's soundtrack is where it truly shines. I was genuinely amazed
that such a low-priced title sported such wonderful music. Beautiful
orchestral arrangements are paired with stunning, hauntingly angelic
choir singers to create some fantastic moments.
In fact, I might
go so far as to say that the music -- as well as some of the great
environments -- are my favorite elements contained within Aftermath.
But again, the gameplay is especially enjoyable because of the co-op. I
played pieces of the game with a coworker and also played alone and
found both to be entertaining. But if you can work well together, co-op
is likely the ideal play experience.
Each character has a
particular ability to take advantage of, like decrypting images,
picking a lock, moving heavy objects or possessing acrobatic skills. At
one point in the game, you have to use a nimble character to jump up
and grab the ledge of the second floor in a library. Once you're up
there, a monster bursts onto the scene down below, and the character's
girlfriend screams and yells for you to pick her up. Pounding a button
will pull her to safety and prevent a nasty battle from taking place.
As simple as this moment was, the integration of the cooperative
element worked so nicely that it added to the scene's sense of urgency
and heightened the overall experience.
Minimum System Requirements: OS: Windows XP/Vista Processor: Pentium 3 @ 700 MHz Memory: 256 MB (512 MB for Vista) Video Memory: nVidia GeForce 3 or later Sound Card: DirectX Compatible DirectX: 9.0c Keyboard & Mouse DVD Rom Drive
