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Obscure (2004)

Obscure is a survival horror game emphasizing co-op gameplay with its wide range of characters. Taking place inside a massive school building, it lets you control five main characters and is still playable on modern PCs!

Obscure gives you the ability to control any of these five characters and what's better is, that they all have different features, personalities, and abilities.

There is technically a 6th playable character but I won't say more on that to not spoil things.

As I was saying, abilities. They are pretty interesting. For example, Josh lets you know if there is anything left to do in an area. Items to pick up or things to interact with, that kind of stuff. Pretty crucial for thorough exploration. It's important in a survival horror game.

Stan cracks locks easier due to his background, Kenny runs fast and packs a strong punch, Shannon gives tips when you're stuck on puzzles and heals other characters, and Ashley is better at using weapons.

They all have their own benefits!

Obscure plays pretty much like any other survival horror game from back in the day. It features semi-dynamic camera angles, with semi-tank controls. Exploration, item management, combat, navigation, everything is here.

As a somewhat unique feature though, Obscure also lets you combine some items with others and actively use them. For example, you can tape a flashlight to any firearm in the game if you can find adhesive tape.

Aside from firearms, the game also features melee weapons and they're pretty simple to use. There is a good "feeling" to them. They pack quite the punch.

In Obscure, darkness is your enemy. If you played Alan Wake, then you might recognize its flashlight mechanic. When focus your flashlight on dark areas, you banish the darkness around those areas. You also use it in the same way to weaken the monsters before attacking them.

The character change mechanic is pretty slick too. You just press a single button and change the characters. Obviously, you don't just run around with a party of 5 people all the time. You always play in pairs.

There are, however, meeting spots in the game and you are able to change to other characters in these spots. These also act as fast-travel points and help you navigate the environment more efficiently.

Story-wise, Obscure has some intriguing moments and an overall compelling narrative. The game starts with Kenny playing basketball by himself after school. His stuff gets stolen and he follows the thief to a suspicious-looking cellar inside the school grounds.

Later on, things happen, people disappear and you find yourself in a (mostly) abandoned school. It consists of massive corridors, classrooms, underground sections, and yards, it's a survival horror fanatic's dream.

Obscure has a perma-death mechanic. If any of the characters die at any point in the game, they are out for good. Obviously, you can go back to a previous save and get them back but if you are looking for a more hardcore challenge, it's there.

I keep emphasizing its co-op play feature but while Obscure is definitely more entertaining with a friend, it's completely playable solo as well. Whichever pair you choose, the other student is always controlled by AI and they're usually pretty decent.

The best thing about all this is that Obscure is still playable on Steam. It plays well, it's compatible with higher resolutions and you can actually play co-op using Steam's Remote Play feature. It's just like couch co-op.

Its sequel, Obscure 2 is also on Steam and it's also perfectly playable. I'll make another thread for it if you enjoy reading this one.

Seriously, if you haven't played these games before, I can't recommend them enough. They are great games AND they're playable in co-op. How many classic co-op survival horror games do we have these days? Not many, let me tell you that.

Let me know if you give it a shot. I'm curious if you're gonna like it. And if you have already played it, then tell other people why they shouldn't skip this one. Here is the Steam link for the game.

It's actually on sale right now along with its sequel.

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CANINE

CANINE is a first-person horror game with well-made, PSX-style wobbly visuals.

It tells the story of a boy looking for his dog kidnapped by an evil corporation running experiments on pets. In his search, he has to survive against a horrifying creature and escape.

Canine has stealth-focused gameplay where you survive against a stalker-type enemy. Think of the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation or Mr. X from Resident Evil 2.

Surviving against this creature isn't the most complicated thing, but it can surely be tense sometimes because it can corner you quite easily.

You can use your trusty tennis ball to distract it, run, and hide in designated hiding places.

It has a B-movie type of narrative that doesn't go too much into detail while still managing to give you a compelling story.

Tomy, the boy's dog, is kidnapped by an evil corporation named Umbral. They conduct experiments on dogs to create the perfect demigod.

Throughout your survival inside this facility, you come across notes and environmental details to learn more about this harrowing story.

The game has PSX style, wibbly-wobbly visuals paired with a pretty good atmosphere. The sound design and the overall color palette really puts dread in your chest even before the game truly begins.

At its essence, the gameplay revolves around surviving against this creature while looking for switches around the facility. It's a place with smaller sub-sections that you go through while searching for these switches and other key items, of course, while also looking for Tomy.

Depending on the things you do in your playthrough, the game has two endings. It also has a scoreboard system that nudges you to try again and maybe speedrun the whole thing.

It has a generous checkpoint system, so it never gets annoying even if you're caught.

CANINE is great. I enjoyed this a lot and I'll probably go back to it to play some more, maybe go for a no-death run.

It's pretty cheap on Steam with Very Positive reviews. Confidently recommended.

Check it out here.

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Prowler isn't so scary when you shoot of their arms... Guess it's time to up the hp on those arms and give Klo a real run for her money.

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Nightmare Zapping is a visual novel where you browse through horror channels on a TV.

There are different horror stories on each channel and you go through them while piecing them together and solving the mystery.

It has rotoscope animations and retro minigames.

The game has 2 parts that you can go through.

In the first part, you watch through the events that take place in the small town of Canela, where mysterious disappearances have been happening while a sinister force haunts its residents.

The second part takes place in Laurel Town after the events of Canela. The evil spreads to this nearby town and takes root in its residents.

Aside from these stories, the game also has a good variety of fun minigames. Full retro. That race part gave me some good nostalgia.

It's from the same developer behind The Horror of Salazar House, @maldo19, so you know you're going into something good. I also put it on my Steam Curator.

Check it out here

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The Suffering is an action horror game taking place in a prison. It tells the story of the silent protagonist Torque, who is on his way to death row.

It's one of the few games to give you the ability to change between first-person and third-person anytime you want.

Developed by Midway Games and Surreal Software for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows, it was released in 2004 and while it has a cult following these days, it's definitely classified as one of the many underrated classics of the genre.

The game follows the silent main protagonist Torque as he is sent to death row in Abbott State Penitentiary on Carnate Island. He is guilty of murdering his ex-wife and their two children. He claims to have blacked out during the incident and can't remember anything.

Torque doesn't speak too much, but rather expresses himself with his actions. He is tough, fearless, and angry. He wants to understand what really happened to his family, or why he did it.

The Suffering features visceral, action-combat gameplay with fast-paced combat sequences. You have a wide variety of melee and ranged options to choose from. They all have their uses in certain situations as Torque battles against lots of different enemy types.

Speaking of enemies, creatures in the game were designed with the help of Stan Winston Studios. The Alien Queen, Predator, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, The Terminator, you name it.

Because of this and the talented team at Midway, the game features well-designed, scary creatures. Some humanoid, some subhuman, and some are derived from animals.

They appear out of nowhere with a sudden earthquake and decimate the majority of the island.

The game lets you play in first-person or third-person. You can change this anytime you want with a single button. This was/is pretty unusual for most games.

It's not only for viewing too, you can play the whole game in both views, however you want.

Throughout the game, Torque is confronted with visions of his deceased family. Sometimes in memory form, sometimes mixed with reality. In some of these moments, Torque has to make moral choices. These choices affect the game's ending. If I'm not mistaken, it has 3 endings.

In the middle of the journey of his supposedly last day on this earth, Torque gets to meet some of the prison's former guests. They help him (or twist his mind even more?) and teach him how to survive in this hellhole.

In the first few hours of the game, Torque discovers his special ability. He can transform into a demonic creature and unleash total chaos. Sort of like an ultimate ability, this literally puts you in a rage mode and lets you decimate your enemies until it runs out.

Later in 2005, Surreal Software developed a sequel called Ties That Bind as a direct continuation of Torque's story. This time it takes place on the mainland and features a wide variety of locations.

The game is currently playable on PC through GOG. But please note that I personally had some issues with that release. The sound would cut off randomly and I couldn't really solve it (or didn't bother tbh).

Regardless, hoping for a multi-platform re-release someday.

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Nocturne (1999) is a survival horror game where you control The Stranger, an operative of a secret organization battling against monsters.

It takes place in a dark fantasy world with references to classics from gothic cinema and literature.

Taking place in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Nocturne has a fantasy-gothic universe with werewolves, zombies, vampires, and such.

The Stranger works for Spookhouse, a secret government organization created by President Theodore Roosevelt to fight monsters.

The game has four different cases you can play through in any order. They all take you to different places in the world.

You team up with a half-vampire to obtain an artifact from a castle in Germany, liberate the Wild West from a zombie assault, fight against reanimated mobsters created by Al Capone in Chicago, survive in a haunted house, etc. There is a great variety.

Gameplay-wise, it plays similarly to classic survival horror games. It has fixed camera angles but doesn't quite play in a tank-control scheme.

In combat situations, The Stranger has to draw his guns manually before shooting. While he aims automatically, the game also gives you the choice to use your mouse. The guns have laser pointers that allow you to aim clearly.

You can strafe right-left to avoid attacks, run, and even jump. So gameplay-wise it plays like an action game, but its restricted camera angles create a neat survival horror balance to stop you from going all-guns-blazing.

In dark locations, The Stranger has two features that he can use. One is the regular flashlight that also draws your guns and aims wherever you're aiming them at. It has a battery that runs out quite fast. So you can't always keep it on. It has a nice flare effect.

The other feature The Stranger can use is night vision. When you go into the night vision mode, the game goes first-person to allow you to better investigate your surroundings. Just like the flashlight, it has a battery.

Thanks to its atmosphere and the great usage of camera angles, Nocturne manages to create a suspenseful experience and always surprises you with what's next. It's full of unexpected twists and turns that you'll appreciate a lot.

Developed by Terminal Reality, the team that made the BloodRayne series, it was released for PC only. It's currently in abandonware status and you can find it online.

I used the patched version in this link and had no issues:

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The Dark Eye (1995) is a first-person psychological horror adventure where you recite Edgar Allan Poe's stories through the perspectives of both murderer and the victim.

It features uncanny valley grotesque, stop-motion visuals, and clay-modeled characters.

Plays in a classic point-and-click adventure style, the game doesn't really put you into any life-or-death situations or doesn't give you choices. There are stories to go through and you are there to witness them.

Throughout the game, you go through some of Poe's favorite stories: The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, and Berenice.

Additionally, you can listen to William S. Burroughs' voiceovers featuring The Masque of the Red Death and Annabel Lee.

Many of these scenes play as QuickTime movies. Sometimes in full-screen, or sometimes in smaller, looping segments. The game as a whole has an experimental look and these only add to its already creepy atmosphere.

While the game features Poe's known stories, it doesn't ONLY rely on them but rather uses a unique plotline as a framing device. The gameplay occurs in two different aesthetic modes. While one is more realistic, the other is dreamy or perhaps even nightmarish.

Set in the late 1800s (as interpreted, not confirmed), the nameless character visits his uncle Edwin. Controlling this character, you meet Edwin himself and your brother Henry.

You then have a whiff of the paint thinner Edwin was using while painting, and go into a "trip".

Developed by Inscape, it was released for Windows and Mac OS. The game is now in abandonware status and you should be able to find it online.

If you want, can play it on your browser here: https://classicreload.com/win3x-dark-eye.html

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Baroque (1998) is a post-apocalyptic first-person action RPG taking place inside the Neuro Tower, a mysterious place nobody dared to enter before.

It's a game that uses death as a core mechanic to advance the plot, rather than resulting in a game over.

Developed by Sting Entertainment for Sega Saturn, it later got ported to PSX, PS2 (remake), Nintendo Wii, and Switch (JP exclusive).

It looks and plays similarly to the classic Shin Megami Tensei games. (Fun fact: Atlus published it for NA)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it shows us a world hit by catastrophic climate changes on May 14, 2032, after conducting an experiment to understand the Absolute God.

Its surviving humans got physically twisted by manifestations of guilt, pain, and suffering.

As the amnesiac, mute, and nameless protagonist, you are picked by Archangel and tasked with entering the Neuro Tower.

You have to advance its levels, find the Absolute God, and fix the world.

Each floor is randomly generated and your aim is not to reach the top floor. It's to reach the bottom.

You explore the floor, gather items, fight enemies, and reach the next floor. The usual dungeon-crawler gameplay.

Upon death, contrary to other games of the time, it doesn't result in a game over but rather teleports you back to your hometown. Every death progresses the narrative, unlocking new dialogue and areas. It's a core part of the game.

You are able to save some of your items using consciousness orbs and gather them on your next playthrough.

Throughout your playthrough, you get to meet NPCs and have various dialogue options with them. Through these encounters and other contextual elements, you learn of the game's overall story.

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Screenshots from the WonderSwan port of Clock Tower

For those that don't know, WonderSwan is a handheld game console released in Japan. It was made by Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto Laboratory and Bandai.

Yokoi, a long-time Nintendo employee, was best known as the creator of the Game & Watch and the original designer of the Game Boy.

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Mundaun

It's a folk horror game with a unique, hand-penciled aesthetic.

Immerse yourself in its open areas while solving the mystery behind the death of a close relative. While it's a horror game and sure, it has unsettling moments, it's also an incredibly charming game with an aesthetic that you don't easily see in other games.

Easily one of the best horror games of recent years. You can find it on all modern platforms.

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Today is the 24th anniversary of DINO CRISIS.

Resident Evil's cool sibling, it was the game that changed the formula a little bit and put you against bigger, faster, and deadlier enemies.

What are your likes/dislikes about this series? Would you like to see it return someday?

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Dino Crisis screenshots from the official press kit (1999)

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Incident at Grove Lake

A private investigator receives top-secret files and a tape from an Area 51 worker and decides to take a look at the footage.

It's a PSX-style horror adventure game based on alien abduction accounts throughout history.

It takes about 20 minutes to finish. As someone who is particularly interested in even the smallest possibility of extraterrestrial life, I enjoyed this a lot. Very well made.

 Check it out here: https://toothandclaw.itch.io/incident-at-grove-lake

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Resident Evil Gaiden

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As my last video for 2022, here is the first episode of my new video series titled "The Horror of" in which I'll dive into games from other genres and analyze their horror elements.

The first subject is Elden Ring: Godwyn the Golden and Destined Death.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/mGo_ljcnKCs

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SILENT HILL free demo disc for Australian PlayStation magazine