Incomprehensible Danger Haunts the Students of “Obscure”

by Louis Bedigian

“There are two kind of terror in Obscure: the shocks and the thriller moods.”

Many things go bump in the night.  Ghouls.  Ghosts.  And gamers who want to slay ghouls and ghosts before the sun rises!

“Oh crap, it’s up already?  Alright, time for bed.”

Nothing beats a good scare in the dark, and nothing helps to soothe the moment like the blinding rays of the sun shining through your window.  It might make sense to play a vampiric horror game in that setting, but it’s far from the perfect scenario for survival/horror.

Halloween might be a ways off, but you can get those intense scares, the kind that almost make you want to play when the sun’s out, from Dreamcatcher’s unique take on video game horror: Obscure. 

Named for the incomprehensible danger that awaits a group of foolish, too-nosey-for-their-own-good students, Obscure begins in a cramped, monster-filled high school.  Where the game will take players after that, only the developers know.  Which is precisely why we spoke to Pierre Leroux and Jérôme Duhamel of Hydravision Studio.  Lucky for them, they know what’s around every corner.  Unfortunately for us we don’t, but let’s see if we can get some answers…

You're trapped in a school with deadly creatures that want to kill you.  How do you defend yourself in a situation like that?  You don't usually find guns stuffed in a locker.  (At least you shouldn't…)

Answer: Actually in Obscure, as the action is set in a school, it is not so easy to get guns. You can find some sports items, a baseball bat for example, to help you fight. But of course, most of the time it is not simply enough to get rid of many of your enemies.

Many of the monsters have a weak point: they hate light. So, players have to find several light sources as many allies against them. For example, you can break the windows to make the sunlight come in. Unfortunately, this trick becomes useless when the night comes. You have to find other light sources, such as torch lights, but as they produce far less light than the sun does, they can only reduce the monsters' strength. Hopefully, the Janitor's office is a real arsenal (Many thanks to Urban Legend!). Finally, action is not located only in the high school – outside you will be able to get heavier weapons, as you will be in a more dangerous place!

When and where does the game begin?  Why are the students involved?

Answer: Leafmore is definitely the old high school that no one wants to be in. Its walls are moldering, its books are outdated, and its teachers have lost their faith. After the disappearance of one of their friends (Kenny) some students decide to investigate the high school. As they suspect the teachers, they stay in the evening to find some hidden information.

This brave step will lead them into a hell they will never forget… 

I’m packing wood, ‘cause…it’s too warm to pack heat. 

Players can switch between characters at any time.  What happens to the ones you're not playing with?  Can they be attacked?

Answer: It is true, we gave the player the ability to choose the character he will play with. The Jock can run faster. His younger and clever sister can help the group solve puzzles. Her best friend, the leader of the Cheerleaders is a gun-addict. The guy who desperately tries to pick her up is a geek-journalist who can easily find interesting items with his keen powers of observation. The last one is a schemer that can pick [locked] doors.

The player can change the character he controls at any time. He can also take a teammate to progress through the story.  The teammates, controlled by an artificial intelligence, can be attacked at any time. As he or she fights, the player can give him simple orders, heal him, give him ammunition or share his or her weapons.

Does the game end if one of the characters dies?

Answer: No, as in many teen horror movies, the story continues, even if a member of the group has been killed. From the early stage of video game history, players used to get several "lives" all along the gameplay. Sometime they lose some of them. In Obscure, when you get or lose a life, it is not an icon that appears or disappears from the top right corner of the screen. It is a real character, with its own behavior and its own abilities. Each character represents a real life to be saved, and you have to save as many teenagers as you can.

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The co-op mode sounds awesome.  Tell us everything we should know and everything we shouldn't know :)

Answer: The co-op feature is a double feature. First of all, at any time you can switch between 5 characters at your disposal, by coming back to the meeting room. Each one has its own clothing, moves, hits, way of speaking, and you can make your choice regarding to these style features, or regarding to their special abilities as well. You can also take another character, that will follow the character you control and help you in fights, as in exploration or enigmas.

At any time, you can switch between both of them if you want to control the other one and make the first one follow you.

But, most of all, you can ask a friend to control your teammate by entering the game at the point you reached at that moment. The screen is not split, and if you are lost, simply press a button to make the camera point on you. This is a simple and intuitive way to experience team play.

What many players appreciate is, for example, to be able to start a game alone and at any moment to continue this same game in co-op.  This is really a unique feature to Obscure.

The multiplayer mode really is truly plug and play.  You only need a second controller, to connect it and press a key.  In the multiplayer mode, every player controls his own character, and as soon as the second player decides to quit the game, the IA resumes control of this character. 

What you should not know?  If you play Obscure and that your girlfriend or boyfriend moans because once more you are stuck in front of a video game, tell her to come and join in action with you!   

Hello?  Is anybody there? 

Are there situations during a single-player game where you have to change characters quickly to solve a puzzle, defeat a monster, or save a life?

Answer: The IA takes control of the second character that manages very well and you can directly give him orders. For example you can make him change his weapon.  Nevertheless if you want to play more efficiently, it is possible to switch from a character to the other. For example, if you control Josh to repair the electric panel of the cafeteria, his teammate Stan will protect you automatically. If Stan is having a hard time getting rid of the monsters, you can momentarily resume control of Stan for a better fight, and come back to Josh to finish the repair. 

What kind of real-time graphic effects does the black aura create?

Answer: For Obscure we created a special effect called "Dark Aura" that surrounds the monsters and warns the player of their imminent arrival. That aura acts like a shield to the enemies, and mildews the ground, the walls, and the objects that are close to them. But above all, it conceals them, and the player has some difficulties perceiving what is exactly coming at him and it darkens everything around. We did this because we think that suggestion is a very powerful asset, and with what we can imagine we are often far more frightened, because it comes from what we have deeply inside ourselves.

The camera perspective seems to change a lot.  Is the gameplay done in the traditional Silent Hill/Resident Evil style?

Answer: The way of controlling the characters and the movie cameras are closer to an action game such as Devil May Cry, than to the survival/horror games you mentioned. We wanted something very intuitive, and especially very cinematographic. 

We created a fluid and spontaneous gameplay, based on the unexplored universe of Teen Horror Games, and this feeling is quite new in a genre of complex enigmas and slow moves.

We loved Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but we wanted something more dynamic. Obscure has therefore taken a more "action" aspect than its competitors. The movements are quicker, the enigmas are less complex. I would say it is more spontaneous. 

Can you alter the camera's position at all?

Answer: No – the camera is set up for some pretty dramatic camera angles already. 

And you thought detention was scary! 

I hear the monsters are sensitive to light.  How can players use this weakness to their advantage?

Answer: Light allows you to find your way and to find objects in dark places, but it is especially essential in battles since the monsters are surrounded by an aura, sort of shield, and firearms alone are not always enough. Fortunately, this aura is sensitive to light.

To defeat your attackers it is therefore possible to break windows to make the light come inside and combat the aura.  Besides, it is possible to boost momentarily the flashlights assembled to the weapons, which increases their efficiency at dispatching the baddies…

Is there a point or item retrieval system that rewards you for defeating monsters?

Answer: We thought it was unrealistic to have an item bounce from a dead monster… Besides, the areas are very difficult to explore when a monster is trying to shred you to pieces.  So, what you get when you defeat the monsters, are a few seconds of peace to help you get some ammunition and health kits that will make you survive a little longer.

Thus far, what part of the game has been most successful in scaring people?  Which moment(s) have horrified the testers?

Answer: There are two kind of terror in Obscure: the shocks and the thriller moods. A shock usually makes the player jump from his seat. Creating a good shock is a long gameplay process: we have to give the player some habits (open a door, push a crate, etc…), and, as he is used to doing these safe actions, at one point we change the rule by making a monster jump from usually safe places. The best shock is when a huge monster smashes a wall [that] the player is used to walking up close to and thinks it was in a safe place.

The thriller mood is something different. When the character begins to walk slowly, holding the gun in front of him, moving the light around to be sure there is nothing dangerous, we can feel that the player is in a thriller mood. It works perfectly in an area we call "the old bearding school," when we can hear the calls, the cries and the students' death rattles that were murdered there years ago…

Thank you for your time.