ObsCure II

ObsCure II is a survival horror video game developed by Hydravision Entertainment and published by Playlogic Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Wii. It is the sequel to the video game ObsCure. The game was released on September 7, 2007 in Europe, March 25, 2008 under the name ObsCure: The Aftermath in North America and June 12, 2008 in Australia. Later in 2009, Playlogic announced a PSP version and the same was released on September 29, 2009.

Storyline
Two years after the events of ObsCure, the survivors have had to move on with their lives. Shannon and Kenny are now enrolled in the nearby Fallcreek University, while Stan is making ends meet as a pizza delivery boy. Stan and Kenny now have to take medication to prevent the effects of the plantation 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 along with the Leafmore High survivors have to face a horde of mutants and stop the spread of contagion before the situation becomes critical.

The students meet a scientist Richard James, who is immersed in the biology of the scientific black spores, and aids the player several times.

The flower spore spread through 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 inside by the black spores and turns into a monster with huge arms.

When Sven and Corey meet up at a warehouse with the others, Kenny in his monstrous form appears and kills Mei, thus distressing Corey. Stan meets with the surviving group and drives them away, until he crashes off a cliff into an unknown forest. Eventually, the monstrous Kenny strikes again, while Corey and Shannon defeat him by making him fall into a seemingly endless pit in a warehouse.

As the game progresses, Stan and Shannon get closer.

While Shannon and Stan find a place to take refuge, Amy and Sven explore and are ambushed by an unknown man carrying a chainsaw, with a disfigured face. The disfigured man fights Sven while Amy escapes.

When they find Sven impaled by a chainsaw by the disfigured man at an abandoned house, Stan and Shannon chase after the disfigured man, leading to the Ruins of the School from the original game and to find out a horrifying, living tree with huge moving branches. The huge tree was actually the mutated remains of Leonard Friedman (from Obscure) and the disfigured man was his son. In the past, Friedman had injected himself with a strain of virus that mutated him and transferred (through his genes) onto his son, Jedidiah, causing the horrifying features of the man. Stan and Corey kill the Friedman tree by sawing off the main parts of the huge moving branches, while Corey finishes off the disfigured son by slicing him with the chainsaw.

When the pair return, they find Richard James and an ambulance carrying Amy, pregnant with a mutation. Stan and Corey find out that she was raped by Kenny in his monstrous form. The ambulances take Stan, Shannon, Amy, and Corey away, but they crash at a bridge after going through a dark aura of spores under a bridge. Stan and Shannon try to find out where Richard's new pickup point is and try to reach it, while Corey goes to rescue Amy.

When Shannon and Stan reach the new destination point, they find Corey lying on the ground with a surprisingly alive monster Kenny, and Richard James taking off with Amy in a helicopter. Kenny had planned to unite with Corey because he had taken "everything precious" to him. Corey, feeling desolate states that Mei was the only one that he cared about, and commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. Stan and Shannon, the only ones left, fight Kenny and kill him by crushing him with a huge floating platform on the ceiling.

As Kenny lies dying by the crushing platform, he pleads to Shannon to take care of his child living in Amy. Shannon swears that she will not let it live. Meanwhile, the helicopter containing Amy and Richard suddenly fill up with an aura of dark spores, and the helicopter explodes. Finally at the end, Stan asks Shannon what to do next. As a cloud of black spores rapidly spread all over the area, she replies strongly that she will continue and cut all family ties.

Characters from the original game

 * Shannon Matthews (voiced by E.Renee Thomas) - Kenny Matthews' older sister 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 (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 pizza boy. Unlike Shannon, he needs medication to cope with the experiments.


 * Kenny Matthews (voiced by Buster Cox)  - The younger 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.


 * 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.

New player characters

 * Corey Wilde (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 (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 (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 Jedidiah, Friedman's son.


 * Amy Brookes (voiced by Mikayla May) - 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 (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

 * Richard James - The biology teacher at Fallcreek campus. Nothing seems to impress or amaze him. It is revealed that he was evil the entire time after the game's false ending. He seemingly dies when the helicopter that he and Amy are in gets destroyed in an explosion of black spores.

Soundtrack
22 tracks, composed by Olivier Derivière.

This OST is free for download on the official site of the composer:
 * 1 Corruption With Rage and Melancholy
 * 2 Atmospheric Mood
 * 3 Back To School
 * 4 Life Has 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)

http://www.olivierderiviere.com/

PSP version
Playlogic has confirmed a PSP version with bonus features. Roger Smit, Playlogic's Executive VP, states of their decision to bring over the game to the PSP: "We received a tremendous amount of feedback from fans wanting us to bring the gruesome gore of Obscure 2 to a handheld console. Our talented teams have since crafted the game to fit the unique co-op capabilities and controls of the PSP while also keeping the exciting gameplay and detailed graphics featured in the console versions intact.".

Reception
ObsCure II has received 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".