History VideoGame / ObsCure

* Hammerspace: Character inventory is shared, except for weapons. If a character dies or both of the characters you're playing as die you have to recollect items though. There's also a possible oversight at the beginning where giving Kenny both guns and unloading them before the prologue ends causes those extra bullets to appear in your inventory when the other characters get their first gun. Very handy for Hard mode though!

* WeakenedByTheLight: Zig-zagged. Light causes those infected with the mortifilia spores to start to mutate. A small amount of light triggers enough mutations to turn them into monsters, while a greater amount kills them, the mutations working like a fast-acting cancer. In gameplay terms, this means that direct sunlight and other high-intensity light sources (such as flashbangs, flare guns, and the lights in the cafeteria) kill the monsters almost instantly, and flashlights help weaken them.
* WeAllLiveInAmerica:
** While the games are set in the United States, they were made by a French developer, and it appears that they were basing their impressions of Anglophone society more on the UK than the US. Metric measurements are frequently used in place of UsefulNotes/AmericanCustomaryMeasurements, dates are rendered in the form of "DD/MM" rather than the "MM/DD" format used in the US, British spellings are employed frequently, and a notice makes reference to the "Ministry of Health" (the US' equivalent is the ''Department'' of Health and Human Services). On top of that, one of the calendars still has the French names for the months of the year (octobre, janvier, avril). If it weren't for the American flag in the gymnasium and the brief reference to Friedman being born in Iowa, one might guess that the game took place in Quebec rather than the US.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Most of the weapons within the special boxes are powerful, but crippled by either a lack of ammo (the explosive crossbow, the flare gun, the mini SMG) or a tendency to quickly drain the battery (the high-powered flashlight). Outside of the stun gun and the flashball, you will be [[GodzillaThreshold saving most of these weapons for the boss fights]] and relying on the good old-fashioned pistol, shotgun, and melee weapons.

* {{Sidequest}}: One of these is strung through the game, with a bunch of small keys scattered through the environment that open lock boxes. Each of them contains a unique, powerful weapon; in order, you get the stun gun, the crossbow, the flashball (a gun that fires mini-flashbangs), the flare gun, the mega-flashlight, and the mini SMG. Opening all of them unlocks a bonus video that reveals the ambiguous fate of [[spoiler:Josh and Ashley from the first game]].

** Getting [[spoiler:mutated into a gigantic, murderous monster after running out of the medicine you need to keep your mortifilia infection at bay, then taking two grueling boss battles to ''finally'' go down]]. [[spoiler:(Kenny)]]

** During Boss fights, the respawning item boxes will drop supplies if you run out to prevent the fight becoming impossible,thought the first boss fight with [[spoiler:Kenny]] lacks these.

** During Boss fights, the respawning item boxes will drop supplies if you run out to prevent the fight becoming impossible.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: While the games are set in the United States, they were made by a French developer, and it appears that they were basing their impressions of Anglophone society more on the UK than the US. Metric measurements are frequently used in place of UsefulNotes/AmericanCustomaryMeasurements, dates are rendered in the form of "DD/MM" rather than the "MM/DD" format used in the US, British spellings are employed frequently, and a notice makes reference to the "Ministry of Health" (the US' equivalent is the ''Department'' of Health and Human Services). On top of that, one of the calendars still has the French names for the months of the year (octobre, janvier, avril). If it weren't for the American flag in the gymnasium and the brief reference to Friedman being born in Iowa, one might guess that the game took place in Quebec rather than the US.

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: Some locked doors are opened not by rooting around for a key three rooms away or [[SolveTheSoupCans figuring out some bizarre puzzle]]. They're opened by [[BoringButPractical using a baseball bat to smash the window, then reaching through the broken glass to open it from the inside]]. And when the door to the second floor is chained up, what do you do? Go back across the entire map, to solve a puzzle that gives you the key? No, you go to the science lab to grab acid to dissolve the chains with.

* ShoutOut:
** In the first game, a flyer in the girls' bathroom in the administration building tries to warn people that aliens are among us, which the characters dismiss as paranoid nonsense -- a reference to ''Film/TheFaculty'', one of the game's [[SpiritualAdaptation main inspirations]].
** There has to be a reason why the first game has characters named [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Stan, Kenny, and Mr. Garrison]]...
** Jedidiah in the second game is a fairly obvious one to [[Franchise/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]].
** In ''Final Exam'', Nathan's monster-trap special attack is this to ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'', even referencing it in the description.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Noted {{in-universe}} in Mr. Walden's files. The mortifilia plant's behavior is so unusual that he can't believe it's real -- its stems are completely dry, implying that it doesn't need water to live, and it is not only not photosynthetic, but [[WeakenedByTheLight exposure to the light actually damages it]].

* TheCorruption: Mortifilia, which turns those exposed to it into darkness monsters. Principal Friedman, his sister-in-law Nurse Wickson, and (in the second game) Shannon seem to be the only ones immune to it, and Friedman spent years researching the plant to harness its properties in a less corruptive manner, but they can't be under sunlight too much.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: The entire plot of the first two games revolves around one of [[spoiler:the Friedman brothers]] trying to save the life of the other. Even their children get involved, human and plant alike.
** Double subverted in the second game, [[spoiler: with the reveal of that the Friedman were part of the ΔΘГ brotherhood, but later revealed that it was due to their research being repeatedly rejected by the scientific community and it could only be backed up by the ΔΘГf.

* SolveTheSoupCans: Subverted in the first game in which every obstacle is has its fairly mundane solution (Throw acid into a lock) or has its explained reason to be there ([[spoiler: The 4 statues are mechanism to lock Friedman in the underground lab or foreshawoding the Friedmans' expedition and the mortifilia]]). Played straight in the 2nd game with with the mausoleum tomb.

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: Some locked doors are opened not by rooting around for a key three rooms away or [[SolveTheSoupCans figuring out some bizarre puzzle]]. They're opened by [[BoringButPractical using a baseball bat to smash the window, then reaching through the broken glass to open it from the inside]] and there is a chained door that leads to the 2nd floor, what do you do? Go back the entire map, solve a puzzle that gives you the key? No, you go the lab to grab acid and melt the chains.

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Beating the game unlocks alternate outfits in NewGamePlus mode for each character still left alive at the end. Ashley's gray shirt is switched out for the top half of her cheerleading uniform (though keeping her jeans), Stan's shirt is recolored in [[TheStoner Jamaican/Rasta]] colors, Josh gets a Hawaiian shirt, Kenny's muscle shirt and track pants are recolored green and orange respectively, and Shannon gets the most dramatic makeover -- a punk/goth ensemble that includes fishnet stockings and [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue streaks in her hair]]. (Which makes it funnier due to her 2nd game's appearance)

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: The most powerful shotgun in the first game appears to be some kind of hybrid of a double-barrel and pump-action shotgun that, in real life, could not exist as a functional weapon. Likewise, you attach flashlights to guns by simply [[DuctTapeForEverything duct-taping them together]]; if the recoil alone didn't cause the flashlight to go flying (But it can be jossed if the teens used all of the duct tape, which would explain why they can't use it afterwards), the operation of a semi-auto pistol's slide would do it instead. The only gun that should've been able to hold onto its flashlight was the pistol found in Friedman's safe, which had a light built in.

* AbandonedHospital: The Fallcreek University Hospital seems to have gone through a hard night. It's specially afwul when you considered those who needed medical maintenance can't have it. (And in fact you see how a poor guy in a bed dies out of a wound when he can't even move)

* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler:The bonus video you find in the sequel after obtaining all of the secret weapons shows a small video of Josh and Ashley in the Leafmore Ruins until is dropped and picked up by Jedidiah, leaving their fate ambiguous.]]

* BookDumb: Stan. He never spent his time in school or studying and after getting in and out of jail, he decided to work instead of study. Not that it matters by the sequel, mind you.

* DevelopersForesight: [[spoiler:Overlaps with FridgeHorror. After she's rescued from Kenny, take a close look at her clothing. She's no longer wearing her thong and her faces it's looking sicker and sicker as the game progresses.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Corey, being a better choice than [[[FaceMonsterTurn transform in the same thing that the man who kill his beloved]].]]

* GasLeakCoverup: A newspaper found in the Leafmore Ruins reveals that the whole Leafmore Incident was covered up (probably by the AOL brotherhood) with the excuse of a
* {{Goth}}: Shannon's extra costume in the first game gives her the look and in ObsCure II she is canonically one.
* GreaterScopeVillain: TheStinger reveals that the events of both games were orchestrated by [[spoiler:Delta Theta Gamma, which turns out to be a Skull & Bones-esque secret society that views the mortifilia plant as the key to immortality. Both [[TheMole Professor James]] and the Friedman brothers (Out of necessity) were members, and the group used its deep connections to the federal government to cover up the Friedman brothers' experiments at Leafmore, so they could achieve immortality.]]

* HollywoodHacking: Mei's PDA is able to give her all of the letters of the door's password, but she has to guessed the order. (It's basically easy to hack when everybody knows that your locks use historical figures as passwords)

* MarketBasedTitle: The game's title is [=ObsCure II=], but it was sold in USA as ''[=ObsCure=]: The Aftermath''.

* MookMaker: The Breeder produces swarms of tiny biter spider biters, as well as having some really annoying attacks of its own. It's implied that they had once been pregnant women infected with the mortifilia spores.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Probably one of the most disturbing aspects of the game. It's hard to tell how much of an impact it's supposed to have on the game though, considering that [[spoiler:Amy groans and cries occasionally, but shows no other signs of having gone through a traumatic experience, due to not remember the act at all (But it doesn't tell us if Kenny did something to make her forget or if she just blocked out all of the horrible experience)]]. Also, depending on your interpretation of the ending, her pregnancy literally spawns a possible sequel or hands out justice to the final antagonist.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:Kenny, after refusing to take his meds]], turns into a mutated freak the size of a Land Rover with an enormous arm/tentacle on his back that he uses to spit balls of spores. Plus, every other monster you'll see.

* MarketBasedTitle: The game's title is ObsCure II, but it was sold in USA as ''[=ObsCure=]: The Aftermath''.

* NoGearLevel: [[spoiler:The ending sees you stripped of your weapons and health items by the GreaterScopeVillain.]]

%%* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Professor James.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Probably one of the most disturbing aspects of the game. It's hard to tell how much of an impact it's supposed to have on the game though, considering that [[spoiler:Amy groans and cries occasionally, but shows no other signs of having gone through a traumatic experience]]. One would think she'd be freaking out when [[spoiler:Kenny appears, or at least be more twitchy around the male members of the cast]]. Also, depending on your interpretation of the ending, her pregnancy literally spawns a possible sequel or hands out justice to the final antagonist.

* {{Sidequest}}: One of these is strung through the game, with a bunch of small keys scattered through the environment that open lock boxes. Each of them contains a unique, powerful weapon; in order, you get the stun gun, the crossbow, the flashball (a gun that fires mini-flashbangs), the flare gun, the mega-flashlight, and the mini SMG. Opening all of them unlocks a bonus video that reveals the fate of [[spoiler:Josh and Ashley from the first game]].
%%* TheStinger: And how! See YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:Kenny, after refusing to take his meds]], turns into a mutated freak the size of a Land Rover with an enormous arm/mouth on his back that he uses to spit balls of spores.

** Subverted in the second game, with the reveal of the GreaterScopeVillain.

%%* AbandonedHospital

* BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler:[[FaceMonsterTurn Kenny]], [[NotQuiteDead Leonard Friedman]], and [[HillbillyHorrors Jedidiah]].]]
* BittersweetEnding: Depending on how you look at it. [[spoiler:On one hand, all the new characters introduced in the game suffered terrible and brutal ends, and Corey, the sole one of the new ones to make it to the very end... shot himself in the head after being unable to deal with losing his girlfriend and his car, and feeling no hope for him left. On the other, Shannon and Stan are still alive, and while they're in for a rough ride, they're more than ready to take it and kick ass.]]

* BookDumb: Stan. It's implied that he shouldn't have graduated high school, and judging by what he's like in the second game, there's a chance that he dropped out altogether. Not that it matters by the sequel, mind you.

** Suffering a slow TraumaCongaLine over the course of the game, before finally being DrivenToSuicide by the BigBad. [[spoiler:(Corey)]]

%%* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Leonard/Jedidiah.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Corey,]] right before the FinalBattle, just to twist the knife.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Josh and Ashley]] who are very non GenreSavvy, suffer this offscreen between games and only seen in a video when they are [[spoiler:murdered, presumably by Jedediah]].

%%* {{Goth}}: Shannon's turned into one.
* GreaterScopeVillain: TheStinger reveals that the events of both games were orchestrated by [[spoiler:Delta Theta Gamma, which turns out to be a Skull & Bones-esque secret society that views the mortifilia plant as the key to immortality. Both [[TheMole Professor James]] and the Friedman brothers were members, and the group used its deep connections to the federal government to cover up the Friedman brothers' experiments at Leafmore.]]

%%* HollywoodHacking

%%* LovableJock: Sven.
* MarketBasedTitle: The game was sold in America as ''[=ObsCure=]: The Aftermath'', and in Europe as ''[=ObsCure II=]''.

* MoodWhiplash: No matter how horrible things get, the characters ''never'' stop making quips. It's like they get over their trauma almost instantly. It fits, seeing as how this is basically a teen slasher flick in video game form.

* SolveTheSoupCans: Played straight in many puzzles (as per survival horror tradition), though some doors allow you to pick the lock. Thankfully averted, however, whenever you face a locked door with a glass window. The solution? See UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay below.

* TropeMaker: The ''Obscure'' games implemented the "magically boost your flashlight beam to make light-sensitive enemies vulnerable to attack" mechanic several years before ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' brought it to the mainstream.
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: Some locked doors are opened not by rooting around for a key three rooms away or [[SolveTheSoupCans figuring out some bizarre puzzle]]. They're opened by [[BoringButPractical using a baseball bat to smash the window, then reaching through the broken glass to open it from the inside]].

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Beating the game unlocks alternate outfits in NewGamePlus mode for each character still left alive at the end. Ashley's gray shirt is switched out for the top half of her cheerleading uniform (though keeping her jeans), Stan's shirt is recolored in [[TheStoner Jamaican/Rasta]] colors, Josh gets a Hawaiian shirt, Kenny's muscle shirt and track pants are recolored green and orange respectively, and Shannon gets the most dramatic makeover -- a punk/goth ensemble that includes fishnet stockings and [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue streaks in her hair]].

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: The most powerful shotgun in the first game appears to be some kind of hybrid of a double-barrel and pump-action shotgun that, in real life, could not exist as a functional weapon. Likewise, you attach flashlights to guns by simply [[DuctTapeForEverything duct-taping them together]]; if the recoil alone didn't cause the flashlight to go flying, the operation of a semi-auto pistol's slide would do it instead. The only gun that should've been able to hold onto its flashlight was the pistol found in Friedman's safe, which had a light built in.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: The BigBad, [[spoiler:Principal Herbert Friedman, is kidnapping and experimenting on students in order to find a cure for his brother Leonard's illness.]]

* AirborneMook: The Flyers, former college girls.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Corey]] blows his brains out before the final boss battle. You can't blame the kid, given that he's lost [[spoiler:his girlfriend, his car, and]] any chance at a normal life.

* TheCorruption: Mortifilia, which turns those exposed to it into darkness monsters. Principal Friedman, his wife Nurse Wickson, and (in the second game) Shannon seem to be the only ones immune to it, and Friedman spent years researching the plant to harness its properties in a less corruptive manner.

* BodyHorror: The games do not lack for messed-up monsters that had [[WasOnceAMan once been ordinary teenagers]]. The most grotesque example is probably the [[MookMaker Licker Spider]] in the second game, which Amy dryly notes appears to have once been a pregnant woman.

* MookMaker: The Licker Spider produces swarms of tiny spiders, as well as having some really annoying attacks of its own. It's implied that they had once been pregnant women infected with the mortifilia spores.

* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Friedman absolutely splurged when he built Leafmore High. Not only does it have, among other things, a botanical garden, a theater, and a maze of secret underground tunnels, but the buildings on the school grounds are all built in an Art Nouveau style, most visible in the school's vast central courtyard and creepy statues.

* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Friedman absolutely splurged when he built Leafmore High.

* UnskilledButStrong[=/=]WeakButSkilled:

* CameraFiend: Josh. [[spoiler: Complete with an ApocalypticLog by the second game.]]
* TheCheerleader: Ashley.

* FinalDeath

* HighSchool

* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent

* SassyBlackWoman: Ashley.

* AbandonedHospital

* AwesomeButImpractical[=/=]TooAwesomeToUse: Most of the weapons within the special boxes are powerful, but crippled by either a lack of ammo (the explosive crossbow, the flare gun, the mini SMG) or a tendency to quickly drain the battery (the high-powered flashlight). Outside of the stun gun and the flashball, you will be [[GodzillaThreshold saving most of these weapons for the boss fights]] and relying on the good old-fashioned pistol, shotgun, and melee weapons.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Corey]] blows his brains out before the final boss battle. You can't blame the kid, given that he's lost [[spoiler:his girlfriend, his car, and]] any chance at a normal life.

* BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: Depending on how you look at it. [[spoiler:On one hand, all the new characters introduced in the game suffered terrible and brutal ends, and Corey, the sole one of the new ones to make it to the very end... shot himself in the head after being unable to deal with losing his girlfriend and his car, and feeling no hope for him left. On the other, Shannon and Stan are still alive, and while they're in for a rough ride, they're more than ready to take it and kick ass.]]

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Leonard/Jedidiah.]]

* DwindlingParty: Out of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters entire cast]], [[spoiler: Shannon and Stan]] are the only ones standing at the end.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Josh and Ashley]] who are very non GenreSavvy, suffer this offscreen between games and only seen in a video when they are [[spoiler: murdered, presumably by Jedediah]].

* {{Goth}}: Shannon's turned into one.

* HollywoodHacking
* HotBlooded: Corey.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake: Seriously, [[spoiler: Kenny]], just stay down. There are only so many things that can be dropped on you.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: [[spoiler:Poor Amy...]]

* LovableJock: Sven.

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Professor James.]]

* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Professor James.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Probably one of the most disturbing aspects of the game. It's hard to tell how much of an impact it's supposed to have on the game though, considering that [[spoiler: Amy groans and cries occasionally, but shows no other signs of having gone through a traumatic experience]]. One would think she'd be freaking out when [[spoiler:Kenny appears, or at least be more twitchy around the male members of the cast]]. Also, depending on your interpretation of the ending, her pregnancy literally spawns a possible sequel or hands out justice to the final antagonist.

* TheStinger: And how! See YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle.

* ThemeTwinNaming: Mei and Jun.

* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Kenny.]]

* GunNut: Sean, who is also...

* {{Nerd}}: Nathan.

* TwoAndAHalfD
* ZeroEffortBoss[=/=]PostFinalBoss: After defeating the final boss (implied to be [[spoiler:Leonard the giant tree from the first game]]), you fight [[spoiler: Principal Friedman]]. He's just an ordinary human being and, other than having a lot of health and a decent dodge roll, fights more or less like a basic Mook. The fight is pretty much just a chance to beat him up for causing the whole mess.

A {{spinoff}} called ''Final Exam'' was released in late 2013 on PC, PlayStationNetwork, and XboxLiveArcade. [[GenreShift Unlike the first two games]], ''Final Exam'' is a side-scrolling TwoAndAHalfD HackAndSlash with [[ArtShift a more exaggerated art style]]. It is about four former high school buddies -- the [[LovableJock football hero]] Brutal Joe, the {{nerd}} Nathan, the [[{{Delinquents}} tough guy]] Sean, and the {{dance|Battler}}r Cassy -- who get together for their school reunion, only to arrive and find the town overrun with monsters. It was originally conceived as ''[=ObsCure=] D'', an {{interquel}} to the first two games, but that version was scrapped after Hydravision closed its doors; it was {{retool}}ed into ''Final Exam'', [[DivorcedInstallment with an original story and characters]], after former members of Hydravision founded Mighty Rocket Studio. While not officially part of the ''[=ObsCure=]'' series, it has enough {{Shout Out}}s to the games that fans consider it a sequel in all but name. The official page for it can be found [[http://www.finalexam-thegame.com/ here]].

Essentially ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' [-[[RecycledINSPACE IN HIGH SCHOOL]], WITH CO-OP!-] '''''[=ObsCure=]''''' is a series of {{survival horror}} games by Hydravision Entertainment (later Mighty Rocket Studio) for the Playstation 2, original Xbox, and PC. The presentation is similar to the Playstation 2 era ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games (''Silent Hill 2'' through ''Silent Hill 4: The Room''), played from a third-person perspective with a fixed, floating camera tracking the player from a distance within a fully 3D environment.