10 Most Terrifying Horror Video Games You've Never Played
8. Obscure
Obscure is a horror game that is, well, so obscure, it eluded me for literal decades. Dropping in North America a couple months after Resident Evil 4 revolutionised the survival horror genre, this far more rudimentary title felt immediately dated and as a result was mostly confined to the collections of cult classic horror hunters.
Obscure is far more inventive than its fixed camera angles and slow gameplay would have you believe though. Set in a creepy high school after hours, you can freely swap between a bunch of students who are searching for their missing friend, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Now, Resident Evil 0 already did survival horror character switching, but Obscure actually allowed you to take on its monsters with another friend in co-op, long before Resident Evil 5 would try its best to crowbar the same feature into its series.
What made Obscure memorable, though, was its distinct sense of place. Its high school setting grounded the horror, as did some neat touches to combat and exploration. The ability to DIY your own tools and weapons by combining items awarded you more choice and versatility in the combat, and while being able to, say, duct tape a flashlight to a pistol sounds small and insignificant now, at the time it offered a level of interactivity not really seen in other games.
With cool monster designs and memorable characters, if we're gonna hold up the likes of Cold Fear, we should be holding up Obscure as well.