Review

Developed by:Mighty Rocket Studio Published by:Focus Home Interactive Genre(s):
  • Beat’em Up
  • Platform:
  • Microsoft
  • PC
  • Sony
  • Cost:$9.99 ESRB Rating:TEEN Players:1-2 (2-4 Online) Release date:November 5, 2013 Reviewed on:PS3
    7.8

    Final Exam

    I can definitely consider Obscure to be among my top 10 survival horror series. Everything from its cheesy teen, horror film vibe to its implantation of cooperative gameplay made it a cult classic. So I was certainly excited when I heard about a new Obscure title coming to XBLA and PSN. On the flipside, I was worried when I found out that it was going to be a Beat’em Up and not a survival horror title. After getting my hands on the game though, I’m happy to say that Final Exam is well worth our time!

    Similar to older Obscure games, Final Exam’s premise revolves around teens ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Four friends head out to their old high school for a reunion of sorts when they are attacked. Fleeing for their lives they end up in a part of town that is actively being invaded by monsters and must fight their way to the high school in order to get to the bottom of this madness. That’s the story in a nut shell. And though there are nods to the other Obscure titles (like Leafmore high school and a certain principle), Final Exam doesn’t fit into any narrative thread; the events of this game never happen in Obscure 1 or 2. Basically, it delivers a low level of fan service but is accessible to everyone.

    The story isn’t the main focus of course, the gameplay is. What’s interesting is that Final Exam doesn’t play like most beat’em ups. It has the normal staples we’ve grown accustomed to; walking in one direction while punching and kicking baddies until they fall on the ground and fade into oblivion never gets old. It also introduces some light RPG elements.  Characters can be upgraded with new special moves, more health, better weapons, etc. What sets it apart though, is how it incorporates survival horror elements. You can’t win by simply making it to “end” of a level.

    Each level is broken into sections and each section has its own objectives that need to be completed before moving on. The game will identify what needs to be done and point you in the general direction. You may have to get a generator running in order to power an abandoned building for instance. If you’re playing with three other players, you have the option of splitting up to complete more objectives separately or to team up to tackle them one at a time. Tension builds with the spontaneous spawning of monsters and their overall threat increases with the number of players in game.

    The many objectives aren’t the only reason to explore the large levels. Every stage has two hidden weapon crates to find. Each one will contain a melee, ranged, or explosive weapon. Once unlocked the weapons are added to an inventory that’s shared between all four characters. Before each level, you’ll be able to choose between all of the unlocked weapons, picking one item from each category. You may like the sledgehammer, shotgun, grenade combo. Or, if that’s too slow, switch to a machete, machine gun, Molotov cocktail set up. Each item has its own strengths and weaknesses; the sledgehammer is powerful but slow while the machete is weaker but can cause “bleed” (damage over time). There are other secrets to find but they’re mostly to increase your score for that level. This is a pretty big deal since a better level-end score will net you more skill points to upgrade your character.

    Outside of finding secrets you can also increase your score by performing combos. The higher the combo the more points you’ll get. The catch; if you get hit before capturing your score by either by the passage of time or by pressing down on the D-pad, you’ll lose the points you were building via the combo. This of course, results into some frantic gameplay. Upper cutting an enemy into the air and peppering them with bullets just before they hit the ground is really fun. But doing so and capturing a high score right before getting smacked in the back of the head is thrilling. Adding to the thrill are the lightly sprinkled competitive gameplay elements. Though you’ll need to work together, the player that completes a given objective will get bonus points. At the end of the level, each player will be ranked against the others. The person with the highest score will get even more skill points in addition to the points they had already earned from just doing well on that level.

    It’s great to have all of these elements coexisting, most of the time. There are times though, where they get in each other’s way. For instance, in order to find the secrets scattered about a level, you’ll need to take time to explore the environment. But competing to complete the objectives hinders the exploration process because once certain objectives are completed the game will move on to the next section of the level. If you weren’t able to adequately explore in time, you’ll be ushered into the new section, missing the opportunity at gaining a new weapon or item. And even though the objectives are spread out, giving you access to the entire map, you’ll still miss things if you don’t go off the beaten path.

    There is another issue with the excess of repetition among objectives and their placement in a level. Some levels will have multiple fetch quest-like objectives or the need to protect a slow moving NPC’s. It feels tedious having to collect a bunch of items, completing an objective only to be told there are more to be collected. I really wish there were more unique elements like in some of the later levels. Manning a land-boat vehicle, fitted with mounted guns or riding a bug in a side scrolling shooter like experience are great diversions from the normal game. Unfortunately, these more unique objectives are far and few between.

    The same thing goes for the bosses…all of them are basically the same monster with the same pattern of attacks. Worse still are mini versions of him that pop up from time to time, but prior to another boss fight. This copy and paste approach hurt my overall enjoyment of the game; it’s frustrating having to fight the same tough-to-kill creature over and over…and over. Though this idea of reusing characters isn’t anything new when it comes to this genre, most beat’em ups have more variety in enemies than this. Ultimately it feels a bit lazy, especially when you consider you’re not fighting against humans, but odd plant creatures. There could have been just about anything in the game as long as it featured some foliage.

    Final Exam is a good game. It does overuse some mechanics and enemies, but it can be a blast with four players. If you’re a survival horror fan and love beat’em ups, I’m sure you’ll be able to overlook its missteps. Speaking of looking, Final Exam looks great; the comic book vibe and vibrant colors work well with the subject matter. Cheesy as it can be, crazy combos, objective based gameplay – I think Mighty Rocket Studios is on to something. They just need to refine their approach a bit.

    Gameplay:

    7

    Final Exam is fun, though it can be a bit tedious at times. The repeated boss encounters exacerbates this issue.

    Graphics:

    8

    The vibrant colors and comic book vibe works well here.

    Sound:

    8

    Everything sounds as it should; guns go bang and all that. The voice work is cheesy, but in a good way.

    What's New:

    9

    I like the objectives that populate each level. I just wish there was a little more variety to keep things from becoming stale.

    Replay Value:

    7

    Final Exam is fun enough to warrant multiple playthroughs. The lack of variety in certain elements could shorten your gameplay sessions quite a bit though.

    Final Score:

    7.8

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