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this game caused me some serious anxiety, right up there with the first Silent Hill game
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"Condemned" is basically about Serial Crimes Unit Officer, Ethan Thomas, and his quest to track down a serial killer, the likes of which the world has never seen. He's like a "super serial killer", you see.
But Ethan has got his work cut out for him, because it just so happens that the answers he seeks are all found in the stinkiest, slimiest, most urine-soaked locales in all the land. To top it off, these places are all inhabited by morally-bankrupt drug addicts (plus the occasional mutant) who wield an array of blunt objects. Needless to say, they would like nothing better than to tenderize Ethan's beefy mug with the objects in question.
Admittedly, the gameplay in this title is mostly enjoyable. You creep around in the dark, largely unaware of where the next assault may be coming from. Every noise puts you on edge, and you will be pulling plenty of 180 degree turns to make sure a foe isn't about to get the drop on you. The fact that you use melee weapons most of the time definitely adds to the tension. Plus, vanquishing your enemies is quite satisfying in this game. There's lots of meaty thuds and bloody chicklets spewing forth, which is pretty much videogame paydirt.
The part of gameplay that gets old fast is searching for clues with Ethan's trick bag of hi-tech gizmos. Imagine using a black-lite to find organic matter in a room and not being able to fight while doing so. Next thing you know, a rather agitated chap comes out of the woodwork trying to bust your face in, and you are left fumbling with buttons, trying to put your black-lite away so you can exchange blows with your new pal. Irritating? You bet.
The cut-sequences are also off-putting, but not in a desirable way. Ethan and the rest of the characters all resemble ruddy, ungainly sacks of meat whose eyes squint and strain from under folds of fleshy flaps. I suppose this is in keeping with the rest of the gritty motif which the game pursues, but it just seems weird and unnecessary. Their appearences sort of remind you of a stinky, unemployed, middle-aged uncle who has been drinking far too hard and long and still never gets your name right at family gatherings.
However, what really dampens this game is the plot that's so surreal that it's silly. The very title of this game seems to be a parody of itself, because everywhere you go is, well, condemned. Ethan has no trouble finding a condemned variant of every possible location you could think of. Ethan goes to a condemned neighborhood. A condemned sewer. A condemned farm house. A condemned high school. A condemned shopping mall (that's right, a condemned mall in America. No joke). It's all silly enough to detract from the feelings of horror that the game attempts to evoke.
Beyond the unlikely settings, the storyline is also vague and unsatisfying. I'm sure the surrealism is meant to creep you out, but it ultimately ends up leaving you with more questions than answers and pissing you off. For instance, there's Ethan's mysterious past. Without spoiling anything, we slowly learn that there's something unusual about Ethan, but we never really learn what that "something" is. Also, I get the sense that the game tries to make a tawdry statement about "the evil that lurks in us all", but it is all done in such a murky, ill-defined way that it avoids being psychologically gratifying on any level.
In general, it's a passable piece of dreck that may be worthy of a few of your unoccupied nights. It's kind of like an 8oz can of Mountain Dew; short and sweet, and you'll soon forget you even had it.
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I can't really base my review on the full gaming experience yet because I've yet to beat the game, but this game is everything I expected. For some reason I had a hard time finding it where I am until the gaming store here had a Buy 2 Get 1 Free special on used games and all of a sudden they had about 50 copies of this. So I've been waiting for a while to dive into this game, and haven't been disappointed one bit. The crime solving tools are a neat add to the survival horror game as you try to solve these murders by hunting for clues. But the game makes you dive into abandoned buildings, to search for these clues. But what's waiting for you isn't the normal zombie or other disturbing creatures you find in this type of game, but drug addicts and mentally insane individuals who'd love to split your head open. Armed with a flash light and basic hand gun or weapons found laying about like a pipe, you must press on to catch this mad man. You see shadowy figures running across the hallway you must travel down, hear them moving around in the well created environments. I haven't seen a run down, falling apart building look so good in a game. Love it all because it scares the crap out of me yet makes me want to play it more.
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You are a federal agent who specializes in hunting down serial killers. You have a handy set of forensic tools with which to investigate crime scenes.
You are sent to investigate the latest murder by the "Matchmaker killer" and end up being framed for the murder of two police officers.
From here, the story unfolds in a twisted and dark fashion.
The setting is a decaying city where crime has drastically increased. Drug addicts, gang members and vagrants of all types are roaming the streets committing random acts of violence and mayhem.
Your mission is to clear your name by tracking down the man who framed you.
You will explore dimly lit abandoned buildings, subway tunnels, dark alleyways, service tunnels, an abandoned department store, and all sorts of scary and decaying areas. Your only source of light is a dim flashlight. Your only weapons are those that you find either hidden or items that you can literally rip off of the environment. You also have a kick that comes in handy more than you would think.
The levels are very detailed and very, very scary. Most of the level will consist of you searching through dark, dirty and grimy areas searching for clues or following the man who framed you, while drug addicts, gang members and vagrants roam the darkness searching for weapons to kill you with. These levels are dark! Your flashlight barely lights the way. The game engine produces amazing lighting and shadow effects which really set the mood. Textures and environments are absolutely stunning in their detail. Each level looks just like its realistic counterpart. Character models are well mapped and their movements are realistic.
Condemned: Criminal Origins is a true treat for your eyes.
And a treat for your ears as well. The high level of care that was put into the graphics has been put into the sound as well. Aluminum cans and glass bottles clank around when kicked or stumbled over, garbage shuffles and shifts under your feet, metal clangs when it hits the floor. An eerie soundtrack of ambient noise plays constantly through the game, which really intensifies the mood.
Sound is the dominant sense here. Since most of the levels are bathed in darkness, you will have to rely on your ears to sense whether an enemy is close. You can hear them cough and shuffle around - which is extremely creepy yet helpful.
Weapons consist of whatever you can find laying around. Pipes of all sizes, rebar,2X4's, shovel's, fire axes, sledgehammers, conduit pipes, crowbars and signs all pose as weapons which you can literally rip off of the environment and use on your enemies. Of course they can use them too, and often you will run into an enemy who will run away from you in search of a pipe or some kind of makeshift weapon to bash your skull in with.
Combat is fun, especially since you and your enemy have a block feature that works really well. Combat actually has some soul behind it as well, it not just button mashing. You have to strafe, stick-n-move and block (the enemy AI has good aim). The Enemy AI in general is very top notch and smart. They will flank you, take cover, run off to find more weapons, adn try to ambush you. They block your moves and react to each other as well. If a group attacks you and they accidentally hit each other, they will forget about you and try to kill each other - this leads to some interesting moments where you can just sit back and watch all of the enemies kill each other, doing all of the work for you.
You also have access to finishing moves (available when you have an enemy on their knees). They consist of: A headbutt, a finishing punch to their face, slamming their head into the ground, and snapping their neck.
There are more traditional weapons around (guns). You actually start off with a gun, however you soon lose it. There are handguns and shotguns scattered around the levels, some hidden. The only stipulation is that they are limited to the ammo that is already loaded into them, so don't expect to run around on an ammo hunt like in most games.
Since you ARE the federal agent, the point of view for this game is a First Person point of view. The game does really well of hardly ever breaking that view either, save for the cut scenes. If you get kicked down some stairs, your point of view does not change, and it seems like YOU actually got kicked down the stairs.
Your only point of contacts is a lab rat who analyzes the evidence that you find and gives you some tips at certain parts of the game, and a guy named Valhorn who somewhat helps you. They contact you via your cellular phone.
The game features a whole laundry list of achievements, from finding all of the dead birds and metal pieces in a level, to actually passing a level, to finding hidden XBOX 360 systems hidden throughout the game. You also get an achievement if you finish the game without firing a gun (you can use the guns as blunt objects also). No online features, however it would be hard to have some kind of multiplayer game without it getting boring fast.
Overall, Condemned: Criminal Origins is a very engaging game that should have you investing about 10 hours or so into it. There are 10 missions, about one hour per mission (this is considering that you are looking for the dead birds and the metal pieces, but not considering if you get lost enjoying the graphics of each level). Visually this game is a great representation of "next-gen" gaming, the gameplay is great and the sound is killer.
Condemned comes off as a very realistic game where you have to think before you move. You cannot defeat the game by running and gunning. Pacing and nerves of steel are required for this game, as it will test both.
I really enjoy Condemned, graphically and in gameplay.
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I bought this game after playing the demo of it and having the crap scared out of me. Now that I own this game, I can't stop playing it. Condemned has a great story line that pushes the game forward where it falls behind. One such place is it's repetitiveness. All of the enemies move in predictable ways, and attack in the same manner. You also have a taser gun, which seems cheap because after using it you can walk right up to your enemy and disarm him or kill him. But in the light of gameplay, originality, storyline, and creepyness, Condemned:Criminal Origins is a great game.
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