Condemned: Criminal Origins

80

Brutality at it's fnest

Condemned is a good game with an almost adventure game like feeling too it. It also has some pretty well done horror aspects too it as well. There is a decent plot to follow there, but that part that really stands out is the meele combat. If theres one thing games have often tried to do and failed miserably it's get the feeling of swinging a weighty object like a sword or club and crushing someones skull with it. Condemned did an excellent job of conveying the weight and brutality of the combat. Whether using a 2x4 with rusty nails in it or your fists no game comes close to conveying the feeling like Condemned does.

Another thing Condemned did a great job of was atmosphere. The game is dark, gritty and oppressing and it really conveys that feeling. The scene with the mannequins in the old store in particular was excellently well done. The story was pretty well paced in it's delivery and the detective minigame helped to break up things and provide some downtime.

Over all a great game, and one that makes me sad the sequel was console exclusive.

90

If you enjoy a scare, try this.

I enjoyed this game. I'll give the reasons soon. I'll skip the plot summary as others have mentioned it already, I'm sure. My opinion of this game is this -- the melee combat is very well done and it's just as well because at least three quarters of the time you'll be facing foes with whatever make-shift weapons you can find. My personal favourites were the Paper Cutter and the good ole Axe. I haven't played another game which has executed melee combat as successfully as this (I own Zeno Clash and it pales in comparison). Your character feels weighty -- you move slowly and you can't just pummel the enemies as if your weapon is weightless. Your every movement needs to be considered, and blocking is important rather than optional.

The story is well done and not simply an aftersight as with so many games these days. The beginning of the game portrays you being framed for the murder of two of your colleagues, and from then on in you are trying to collect the evidence to clear your name. The city is in upheaval with violent crime rising quickly. Your initial enemies look like bums and addicts, but later on the enemies become much more surreal and 'Silent Hill' like.

I bought it when it was cheap on GMG, but at £9.95 I'd say it is worth the money. I got a good few scares (and I'm not easily scared -- the last game to scare me was STALKER, a few years ago).

But. It's not perfect. A couple of things that I'd mention would be the fact that you need to collect certain weapons to progress through the game. For example, you're carrying an axe but it won't let you progress until you can find a shovel to break the electronic lock -- this seems quite arbitrary and broke the flow of the game a little bit at times. Graphically it can be quite beautiful (in a dark, twisted kind of way), but the player models stand out as being a little bit less detailed than the environment. I'll guess that it was ported from the Xbox360, and the console's limited resources required this. The character textures are quite bad, to be honest. The environments do look great though and I don't think it's that important an issue. The sound design reminds me of STALKER in the underground sections -- low hums and general ominous ambience. The voice acting is pretty decent too.

I could go on, but I'd say if you enjoy atmospheric, moody, creepy games which are best played in the dark (as another reviewer wrote) -- then this is definitely worth a go.

80

A great game to play with the lights out and sound up

Originally a Xbox 360 launch title and one of the first “next-gen” games Condemned has made to transition to computer quite easily and despite a few minor hiccups is a worthy title from the same people that gave us F.E.A.R. Having heard quite a lot about the game (good and bad) when it first launched I was quite eager to get my hands on it and see for myself if the hype and criticism was justified. You start the game as Ethan Thomas a FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer in a city gone made. Birds are dropping dead everywhere from unknown causes and the crime rate is rising at an astronomical rate. It seems like every junkie, bum and crazy person in the city have all been inflicted with some murderous blood lust and police have their hands full coping with everything. You step into Ethan’s shoes as he’s busy investigating the latest grisly crime scene courtesy of the “matchmaker”. Things take a rather disturbing turn when you discover the psycho might still be lurking about in the abandoned building your inside and you are sent in to track him down with nothing but a gun and a flashlight. From there it’s a roller coaster ride into madness and paranoia as Ethan becomes a wanted man and has to track down a very disturbed individual across several condemned buildings crawling with freaks. If you thought this was just going to be your average run-of-the-mill first person shooter you’re in for a surprise.

It’s actually hard to even classify condemned as a first person shooter since there’s so very little shooting going on. Yes you play the whole game from a first person perspective but guns are few and far between and even when you do find one don’t expect to find bullets for it just lying around conveniently in an abandoned building. No instead you have to rely on what’s available for protection and that means ripping pipes out of the walls, breaking off cupboard doors, finding crowbars, 2x4’s with nails sticking out of them and all other manner of makeshift melee weapons. This also means that the fights all tend to be very up close and person which is one of Condemned’s best and worse features. You can expect crazies to pop up out of any dark corner, firstly scaring the crap out of you and secondly to lunge at you in a berserker frenzy. The animations of these freaks is so eerily lifelike that you actually feel vaguely disturbed for slugging them in the face with a shovel. You won’t feel bad for long though as they’ll just stagger back, utter a few curses at you and launch themselves at you anew, or even worse stagger away in search of a bigger weapon to ambush you with around the next dark corner. This is combat like you’ve never experienced it before.

With it’s dark condemned buildings as set pieces and bizarre range of freaks to square off against Condemned has a lot in common with games like Silent Hill and The Suffering. Monolith clearly knows how to scare players and through some awesome scripted events manage to make you glance over your shoulder with every sound you hear. The storyline starts off very good and there are some nice twists and turns but seem to lose the plot a bit towards the end and the ending left me feeling very unsatisfied. It makes sense but only just.

Graphically the game does very well for itself and share’s a similar look to F.E.A.R. The environments are moody and detailed while the enemies can be quite frightening at times. My jaw dropped a few times at the awesome lifelike animations some of the displayed and there are a few very nice graphical effects to wow you. It’s a testament to the designers that even normal enemies attacking you can scare the crap out of you at times. The audio is another highlight with good quality voice overs and some very nice music to keep the atmosphere going. Once again playing this game in the dark with the volume up high is a must.

Condemned unfortunately isn’t perfect and there are some factors that bring the experience down somewhat. Since Ethan is an FBI agent he has some nice CSI style gadgets that he carries around with him but these can only be used in specific areas and even then there’s too much hand holding going on to make it any real challenge. The game is also quite slow paced with Ethan stumbling along at a leisurely pace and forcing him to run only results in a few shambling paces before he’s too tired to continue doing so. The game for all it’s realism can also feel a bit restrictive as you can’t duck, crawl or jump unless you reach specific designated points for the actions. Having said that the whole experience still feels very solid and coherent and doesn’t really detract that much from the game.

Although not the longest game out there Condemned still feels well rounded and for those die hard gamers there’s plenty of “achievements” to unlock by searching for hidden stuff throughout the levels. These reward you with extras like concept art and the usual stuff so there might be some replay value. The game also has two different endings but this is only influences by one choice right at the end instead of a series of choices throughout the game.

While there’s still a lot that I could say about Condemned the bottom line is if you like suspenseful games and don’t mind some minor annoyances then by all means get your hands on this. While it might not be perfect it’s the ideal game for those who want to experience something slightly different from the genre and don’t mind the occasional near heart attack.

90

Epic experiance!

Wow, what a game! Condemned is one of the greatest survival horror first person shooters that's out there. The more realistic approach to combat with weapons breaking and limited ammunition really puts the pressure on the player to be thoughtful when engaging in combat. The game also features a detective mode when you have to search for clues as well as hidden items that reward the player with additional information regarding the plot. The atmosphere in this game is chilling and disturbing and will have you on the edge of your seat. If you're a fan of survival horror games you should definitely check it out!

80

Running around, punching Condemned

Condemned is a great example of a console port that does not blatantly feel like one.

The game is a gritty, dark FPS with strong emphasis on melee combat. Given a wide variety of weapons like fire axe or wooden plank (complete with RPG-like statistics to compare them), only an occasional range weapon with limited ammo and a taser, the games manages to pull off one of the best close combat fighting experience I've ever encountered in the genre. The controls are far from clumsy and executing different strikes, dodging, blocking and finishing your enemies is simply a bundle of fun.

The story may be a little slow to progress & a little hard to follow, but in my opinion it is still rather enjoyable. The game could sure use a few more enemy models (as they tend to repeat quite often) and the "detective" parts are simply far too easy.

On the other hand, the game also offers a lot of engaging storyline moments and both the "and then he suddenly jumps at you from a dark corner" and “as you hear him shambling down the corridor” mechanics tends to work pretty well coupled with close quarter combat.

All in all, if you like intense, fast-paced and brutal combat with a dose of horror and without a feeling of being yet another overpowered army dude, Condemned will surely provide.